|
Managing GIS projects
Col. Ramesh Wahi Head, ESRI Consulting, ESRI India
Abstract
The methodology of software development has matured a lot in the last two decades. A very large number of researchers have spent many man-years in developing the standards and procedures for successfully evaluating and implementing software projects. The GIS based projects have some commonality with the standard software projects but at the same time there are major differences. GIS based projects involve data creation including updation of data with remote sensing tools, data organisation, application development and website development. In this paper we have made an attempt to analyse various aspects associated with GIS based projects. Introduction GIS based projects have major components i.e., data development, data organisation and application development. In some cases the client needs a website developed also for better proliferation. A large number of organisations using GIS softwares are in public sectors while some are in private sectors. Many of the organisations have a lot of software knowledge while some may not be that accustomed to software development life cycles. Any knowledge based be it software or GIS needs a very clear interaction between the developer and the client. There has to be a very strong need for discipline, mutual respect and will to succeed from both sides to execute a project successfully. If a project is assessed properly and boundaries well understood by both the client and the developer then the projects can be successful, if not it can be disastrous. Development of GIS Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computerised systems for the storage, retrieval, manipulation, analysis, and display of geographically referenced data. GIS includes physical, biological, cultural, demographic and economic information and hence they are valuable tools in the natural, social, medical, and engineering sciences, as well as in business and planning. The fields of cartography and mapping have been practiced since a long time but GIS as such is a comparatively new field. Researchers have identified three research areas as components of a critical social history of GIS. The first involves precursors and preconditions for the development of GIS. These include the intellectual and technological prehistory of GIS including pre-modern and early forms of GIS. These issues require an in depth understanding of history of how systems of representing geographic information developed, such as metrication, land surveys, military surveillance, and mapping expeditions. A second area of importance in the history of GIS is the history of applications of GIS in different cultural and political economic contexts. The third key area is the development of contemporary GIS software and data. Although some new GISs have been developed starting with a clean slate, current GIS is dominated by software and data models whose intellectual and conceptual lineage can be traced directly back to innovations in the 1960s. The nature of current GIS cannot be fully understood without a historical perspective on how it got to be, the way it is. Development of Geographic Information Systems started in the early sixties and was initially encouraged by the public sector. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, a vigorous GIS industry developed, in both private and public sectors. GIS software, data, and services is known to be a $2 billion industry at present, and the industry is believed to be growing at about 20 per cent each year. GIS also has had a major influence on the discipline of Geography in the 1980s and 1990s, variously seen as a critical factor in reviving academic geography.  Data Creation Acquiring data for use in GIS can be the most costly and important part of GIS application development. A GIS, which can use information from many different sources, in many different forms can help with analysis like which watersheds should be prioritised, which land can be used for cultivation etc. The primary requirement for the source data is that the locations for the variables are known. Location may be annotated by x, y, and z coordinates of longitude, latitude, and elevation. Any variable that can be located spatially can be fed into a GIS. Many government agencies and private firms produce several attribute and spatial databases that can be directly entered into a GIS. A GIS can also convert existing digital information, which may not yet be in map form, into forms it can recognise and use. For example, digital satellite images can be analysed to produce a map like layer of digital information. Likewise, tabular data can be converted to map-like form, serving as layers of thematic information in a GIS. New data can be created using satellite images, field survey data and GPS survey data. There are different sources of data that can be used for creation of digital data. Some of them are listed below:
Page 1 of 3
| Next | |