Types of Applications
Product Development: There are many GIS products available in the market today which help users to perform spatial queries and analysis. The first of such products was a grid-based mapping program called Synagraphic Mapping Sytem (SYMAP), which was developed at the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1966. This system was widely distributed and served as a model for later systems. These early GIS packages were often written for specific applications and required the mainframe computing systems found usually in government or university settings. In the early seventies private vendors like Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) and Intergraph began offering off-the-shelf GIS packages. Over time ESRI has emerged as one of the leading vendors of GIS software. In 1981, ESRI released Arc/Info, a standard package, which ran on mainframe computers. As computing power increased and hardware prices plummeted GIS became a viable technology for all kinds of organisations. In 1992, ESRI released ArcView, a desktop mapping system with a graphical user interface that marked a major improvement in usability over Arc/Info’s command-line interface. The development of ArcView for Microsoft Windows and ArcIMS, which enables distributed mapping and spatial analysis over the Internet and eliminates many of the hardware and licensing expenses of a full software package, has increased the availability of spatial data to marginalised and under funded groups. Other GIS softwares are also used by various users.
Information systems: Information systems are GIS applications, which can retrieve information about a particular area, location or object. Information systems are used for land use planning, utilities management, ecosystems modelling, landscape assessment and planning, transportation and infrastructure planning, market analysis, visual impact analysis, facilities management, tax assessment, real estate analysis and many other areas. The functionality of such systems is varied. It can be as simple as finding the location of a particular place that meet a specific criteria or where the most number of a particular kind of features lie. For example, if a person wants to find out all the hospitals within a 2-Km radius of an accident area or the number of hotels nearest to the railway station then he can use a system like this.
Decision Support Systems: Another way to classify a GIS application is by the kinds of decisions that can be taken using it. Individual GIS systems are generally used to make several different kinds of decisions like what kind of proactive actions need to be taken in case of a natural disaster or what policies should be developed for the improvement of natural resources etc. GIS decision support systems are created using different kinds of algorithms, equations and analysis model. For example the Djikistra algorithm for finding the shortest route, or the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) to calculate the probable soil loss for an area due to erosion etc. Such systems also have wide applications in the field of defense, emergency services, healthcare, conservation of forests etc. Lets take an example of GIS decision support system used for business. Such a system can be used by a manager to answer questions like, where are my customers located? What are their characteristics (market segmentation, classification of residential areas)? Where are my competitors located? What is the potential turnover in a region for my product? What market share can I expect? Where should I locate my new branch? Should I expand an existing branch? The answers to these questions will then help him to take many tactical and strategic decisions.
Decisions can also be made using modeling tools. Modeling tools are one of the most powerful and sophisticated tools available to GIS. There are three types of modeling: cartographic, simulation, and predictive. Cartographic modeling is more of a project organisation technique and hence it will not be discussed here. Simulation modeling involves using the GIS to simulate a complex phenomenon in nature. This generally requires an expert to create, and can vary in the degree to which it is linked to the GIS. However, once the GIS and the model are linked, they can be used to evaluate different features of the data, whether it is spatial or non-spatial. The other, more powerful modeling tool is predictive modelling. In this form of modeling, an expert acquires data and uses it to build a statistical model, which is tested by regression analysis. Once the model has been tested on known data, it is applied to new data in order to predict results. This type of modeling has been used to predict flooding, groundwater contamination, and soil loss, to name just a few. The ability to link GIS to these models has greatly increased the usefulness of GIS as a scientific decision making tool.
Software for Data Creation and Development: Many utilities are created using the macro languages of existing GIS packages or any other programming language to assist in data creation and development.
Issues for Application Development
System Requirement Study (SRS): An SRS is the first step in implementing a successful GIS within any organisation. An SRS is created to assess the needs of the user. It is a systematic look at how departments’ function and the kind of spatial data needed to do their work. At the conclusion of a needs assessment, an organisation will have all of the information needed to plan the development of a GIS system. The SRS functions are same as in the case of software development however there are some specific issues pertaining to GIS. This information can be grouped into the following categories:
- Applications to be developed: In evaluating the responsibilities and workflow within a department, certain tasks are identified that can be done more efficiently or effectively in a GIS. These tasks will form the basis of GIS applications. Application descriptions prepared as part of the needs assessment will describe these tasks.
- GIS Functions required: For each application identified, certain GIS functions will be required. These will include standard operations such as query and display, spatial analysis functions such as routing, overlay analysis, buffering, and possibly advanced analysis requiring special programming.
- Data needed in the GIS database: Most organisations going for a GIS system, use data that has a spatial component. Much of this data are hard copy maps or tabular data sets that have a spatial identifier such as addresses and pin codes or X-Y values (latitude-longitude, state plane coordinates, or other coordinate system). A needs assessment will identify how this information will be used by GIS applications.
- Data maintenance procedures: By looking at
the workflow and processes within and between departments,
responsibility for data creation, updates and maintenance will
become apparent.
All these aspects have to be covered in the SRS phase itself for the GIS application to be developed pragmatically and with minimum defects.
Tender Issues after pilot project creation- In some GIS projects organisation ask a vender to develop a prototype but when the time comes to actual development are forced by their procedures to get into tenders. This causes serious problems for prototype developer, it is essential that his interests are protected.
Freezing of GUI Designs- Success of the project depends on early freezing of GUIs, as it gives confidence to the vender and avoids rework of the vender.
Website development- Many of the GIS projects need a website development. It is important that this need is finalized in the beginning and entire development is carried out keeping this in mind. We have seen successful projects failing, as the websites were too slow. One of the reason is lack of optimisation in database development and coding while creating the application. Other issues that require to be considered are the hardware configurations and bandwidth related issues.
Time and cost- Large projects must be taken up phase wise. This gives satisfaction to vender as well as to vender due to results achieved and cash flow accrued.
Hardware Issues- Most of the commercial GIS packages and customised applications have prerequisite hardware requirements that need to be satisfied for them to function properly. Before the initiation of project development a decision has to be taken as to what kind of hardware (minimum) has to exist for the application to work. For example for a simple mapping application a system with Pentium processor, 32 MB RAM and 2 GB hard disk will suffice but an application having complex queries and analysis requires at least a system with Pentium III processor, 256 MB RAM and 10 GB of hard disk space. These issues need to be resolved at the inception stage itself or they cause problems during the implementation of the application.
Conclusion
This paper by no means gives a comprehensive treatise on GIS projects management, it is only a pointer to some of the issues which if taken care of at an appropriate time will help handle GIS projects better.