Peer-Reviewed Articles
325 Development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in China: An Overview
Jun Chen, Jing Li, Jianbang He, and Zhilin Li
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Geographic information systems (GISs) were introduced into China (Mainland)
in the 1970s. This paper provides an overview of the advances in GISs in
Mainland China (not including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau) during the past
more than 20 years. It covers the developments of operational application
systems, national geospatial databases, and technical systems. It also reviews
the advances in research, education, and institutional development.
333 A Tentative View on GIS Software Development in China
Qiming Zhou and Bin Li
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As the most populated country on Earth, China has experienced a rapid growth
in the GIS industry in the last decade. The development of made-in-China
GIS software has been listed as the most important initiative in the Chinese
information technology industry by the central government, aiming to gain
a "fair share" in the potentially enormous domestic GIS market, where the
adoption of international software is dominant. This paper reports the authors'
observations on domestic GIS software development in China in the past years.
The progress in software research and development and the special nature
of Chinese GIS software are reviewed. Based on this review, an attempt is
made to compare Chinese and international GIS software packages. The potential
impact on the Chinese GIS software market is also discussed.
341 Urban Simulation Using Principal Components Analysis and Cellular Automata
for Land-Use Planning
Xia Li and Anthony Gar-On Yeh
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This paper discusses the integration of cellular automata (CA), principal components
analysis, and GIS techniques in simulating alternative urban growth patterns
for land-use planning. The simulation of actual cities usually involves multicriteria
evaluation (MCE) in tackling the problems of complex spatial factors. Spatial
factors often exhibit a high degree of correlation which is considered an
undesirable property for MCE. It is difficult to determine the weights when
many spatial variables are involved. This study uses principal components
analysis (PCA) to remove data redundancy among a large set of spatial variables
and determine the "ideal point" for land development. The simulation is based
on transition rules that are related to the neighborhood function and similarity
between cells and the "ideal point." Principal components analysis helps
to deal with a large data set of spatial variables for the implementation
of the CA model.
353 A GIS-Based Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) System for Urban
Planning and Land Management
Jie Jiang and Jun Chen
Abstract
There are three requirements for improving the efficiency of a collaborative
decision-making process. They are (1) an agile communication and interactive
methods, (2) reliable information, and (3) effective processing and visualizing
tools. The GIS-based Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) system
is a powerful assistant for achieving these requirements. It has been successfully
applied to the Urban Planning and Land Administration Bureau of Changzhou
Municipality in Jiangsu Province. This paper presents the method used in
developing the CSCW system, which has been in operational use since 1997.
With the assistance of the system, the efficiency of collaborative decision
making has been significantly improved by reducing duplication of effort,
minimizing redundant data collection and analysis, and maximizing information
sharing. More reasonable decisions have been made based on the integrated
information from the federated database and various analysis tools. The Bureau
has become more "just and open," as the public admits. Some suggestions for
further work are discussed.
361 CyberCity GIS (CCGIS): Integration of DEMs, Images, and 3D Models
Qing Zhu, Deren Li, Yeting Zhang, Zheng Zhong, and Duo Huang
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A CyberCity is a virtual representation of a city that enables a person to
explore and interact, in cyberspace, with the vast amount of environmental
and cultural information gathered about the city. A GIS software for CyberCity,
called CCGIS, has been developed, and this paper reports its technical characteristics,
including the three-dimensional hierarchical modeling technique, the integrated
database structure, and the interactive method of visualization of the three-dimensional
data of urban environments. The effective integrated data organization strategy
for dynamical loading and progressive rendering, which enables CCGIS to support
the development, design, and presentation of a large CyberCity, is stressed.
Finally, a pilot project for CCGIS software application is also demonstrated.
369 Distributed Virtual Environments for Managing Country Parks in Hong Kong:
A Case Study of the Shing Mun Country Park
Hui Lin and Jianhua Gong
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Distributed virtual environments (DVEs) are environments that are not only
used for managing and delivering multi-source, multi-dimensional, geographical
information, but also enable geographically distributed users to navigate
in a 3D space, and to interact with objects and with other online users.
In this paper, we design DVEs to disseminate 2D and 3D data and to implement
public participation in the management of the country parks in Hong Kong.
The system framework, geo-data model, and user's interface are discussed
for designing DVEs. Based on the virtual reality modeling language (VRML),
Java, and VRML External Authoring Interface (EAI) classes, a balanced client/server
architecture is employed. In view of multi-source and multi-dimensional data,
the object-oriented approach is utilized to design 3D geo-object models for
web-based distribution. Considering the Internet bandwidth and performance
of client computers, we adopt multi-block and multi-level approaches to the
design of 3D geo-objects. The user's interface provides capabilities for
implementing 2D and 3D view, data query and analysis, object addition/removal,
and 3D avatar-based and text-based communication. This paper presents a case
study of the Shing Mun Country Park in Hong Kong, where a prototype DVE,
called "VirtualPark," was developed.
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