GIS—Democracy or Delusion?

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Clark
Keyword(s):  
Information Management ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Public Utilities ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Technical Process ◽  
Data Ethics ◽  
Usable Information ◽  
The One ◽  
The Uk

Geographical information systems (GIS) are potentially powerful devices for integrating, manipulating, and communicating information, and are acknowledged to be vulnerable to the abuse of that power. A significant debate during the 1990s has challenged GIS users to respond to the suggestion that their technology is restrictive, elitist, and antisocial. In practice, the response from the GIS profession has been muted, and the paper therefore comments on the way in which professional GIS implementation might be interpreted from different perspectives. Comparisons are drawn between analytical GIS in post-Apartheid South Africa and operational GIS in the UK public utilities. GIS is shown to be an operational or decision support engine fuelled by information flows, and in creating the organisational pathways to support these flows it unlocks gateways the defence of which has traditionally underpinned the authority of management and government. A dilemma thus emerges. On the one hand, GIS has unprecedented power to disseminate access to usable information. On the other hand, it still supports a division which generates a technocratic elite. It is suggested that information democracy lies not in information flow as a technical process, but in information management. As a consequence, it is concluded that a code of data ethics may be at least partially effective in allowing a professional response to the critics of GIS.

scholarly journals Narrative Hunger: GIS Mapping, Google Street View and the Colonial Prospectus

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Gis Mapping ◽  
Google Street View ◽  
Interactive Maps ◽  
Street View ◽  
Tracking Time ◽  
The One

There are millions of maps like the one Wislawa Szymborska describes.  But in this essay I’ll be looking at another kind: geographical information systems, which do get stirred when people engage with them.  Arrayed on screens, the surfaces of these interactive maps are designed to get unsettled.  There’s electricity and constant data-accrual agitating them, letting them change with context and consultation.  They are still accounts of space, these new kinds of maps, but they do not stay still.  They alter from moment to moment, tracking time, showing  --  albeit mainly at the somewhat occluded level of metadata  --  a record of everyone who visits them, who gets folded into them.

Research Policy and Review 29: The Chorley Committee and “Handling Geographic Information”

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 571-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
D W Rhind ◽  
H M Mounsey
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Ordnance Survey ◽  
Information Technology Education ◽  
Training Research ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk

In 1985, the UK government set up a Committee of Enquiry into the Handling of Geographic Information by computer. This was chaired by Lord Chorley and reported in early 1987. It concerned itself with all information which is described in relation to space and which could hence be used either singly or in combination. The tasks undertaken by the Committee are described, as are its composition and method of operation, the major ‘discoveries’ it made, and the recommendations put forward to government. A total of sixty-four recommendations were made covering digital (especially Ordnance Survey) topographic mapping, the availability of geographically disaggregated data, the problems and benefits of linking different data sets together, the need to enhance user awareness of geographical information systems and information technology, education and training, research and development, and the appropriate role for government and machinery for coordination. Finally, the government's published response to the Chorley Report is examined, particularly with regard to the proposed Centre for Geographic Information. The subsequent moves towards a consortium to bring this about are described.

scholarly journals SIG y Paisajes Virtuales en 3D. Posibilidades de divulgación de la Prehistoria Reciente de la Sierra de Atapuerca

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Marcos Sáiz
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
3D Modelling ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
3D Animation ◽  
Technical Process ◽  
Digital Terrain ◽  
Ecological Features ◽  
Terrain Models

<p>Archaeology has developed several theoretical and methodological perspectives with the application of the Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Digital Terrain Models (DTM), Virtual Reality (VR) and the 3D Modelling. In the spreading a gradual progress has begun for mapping the sites on its environmental context with the virtual generation of the topographic and ecological features. The aim of this paper is the analysis of the possibilities of spreading of the settlement patterns in the Late Prehistory around Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos), VI to II millennium cal. BC-. The technical process is the modelling and 3D animation for video of Virtual Landscapes with GIS. The conclusion is that the Virtual Flying with GIS is a fundamental tool for the graphical spreading of the prehistoric settlement, especially with archaeological sites of surveys.</p>

scholarly journals Does access to health services influence the diagnostic pathway and outcome from cancer: analysis of a linked dataset.

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Turner ◽  
Shona Fielding ◽  
Peter Murchie
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Treatment ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Care Pathway ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Treatment Centre ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Diagnostic Centre ◽  
Timely Treatment

ABSTRACT ObjectivesTo determine whether cancer diagnostic pathways and survival are affected by access to GP practice, diagnostic centre and cancer treatment centre. Cancer treatment in the UK is generally delivered in large cancer centres within major cities. This could have a detrimental effect on outcomes for people from rural areas who develop cancer. Historical UK studies suggest distance from services affects cancer outcomes. In recent years several developments, such as cancer networks and suspected cancer referral pathways, have occurred within the UK NHS, which may have reduced earlier inequalities. It is currently unknown whether a persons’ geographical location within the UK has implications for the timeliness of their receipt of a diagnosis and treatment for cancer. ApproachRoutine clinical data from Scottish Morbidity Record (SMR) 01, Scottish Cancer Registry SMR 06, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) derived measures of road distances and travelling times from key healthcare facilities have been linked to a clinical tracking database, NHS Grampian Cancer Care Pathway to form the Northeast and Aberdeen Scotland Cancer and Residence (NASCAR) database. This linkage provided a retrospective cohort of 13 702 people diagnosed with cancer since 2007. Logistic regression analyses have been conducted to determine the effect of distance from services on provider delays and survival at one year following diagnosis. ResultsOf the 13 702 patients included in the analysis the mean age was 67.4 ± 13 years and 45% were male. The highest proportion of patients lived within one mile of their GP practice (35.5%), less than five miles from their diagnostic centre (39.6%) and less than five miles from their cancer treatment centre (39.6%). Distance to GP practice or distance to diagnostic centre was not a significant predictor of timely treatment (treatment within 62 days of GP referral) or survival at one year following diagnosis. Increased distance to cancer treatment centre predicted shorter timely treatment intervals (5-9 miles [OR 1.50; CI 1.18-1.90], 10-29 miles [OR 1.09; CI0.90-1.31], 30-59 miles [OR 1.26; CI 1.05-1.52], > 60 miles [OR 1.72; CI 1.41-2.09]. Increased distance to treatment centre > 60 miles was associated with quicker times between diagnosis and receipt of treatment [OR 1.26; CI 1.12-1.42). ConclusionsIncreased distance to cancer treatment centre is associated with shorter treatment intervals. There was no association between likelihood of metastatic disease at diagnosis or survival at one year. Analysis is on-going into travelling times to services and may provide further insight.

The development and scientific principles of an environmental classification for strategic ecological survey in the United Kingdom

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Sheail ◽  
R.G.H. Bunce
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Environmental Classification ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Ecological Resources ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
The Uk

A method of environmental classification has been applied twice to surveys of the whole of England, Scotland and Wales (the United Kingdom). Such experience is now being extended to the European continent. The paper draws on the unpublished working-papers of the relevant scientists and institutions in reconstructing both the motives and circumstances in which a methodology was developed in the UK for the assessment of the ecological resources of the wider countryside. The principles of strategic classification and subsequent sampling from defined strata were initially devised for broadleaved woodland, and first tested at a regional level. They drew on classical regression theory, with the environmental classification being the independent, and the vegetation or habitat the dependent, variable. The approach was linked to the development of efficient algorithms for analysis and classification, and more recently remote sensing and geographical information systems. Successive Countryside Surveys of the UK, carried out since 1978, have provided an objective measurement of the decline in the quality of vegetation and habitats. Such a statistically robust approach can be used to measure the rates of vegetation and habitat change at the strategic European level, and as an aid to devising appropriate rural-resources policies.

Testing the relationship between marine transgression and evolving island palaeogeography using 3D GIS: an example from the Late Triassic of SW England

2021 ◽  
pp. jgs2020-158
Author(s):  
Jack Lovegrove ◽  
Andrew J. Newell ◽  
David I. Whiteside ◽  
Michael J. Benton
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Irish Sea ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The North ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
The Uk

The Rhaetian transgression marked a major change in landscape. The Permian and Triassic had been a time of terrestrial conditions across Europe, including much of mainland UK, as well as the North Sea and Irish Sea, represented by red bed clastic successions. Seas flooded across Europe at 205.7 Ma and the shift from terrestrial to marine environments is marked in the UK by the switch from the red beds of the Mercia Mudstone Group to the black mudstones and shelly limestones and sandstones of the Penarth Group. The area around Bristol was marked by a complex landscape in which an archipelago of islands of Carboniferous limestone was formed in the new shallow seas. The application of new methods in geographical information systems allows a detailed exploration of a number of conformable surfaces, the unconformity between the underlying Paleozoic rocks and the overlying Mesozoic strata, as well as levels within the latest Triassic sediments, marking the advance of the sea and interactions with the coeval tectonics, which caused some islands to rise and some basins to descend. The new geographical information system models show a sequence of palaeogeographical reconstructions of the archipelago and relate this to the island tetrapod faunas, which show strong evidence of the species–area effect.Supplementary material: Supplementary tables S1-S6 and 2D island map GIS files are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5273256

Sharing Information: Many Hands Make Light Work

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Information Management ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Principal Investigator ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Biological Databases ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Virginia Coast Reserve ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research

The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has shaped almost every aspect of my scientific career. It has enabled me to pursue ecoinformatics, a new and growing field, while allowing me to build on my training as an environmental scientist within the context of an intelligent, vibrant, and dedicated team of researchers and collaborators. Skills that I learned initially as part of workshops sponsored by the LTER program—on Geographical Information Systems (GIS), ecological information management, and wireless sensor networks—are now the skills I teach to others in a variety of formal and informal educational settings, including graduate and undergraduate classes. As a leader in sharing scientific data, the LTER program provides a strong positive and dynamic example of how data can be shared to enable new scientific syntheses. I communicate widely within the LTER network and with the larger community regarding the ethics, techniques, and values of data sharing. Collaboration, with researchers and other information managers, is a critical aspect of successfully promoting the sharing of ecological data and the important new discoveries that arise from such sharing. I started my work with the Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR) project in the LTER program at its inception in 1987. I started work at VCR site immediately after completing graduate school, as a postdoctoral fellow (1988– 1991), then subsequently as a co–principal investigator and eventually as principal investigator. Although my primary contribution to the project has been as an information manager, I also engage in a variety of landscape, environmental sensing, and population-related research. Also, I briefly served as principal investigator (1997–1998), when the former and subsequent principal investigator (Bruce Hayden) did a rotation at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Within the LTER network, I have been very active in the Information Management (IM) committee and served on the LTER Executive Committee (1997–2002) and as a cochair of the Network Information System Advisory Committee. In addition, I served as a part-time program director in Biological Databases at NSF (1993–1994). Academically, I am a research associate professor at the University of Virginia, where in addition to my research, I teach courses on GIS.

scholarly journals GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN FUNCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Blagoja Markoski ◽  
Svemir Gorin
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Geographic Information Systems ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Optimal Solutions ◽  
Gis Technology ◽  
The One

Geographical information systems as a methodology is a relatively new technology in scientific research and finding practical solutions for geographical problems. One of those problems is the complex over categorical set [1] known as environment. It is a very actual and complex problematic, hard for organizing and optimization when it has to set about the needs of humanity.Therefore, this article deals with the application of geographic information systems as one of the latest scien-tific techniques and technologies through which one can analyze and define the most optimal solutions in terms of environmental protection and sustainable development.The aim is to highlight the quantitative and qualitative aspects of GIS technology in function of the environ-ment on the one hand, and through concrete examples to point out to the power of these technologies in the process of finding optimal solutions. It is briefly pointed out to some general criteria that are inevitable in the process of creating databases in GIS necessary for adequate and suitable GIS analyses.

The Use of Geographical Information Systems in Examining Variations in Sociodemographic Profiles of Dental Practice Catchments: A Case Study of a Swansea Practice

2002 ◽  
Vol os9 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Higgs ◽  
Wayne Richards
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Dental Practice ◽  
Dental Services ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Dental Profession ◽  
The Uk

Aim The aim of this paper is to use a case study approach to illustrate the potential for using geographical information systems (GIS) to examine the provision of dental services in the UK. A major benefit of using GIS to examine sociodemographic profiles of patients on a dental register is to inform policy makers. Method We illustrate the advantages of such an approach by using a post-coded list of registered patients for a dental practice in Swansea. To be of value in this context, the maintenance of up-to-date and fully postcoded information by practitioners is vital. We draw attention to the advantages (and current limitations) of using deprivation indices in conjunction with such lists. Result GIS has significant potential in analysing patterns of registration, and utilisation, of such services but, to date, there has been a relative dearth of studies that have developed such systems. Conclusion We conclude by drawing attention to wider benefits of such software tools in the dental profession and outline a research agenda to take these issues further.

scholarly journals Assessing the impacts of changing public service provision on geographical accessibility: An examination of public library provision in Pembrokeshire, South Wales

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 548-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Higgs ◽  
Samuel Jones ◽  
Mitchel Langford ◽  
Jesse Heley
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Geographical Accessibility ◽  
Delivery Models

Public libraries make an important contribution to the wellbeing of local people often acting as community hubs by reducing the isolation felt by vulnerable members of society through promoting social interaction and supporting the wider needs of local communities. However, access to libraries is threatened in Wales, as elsewhere in the UK, by uncertainty stemming from changes in local government service delivery models, austerity-driven cuts in public spending, changing demands on the service from the public and the potential impacts of new developments in digital services and technologies. Drawing on network-based analysis of changes to library services in a predominantly rural authority in South-West Wales, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Geographical Information Systems can be used to monitor the impacts of alternative models of provision currently being considered by library authorities. By examining the spatial impacts of changes in services following a period of re-configuration in this library authority, we point the way to methods that enable levels of provision that meet community needs to be sought during times of budgetary pressures and proposed changes to the delivery of public services.

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