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STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
One of the responsibilities for the planning departments of the
City of Columbia and Boone County is to distribute geographical
data sets such as parcel maps, soil, geology and administrative
boundaries to the public and other departments. Presently most of
the geographical data sets are distributed through photocopies,
CDs or Disks. This method of data distribution is costly and time
consuming. One of the requirements identified by the end users in
a series of ICREST-local government planners meetings was to develop
simple tools for geographical data dissemination and decision support.
In addition, critical to the success of the Synergy local government
demonstration project is the ability to provide timely and tailored
products to the selected user community through a concept called
“info mart”. An info mart provides a way to maintain
a small set of data that is oriented to the “essential”
application needs of a given set of users and eliminates having
to “navigate” a large data source. Additionally, the
info mart provides guidance about how to use the scientific data
provided in the mart. The info mart prototypes are initially a web
server and a web browser. It includes both Internet and Intranet
applications. Info mart architectures will need to become more robust
and scalable as the info mart products prove their operational value.
Realizing the importance of user requirements and the info mart
approach, we have developed a Web-based data delivery and decision
support tool for serving GIS datasets to city and county officials
as well as the citizens of Boone County.
TECHNICAL APPROACH
TAKEN
1. A Web based data dissemination tool
The Internet is chosen as a development platform for the data
delivery mechanism and decision support tool because of platform
independency, low cost, ease of use and wide accessibility. Design
and development of the Web-based data delivery and decision support
tool involves client server technology wherein the client makes
a request to the server and the server gives the results back to
the client. This task was accomplished by applying software, such
as ArcView GIS and Internet Map Server (ArcView IMS or ArcIMS),
ArcView Image Analysis (AIA) extension, Java, JavaScript, HTML and
Avenue programming (for detail see URL: www.bocomo.missouri.edu).
Figure 1 shows the Web-based data delivery interface developed for
Boone County. The overall client server transaction processes involve
design and development of client front end, customization of the
ESRI’s Map café Java applet, and adding more analytical
functions in Arcview GIS. The client front-end was built using HTML
and JavaScript. Java programming was used to customize and to add
more functionality to the ESRI Map café Java applet. The
Avenue scripting language was used to add more GIS functions in
Arcview GIS. The graduate student was assisted in the development
of this web based data dissemination tool.
Figure1: Web Site for BOCOMO
2. Decision Support Tool
The decision support tool was developed using the Environmental
Sensitivity Model (ESM), which identifies and prioritizes local
watersheds based on several environmental criteria. The ESM was
developed using the above-mentioned methodology in collaboration
with storm water planners of the city of Columbia. The present prototype
of the ESM tool was developed using a few watersheds in the county
as testing sites (Figure 2) and has eleven environmental criteria.
Figure 2: ESM testing site
The criteria include degree of land slope, 100-year
flood plain, wetland, delineated karst topography, designated regulatory
stream use, presence of wooded stream corridors, and macro-invertebrate
distribution. The ESM uses a multi-criteria evaluation approach
and allows the user to execute the analysis in the Web by assigning
relative weights to each criterion. Figure 3 shows the ESM criteria
and weight interface and Figure 4 demonstrates the Model output.
Figure3: ESM criteria interface
Figure4: ESM output
The Web-based data delivery and decision support tools
were demonstrated and were well received by city and county officials.
These tools will aid in the data dissemination and development of
consensus regarding specific local areas deserving increased protection
and the public policies to be pursued in minimizing the environmental
impact of future development.
Additional information on these University of Missouri ICREST activities
can be found at: http://www.geog.missouri.edu/synergy
THE
WEB BASED DATA DELIVERY AND DECISION SUPPORT TOOL EVALUATION
The web-based data delivery mechanism was demonstrated to the end
users and received several feedbacks. The positive feedbacks include,
the interface is easy to use, simple method of data access, required
no additional geo-based software, several interactive tools such
as zoom in, zoom out, query, download and print, and also saves
money and time for city and county officials. The negative feedback
includes slow, require high bandwidth (the amount of data transmitted
or received per unit time) to view satellite images, no facility
to view the local data sets and need for additional interactive
tools. The end users suggested we enhance the data dissemination
interface with additional tools such as the digitization tool, image-clipping
tool, customized printing tool and also an intranet facility (the
end users do not want to share certain data sets, which are works
in progress, with the public). In future work these tools will be
added and improvement will be made to the data dissemination interface.
The present prototype of the ESM tool was developed using only
a few watersheds in the county as testing sites and has limited
environmental criteria. County and city officials desire this tool
for the entire county and want to include more criteria in the ESM
model. The future work will enhance the ESM tool by adding more
environmental criteria and also an assessment will be done for the
entire county.
ANTICIPATED
IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS IN URBAN GOVERNMENT
The methods used to develop a Web-based data dissemination and decision
support tool from this project will be implemented because they
provides i) a simple, cost effective mechanism for the data delivery,
ii) education of the public and others about urban growth through
the Web and ii) education of planners and mangers to use the simple
web-based decision support tool to identify and prioritize the local
watersheds based on several environmental criteria
- ADDITIONAL WORK
·1)The Web interface enhancement with additional tools
such as the digitization tool, image-clipping tool, customized
printing tool;
·2) Facility to add and view the local data sets;
·3) Different compression algorithms (for example MrSID)
will be tested to improve the speed in serving the images;
·4) Development of an intranet for Boone County;
·5) Improving the ESM tool by adding more environmental
criteria and incorporating an assessment for the entire county.
PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
Dr. Ramanathan Sugumaran, Dr. Chris Fulcher, Mr. Daniel Zerr, Mr.
Jim Meyer and Eric Compas (graduate student) of Center for Agricultural,
Resource and Environmental Systems (CARES), 130 Mumford Hall, University
of Missouri, Columbia, 65203. Email: sugumaranr@missouri.edu. The
end users are: Thad Yonke, Bill Florea and Ross Short of County
Planning and Zoning Department, John Fleck and Susan Vale of City
Planning Division. |
