GIS-based Decision Support System (DSS) for Recommending Retail Outlet Locations

Many Information Technology (IT) tools play a vital role in the business world due to their wider applicability. Extremely competitive retail environment necessitates retailers to choose new store locations strategically. GIS with its capability to manage, display and analyze business information spatially, is emerging as one of the powerful location intelligence IT tool.  The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of strategic retail outlet location through online Decision Support System (DSS) in Hyderabad Metropolitan city, India. The procedure makes use of data, information and software from Web-based Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to generate online analysis, mapping and visualization systems. These procedures are integrated and synchronized with appropriate data layers (multi data layer system) to arrive at better decisions.  This DSS combines different data layers through spatial methodological analysis to arrive at possible solution for ideal retail store location. Keywords: Retail store site selection; spatial data layers; open source web GIS; DSS

Design and development of a generalized LIDAR point cloud streaming framework over the web

LIDAR data, retrieved by laser systems carried by airplanes, helicopters or cars, require the storage of millions of point information concerning the space we are scanning. This work illustrates the implementation of a web application which gets LIDAR data from a PostreSQL database and creates n different levels of detail of the point cloud data and saves them into related files. A first operation implemented on the data is linear point to point measurementope

A system for the analysis of musical data

The role of music analysis is to enlighten our understanding of a piece of music. The role of musical performance analysis is to help us understand how a performer interprets a piece of music. The current work provides a tool which combines music analysis with performance analysis. By combining music and performance analysis in one system new questions can be asked of a piece of music: how is the structure of a piece reflected in the performance and how can the performance enlighten our understanding of the piece's structure? The current work describes a unified database which can store and present musical score alongside associated performance data and musical analysis. Using a general purpose representation language, Performance Mark-up Language (PML), aspects of performance are recorded and analysed. Data thus acquired from one project is made available to others. Presentation involves high-quality scores suitably annotated with the requested information. Such output is easily and directly accessible to musicians, performance scientists and analysts. We define a set of data structures and operators which can operate on musical pitch and musical time, and use them to form the basis of a query language for a musical database. The database can store musical information (score, gestural data, etc.). Querying the database results in annotations of the musical score. The database is capable of storing musical score information and performance data and cross-referencing them. It is equipped with the necessary primitives to execute music-analytical queries, and highlight notes identified from the score and display performance data alongside the score

The comparison of web-based GIS applications used by municipal administrations

Space is a property that has to be managed, planned and in which the activities have to be distributed to ensure the highest quality of living. In the past, the spatial data was stored in analogue documents and different maps, but today it is stored digitally. Municipal administrations use web-based GIS-aplications when working with spatial data. With the development of the new technological approach, named cloud computing, the execution of these systems has become cheaper, and above all, simpler. GIS have a typical client–server model. Various architecture of client-server models are described. Cloud computing is divided into public, private and hybrid clouds. The business model is divided into three layers: infrastructure as service, platform as service and software as service. Practically predominating in the field of GIS-technology and the Internet are the industrial open standards, which are described in detail. Described is also the following free software: MapServer, PostgreSQL, PostGIS and the three most frequently used free programming licences: GPL, LGPL and MIT. The chapter Internet protocols, web standards and recommendations describes the recommendations and standards of the World Wide Web Consortium that are applied to the basic web entities, like data formats, scripting language, protocols, objects, cookies and others. In the end we compare the web GIS-solutions that are used by Slovene municipal administrations. We compared the criteria and we determine the best available system

Geovisualization Using HTML5 : a case study to improve animations of historical geographic data

Popular science Visualize geographic data Using HTML5 The Scanian Economic-Demographic Database (SEDD) has been assembled by the Centre for Economic Demography (CED), Lund University. It contains demographic and economic information of Scania from the 17th century until the present. The SEDD database has been integrated with geographic data, which are digitized from four independent historical maps. To help the users well understand these data, a web mapping application called SEDD Map has been developed and tested. The previous version of SEDD Map is constructed using Silverlight plugin. It cannot run on most popular portable devices. As Hypertext Markup Languages (HTML) continue to develop, a recent version, HTML5, was published in 2012. It aims to support the latest multimedia formats and reduce the need for plugins. So, to improve the compatibility of SEDD Map, this work using HTML5 to developed a new version of SEDD Map. Before we constructed the new version of SEDD Map, a set of web mapping applications and programs were evaluated. From this evaluation and comparison, we found that SEDD Map could be improved in many area, such as improving the animation of historical geographic data. Animation is a useful tool when presenting historical data. The geographic data in SEDD Map are taken from four independent historical maps. To visualize geographic data as an animation, we need to create a time sense sequential dataset. In this study, we used linear interpolation and the four historical maps as start years and end years to simulate 159 maps to visualize the geographic data as animations. From this study, we found that: The commonly used web mapping applications for investigating demographic data contain functions, such as interactive visualization, statistical graphics, basic map tools, animations, etc; HTML5 can replace (and improve) the used of Silverlight for web mapping; Animations can be generated (filling in what is missing is to improve the data sets).The Scanian Economic-Demographic Database (SEDD) has been assembled by the Centre for Economic Demography (CED), Lund University. It contains information about the demographic and economic conditions of people that have lived in 5 parishes in Scania from the 17th century until the present. The SEDD database has been integrated with geographic data, which are digitized from four independent historical maps. To visualize and analyze these data, a GIS based web mapping application called SEDD Map has been developed and tested. The previous version of SEDD Map is constructed using Silverlight. As a result, it only can be used on computers which have installed the Silverlight plugin. As Hypertext Markup Languages (HTML) continue to develop, a recent version, HTML5, was published in 2012. It aims to support the latest multimedia formats and reduce the need for plugins. In this study, we use HTML5, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS3), JavaScript and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript to create a new version of SEDD Map to visualize data stored in the SEDD database. Before we constructed the new version of SEDD Map, a set of web mapping applications and programs were evaluated by the requirements which were needed to create the new version of SEDD Map. From this evaluation and comparison, we found that SEDD Map could be improved in many area, such as improving the animation of historical geographic data. Animation is a useful tool when presenting historical data. The geographic data in SEDD Map are taken from four independent historical maps. To visualize geographic data as an animation, we need to create a time sense sequential dataset, which is done in a parallel project. In this study, we evaluate techniques for data animation. We used linear interpolation and the four historical maps as start years and end years to simulate 159 maps to visualize the geographic data as animations. The conclusions are as follows: 1) The commonly used web mapping applications for investigating demographic data contain functions, such as interactive visualization, statistical graphics, basic map tools, animations, etc. 2) HTML5 can replace (and improve) the used of Silverlight for web mapping. 3) Animations can be generated (filling in what is missing is to improve the data sets)

GeoBuz: geo location services adapted to your business

Con el desarrollo de las tecnologías móviles, la geo localización se ha vuelto una herramienta fundamental para el desarrollo de algunos negocios que necesitan que sus clientes no solo conozcan sus productos sino que además sepan dónde encontrarlos. Para ello es necesario ofrecerles las herramientas necesarias para llegar hasta ellos, independientemente del lugar donde se encuentren. Este proyecto parte de esa idea para desarrollar un producto totalmente adaptado a las necesidades de cada negocio. Propone la creación de un producto único que una vez descritas las necesidades del negocio pueda personalizarse con las necesidades de éste. El ejemplo empleado es una empresa de neumáticos que contaba con una red de renting de vehículos en la que determinados talleres ofrecen sus productos a los clientes de esta red. Es fundamental darse cuenta de que no era suficiente con tener una gran cantidad de clientes dentro de esa red, si no que había que dar a esos clientes el mejor servicio de atención posible. Para ello es necesario poner al alcance tanto de los trabajadores encargados de dar atención a estos clientes como de los propios clientes una serie de herramientas que hagan esta tarea mucho más sencilla y que permitan además dar una mejor solución a cada cliente dependiendo de su situación. La herramienta desarrollada, tras ejecutar la metodología de diseño que se detalla en el documento, consiste en una aplicación web formada por un formulario y un mapa. En la parte superior aparecería el logotipo de la empresa y al realizar una búsqueda, en el mapa se situarán unos marcadores que variarán dependiendo de las necesidades del cliente. Para acompañar a la web se han diseñado también dos aplicaciones, una para Android y otra para iOS que están enfocadas al cliente itinerante que se encuentra en la carretera y necesita llegar a un establecimiento con la ayuda del GPS de un dispositivo móvil. En el caso del ejemplo empleado, la gran mayoría de las personas que solicitan información se encuentran en un vehículo ya en movimiento. Para demostrar la eficacia de este sistema, se han realizado encuestas a los usuarios y a las personas que trabajan dando atención a éstos, cuyos resultados y conclusiones obtenidas se presentan en este documento.As the mobile technologies keep improving, geo location has become a elemental tool for business development which need their clients not only to know their products but also where to find them. In order to do this, it is important to provide these clients with the right tools to reach them, regardless of where they are located. This project is based on the idea to develop a product, which suits the needs of each business. It suggests the creation of a unique product, which once the needs have been described, can be customized in order to satisfy them. The sample business used in this project is a huge tire company that has a car renting network in which several establishments (car dealers, workshops, etc.) provide their products to the clients of the network. It is essential to realize it isn’t enough to have a large number of clients in the network, but it is also essential to give the clients the best possible service. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to make available a series of tools that make this job much easier for the customer service, and that provide the client with a much better solution. After applying the design methodology described in the document, the developed tool consists of a web page formed of a form and a map. In the upper part, the logo of company would appear and when the user made a search, several markers would appear depending on the needs of the client. To complement this, there are two mobile apps, one for Android and one for iOS, which are oriented to customers who travel and need to find an establishment with the help of the GPS of their mobile devices. In the sample business used in this project, most of the people who need information are located in a moving vehicle. As to verify the effectiveness of this system, the users of the system have been surveyed and also the people who work at the Call Center. The results and conclusions obtained are presented in this document.Ingeniería de Sistemas Audiovisuale

Factors impeding the development of Oman spatial data infrastructure

Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is an innovative concept introduced more than twenty years ago to allow the sharing and reuse of geospatial data. The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), an SDI expanded to the national level, is now widely considered as an essential basic infrastructure for a country in this information era. To date countries all over the world, irrespective of their size, economic strength, political stability and population size, have developed, developing or considering developing their own SDI. A number of developed countries had successfully developed an impressive operational SDI while others are still progressively developing theirs. Yet for other countries the SDI development still remains an innovative concept. Understandably, besides the political and economic factors, many interrelated technical and non-technical factors can affect the development of SDI, the complexity of which can increase with the increase in the level of jurisdictions involved in spatial data sharing. Oman was one of the countries that had taken up the early initiative but unfortunately all that was known of the initiative was some feasibility studies conducted by non-national institution. Therefore this research has attempted to investigate the factors impeding the SDI development of Oman as an effort to revive the initiative to develop an operational Oman SDI, seen as an integral infrastructure to Oman’s future development and an important component in disaster and environmental management. Through this study, it was found that SDI is about communications between SDI participants to share spatial data. Through the thorough review of the data gathered from interviews and questionnaires, this research methodology was supported by systematic inspection and analysis of the essential data. The main stumbling block to Oman’s effort in building the SDI is the non-technical factors, including the human aspects entailing the lack of knowledge and awareness of spatial data and use of GIS, lack of knowledge on SDI concept and SDI benefits, and also the lack of cooperation, collaboration and coordination among the participants. It can be concluded that the lack of knowledge and awareness make communication between SDI participants difficult, thus almost impossible for cooperation, collaboration and coordination. This had left Oman with no option but to leave the initiative as an innovative concept, are now identified to be given the highest priority to enable Oman to pave the way forward

The building and application of a semantic platform for an e-research society

This thesis reviews the area of e-Research (the use of electronic infrastructure to support research) and considers how the insight gained from the development of social networking sites in the early 21st century might assist researchers in using this infrastructure. In particular it examines the myExperiment project, a website for e-Research that allows users to upload, share and annotate work flows and associated files, using a social networking framework. This Virtual Organisation (VO) supports many of the attributes required to allow a community of users to come together to build an e-Research society. The main focus of the thesis is how the emerging society that is developing out of my-Experiment could use Semantic Web technologies to provide users with a significantly richer representation of their research and research processes to better support reproducible research. One of the initial major contributions was building an ontology for myExperiment. Through this it became possible to build an API for generating and delivering this richer representation and an interface for querying it. Having this richer representation it has been possible to follow Linked Data principles to link up with other projects that have this type of representation. Doing this has allowed additional data to be provided to the user and has begun to set in context the data produced by myExperiment. The way that the myExperiment project has gone about this task and consideration of how changes may affect existing users, is another major contribution of this thesis. Adding a semantic representation to an emergent e-Research society like myExperiment,has given it the potential to provide additional applications. In particular the capability to support Research Objects, an encapsulation of a scientist's research or research process to support reproducibility. The insight gained by adding a semantic representation to myExperiment, has allowed this thesis to contribute towards the design of the architecture for these Research Objects that use similar Semantic Web technologies. The myExperiment ontology has been designed such that it can be aligned with other ontologies. Scientific Discourse, the collaborative argumentation of different claims and hypotheses, with the support of evidence from experiments, to construct, confirm or disprove theories requires the capability to represent experiments carried out in silico. This thesis discusses how, as part of the HCLS Scientific Discourse subtask group, the myExperiment ontology has begun to be aligned with other scientific discourse ontologies to provide this capability. It also compares this alignment of ontologies with the architecture for Research Objects. This thesis has also examines how myExperiment's Linked Data and that of other projects can be used in the design of novel interfaces. As a theoretical exercise, it considers how this Linked Data might be used to support a Question-Answering system, that would allow users to query myExperiment's data in a more efficient and user-friendly way. It concludes by reviewing all the steps undertaken to provide a semantic platform for an emergent e-Research society to facilitate the sharing of research and its processes to support reproducible research. It assesses their contribution to enhancing the features provided by myExperiment, as well as e-Research as a whole. It considers how the contributions provided by this thesis could be extended to produce additional tools that will allow researchers to make greater use of the rich data that is now available, in a way that enhances their research process rather than significantly changing it or adding extra workload

A geo-database for potentially polluting marine sites and associated risk index

The increasing availability of geospatial marine data provides an opportunity for hydrographic offices to contribute to the identification of Potentially Polluting Marine Sites (PPMS). To adequately manage these sites, a PPMS Geospatial Database (GeoDB) application was developed to collect and store relevant information suitable for site inventory and geo-spatial analysis. The benefits of structuring the data to conform to the Universal Hydrographic Data Model (IHO S-100) and to use the Geographic Mark-Up Language (GML) for encoding are presented. A storage solution is proposed using a GML-enabled spatial relational database management system (RDBMS). In addition, an example of a risk index methodology is provided based on the defined data structure. The implementation of this example was performed using scripts containing SQL statements. These procedures were implemented using a cross-platform C++ application based on open-source libraries and called PPMS GeoDB Manager