Global Geo-Demographic Data and GIS for E-Business

The results of a comprehensive survey of the availability and characteristics of digital geo-demographic data in 40 countries around the world are presented. Geographic information systems (GIS) often used in conjunction with the Internet are being used by technologically savvy companies to perform marketing studies and provide location specific data such as maps to clients and customers. However, the national level Availability and characteristics of the required digital geo-spatial data vary considerably from nation to nation. Every country’s data differs in terms of existence, cost, accuracy, precision, format, content, and availability over the Internet. Some countries (such as Switzerland and the United Kingdom) have current data on every hectare and house along with demographics for every group of 100 residents available for interactive web-based mapping and analysis. Other nations have such data in only non-digital forms and then only internally. Most nations are intermediate in terms of the use of characteristics and availability of geospatial data relevant for E-business. Presented here are the results, especially those pertaining to E-business, of an e-mail survey of the national census and national mapping authorities of 40 selected countries. These the G7, Russia, China (PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong), India, Australia, many European countries, along with 4 other Asian, 4 Latin American, 2 Middle Eastern and 2 African nations. Also presented is statistical analysis of the responses and information from follow-up questions

Importance of the Internet in University Curriculums: A Case Study at Sam Houston State University

The advances in technology today have made the use of the Internet important in almost every discipline. Educators, business people, scientists and those in the criminal justice field all rely on the Internet to help them perform their jobs to the fullest. The Internet is immense and has many uses that can assist student in each discipline. Knowledge of the Internet and the full extent of its capabilities are important to anyone entering the workforce in today’s technologically advanced environment. In order to keep their graduates competitive in this environment, it is important that universities offer courses which not only cover the basics of Internet use but also show how the Internet can help them advance and excel no matter which field they enter. The current lack of a course for all students which covers in-depth internet use opposed to the number of fields that utilize the Internet, and the extent to which they use it, exposes the need for a course to better prepare students for the changing environment they will enter after graduation

A Glossary of GIS Terminology (92-13)

A comprehensive alphabetical listing of technical terms and their common meanings and an alphabetical list of acronyms related to geographic information systems (GIS) and related technologies, with an introduction and listing of source.documents and references

Dynamics of Multi-Scale Intra-Provincial Regional Inequality in Zhejiang, China

This paper investigates regional inequality in a multi-scale framework, using Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis, based on the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of counties and municipalities within the Zhejiang province in China between the years of 1990 and 2010. A Spatial Markov Chain is used to identify the dynamics of regional wealth disparity in Zhejiang. The results show that the regional inequality of Zhejiang is sensitive to the geographic scale of the analysis. In addition, the inter-county inequality shows an inverted-U shape pattern. At the same time, the inter-municipality inequality displays a more consistently upward trend, and the evolution of the interregional inequality is relatively stable over time. The regional inequality is more significant at finer (larger) spatial scales. The decomposition of the Theil Index shows that the contribution of the inequalities between Northeast Zhejiang and Southwest Zhejiang increased. The increasingly larger values of the Global Moran’s I show that there is an intensifying spatial aggregation of economic development. The comparison of the traditional Markov transition matrix and the Spatial Markov transition matrix illustrates how the relative wealth or poverty of neighboring counties make a significance difference in wealth in a given county as measured using domestic GDP per capita in Zhejiang province. This space-time analysis is valuable for policy making towards sustainable economic development in China given the soaring spatial inequality

Specialized Villages in Inland China: Spatial and Developmental Issues

The development of specialized villages in China is an interesting trend. This paper studies specialized villages in China by using the rational small household theory, division of labor and specialization concepts, as well as the distance decay and neighborhood effect theories. We use the census data on specialized villages in Henan Province (the largest agricultural province in China) from 2010 as the basis for a case study, applying dummy variables representing sixteen types of specialized villages, and selecting environmental variables, such as land form, location, arable land area, and labor force characteristics. We find that significant factors related to specialization are location and production factors. Policy implications of this research are discussed