Journal

GeoFIS: Flood Insurance System for Trinidad - A Case Study for San Juan Downstream

(Version 8/3/07)  

F. Canisius and C. Nancy

ABSTRACT: Flood is one of the severe and common natural perils risking life and property in every corner of the world and has become more frequent in resent years due to increasing human intrusion in the environment. Damages caused by flood create great loss to individuals and it is difficult to recover from impacts. Since there are many factors that influence the flooding and cannot be prevented there is no other better way to quickly recover from financial loss than insuring properties. Flood insurance is providing financial protection against losses from flooding. In some countries, though flood insurance is available still the individuals could not able to obtain flood insurance or facing prospect of higher premium. This is because insurance companies charge premium based on region rather than location of individual house. In case of Trinidad, very general traditional way of premium calculation is in practice combined with standard property insurance. By integrating GIS to flood insurance flood risk of each and every individual private house can be evaluated and come up with reasonable premium. In this study GIS based flood insurance system was developed for Trinidad to handle flood insurance for private households and applied to San Juan Downstream to demonstrate feasibility to use the system. The system uses flood and house information from GIS database and client provided information to bring out reasonable premium based on business related variables from insurance companies. This will enable both parties of the insurance market to be benefited. 

A GIS Model of the National Road Network in Mexico

(Version 7/23/2007)

Roberto Duran-Fernandez.

ABSTRACT: This papers describes a benchmark methodology for building a GIS model of the National Road Network in Mexico. A model of the road network is useful because it can help to calculate the shortest route between any two locations linked to the road system. The model estimates an average speed for every section in the network according to its hierarchy, regional location, toll status, and administration. Optimal routes can be estimated in terms of a time-minimisation criterion. The paper presents a statistical test that shows that the model presents a small bias of +6 percent in comparison to observed transit times of the Ministry of Transport. This bias can be fixed using a linear transformation of estimated time of transit.

Institutional & Organizational Barriers to
Effective Use of GIS by Community-Based Organizations

(Version 7/3/07) 

Ann Margaret Esnard

ABSTRACT: This research was sparked by a general observation that community based organizations (CBOs) do not use GIS effectively for community and land redevelopment initiatives even when software, hardware, training, data, formal partnership agreements and access to GIS services are all in place. 

A sample pool of CBOs was surveyed to gather information about their community planning and land (re)development work, staffing, missions, geographic boundaries, GIS capacity, and perceived barriers to effective use of GIS.

URISA Journal
Table of Contents
Volume 19, Number 1

Download Volume 19, Number 1 in PDF format

In this issue:

Note: Complete text of Journal articles are in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format

GIS based qualitative analysis of Urban River Stream: A Case Study of Nag River Urban Watershed, District Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

(Version 6/25/07)

Pinak Ranade and Y.B. Katpatal
 

ABSTRACT: Most of the modern day rivers in India are severely polluted due to the irresponsible attitude & mismanagement by the people  / stakeholders. As per the urban river health assessment studies, many cities of India may be termed as an excellent and classic example of the mismanagement of the rivers. Nag river flows for most of its course through the urbanized part of Nagpur city, a city with approx. population of 25 million. The Nag river eco-system is under maximum stress, due to the social and economic activities carried out by various population classes on different land use patterns. The occupational and domestic activities in various households invariably result in the production of liquid, solid and gaseous wastes of various types and quantities, which subsequently find their way into the river. In this case study for Nag River urban watershed, GIS based qualitative analysis of Nag river stream has been carried out.

Real Estate Registration in Latin America. 
The Modernization of the Registration System of Chile. 

(Version 5/10/07)

Joel González

ABSTRACT: This report is about the process Chile is engaged in for a profound reform of the real estate registration system; the reform intends to substitute the current system of personal folio for one of real folio (property-based folio); the intense use of the most modern digital technologies to make the registration more efficient (lower cost and less time for the users) and safer, and the creation of a regulatory and supervising agency of the officers in charge of the registry. To understand the reforms that are described in detail, the way the ownership of real estate is acquired in Chile and other countries it is previously explained, and a brief explanation of the way the real estate registry works in this south American country. If the reforms succeed, this new design could be used as a model by other Latin-American countries to update their old registration systems.

An Assessment of GIS-Enabled Walkability Audits

(Version 3/14/07)

Anonymous

Abstract: Research on walking and the built environment is a fairly recent area of inquiry, accelerated over the last ten years by an increased interest in the relationship between urban form and public health. As the research has progressed, so has the interest in developing ways to collect data at a very fine scale – in essence, to be able to collect data at the streetscape level and link this data to transportation behavior.  This paper discusses the development and implementation of a GIS-based pedestrian audit tool that allows users to collect data in electronic form using a hand-held computer (i.e., a Pocket PC or Personal Digital Assistant).  While the authors, in general, believe that such tools may be useful for better understanding the relationship between the built environment and pedestrian behavior, the tools may be unnecessarily complex and unfocused.  Specifically, such walkability audit tools could be improved by: 1) applying unique sets of walkability measures to different types of walking environments; 2) perhaps focusing auditing activities on major streets and intersections only (e.g. do not audit neighborhood streets where possible); 3) include subjective as well as objective measures of the streetscape; 4) verify the accuracy of digital base maps before widespread implementation; and 5) continuously evaluate whether the simpler technology of pen and paper would be preferable alternatives.  That said, the authors conclude that appropriately applying GIS-enabled pedestrian audit tools can be an efficient way to collect and quickly analyze pedestrian infrastructure characteristics so that planners, practitioners, policy makers, and community members can make more effective decisions on behalf of walkability.

Spatial Data Sharing: Bridging the Gap

(Version 2/22/07)  

El-Sayed Ewis Omran

ABSTRACT: The study of Spatial Data Sharing (SDS) is currently a challenge that aims for new empirical data and theory building. This paper has two goals. It first describes, analyzes and justifies the major study of the SDS literature. The purpose is to outline the theoretical, methodological and organizational SDS gaps of the existing literature. The main gap identified is that studies on individuals and organizational behavior of SDS are still in its infancy. Secondly, the paper reviews the main social and cultural theories to provide insight into SDS behavior. Theories of Planned Behavior, Culture Theory, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and Social Network Theory have been identified as possible theories explaining SDS. On the basis of analysis of the current literature on SDS, a new approach for SDS research is proposed. The main contribution of the paper is proposal of the new framework for SDS behavior.

The URISA Journal contains reports of current research; reports and reviews of system applications; and reviews relating to the design, implementation and evaluation of information systems for federal, state, provincial, regional, local and municipal governments.

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URISA Journal
Table of Contents
Volume 18, Number 1
2006

In this issue: 

• Pierce County, Washington
  Pierce County Responder System (2000—Enterprise System)
• Sacramento County, California
  WebGIS (2004—Enterprise System)
• South Florida Water Management District
  The Lake Okeechobee Stage-Area-Capacity Lookup Application