Issues Involved in the Development of Internet-Based GIS Applications

Abstract

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are computer-based systems that use geographical data in conjunction with analysis and management tools to improve the decision-making abilities of organisations (Heywood et al 2006). The recent rapid development and increased accessibility of the Internet has led to the emergence of a new brand of GIS systems; Internet based GIS. Internet based GIS combine the decision-making abilities of GIS systems with the customisation, accessibility, and interactive power of the Internet.

This paper investigates a range of issues involved in the development of real-world Internet based GIS applications. These issues are evaluated from three distinct perspectives that impact on the development of GIS applications. These are the technical, commercial and social perspectives. The primary objective of this paper is to explicitly discover and explain the links between the issues from these different perspectives.

In order to discover these issues, a case study was conducted that involved the development of a web-based GIS application for an Auckland IT company, Coeus Ltd. This application utilises an online GIS Application Programming Interface to provide GIS functionality that has been customised to meet Coeus’ requirements. To supplement the issues identified from this case, an extensive literature review is also incorporated into this research.

Following the identification and explanation of the issues, links between each of the perspectives are explained. These links show that issues from one perspective have an impact on the success of a GIS from the other two perspectives. This highlights the importance of considering a range of issues from the different perspectives when developing a web based GIS application.