Vanguard
Cross-Field Collaborations Add New Value to Geographic Information
Geographic information systems (GIS) are intimately connected with our daily lives. Professor Wanglin Yan, whose work is in the vanguard of this field, discusses the wide array of everyday applications and the future potential of GIS.
YAN, Wanglin
ProfessorFaculty of Environment and Information Studies
What GIS Has Given Us
My specialty is geographic information
science, with a focus on geographic information systems (GIS). A GIS
is a system that maps information of various kinds onto location data
in a computer system, making it possible to analyze, compare, and
process the information in an integrated way. Although people tend to
think of this as a technical and abstruse subject, in fact GIS shows
up in many roles in our everyday lives and has become an essential
tool in numerous fields. In public administration, for example, GIS
technology has dramatically improved management efficiency by
enabling information on, say, fixed assets and street addresses to be
collected in one place. In the business sector, it affords a kind of
aerial view of the market. And in the area most familiar to us all,
there is a wealth of navigational uses. The best-known of these is
car GPS navigation systems. This was created by merging map data,
satellite localization, and real-time traffic information. As the
iconic application of GIS, it encompasses the cutting-edge technology
of this field.
The Four Ss of GIS
GIS technology has largely developed
since the 1970s. The S stands for “system,” and, as this
suggests, GIS was originally conceived as a system to serve as
decision-making material, generally by layering information onto a
map and analyzing it as an aid to problem-solving. Today, however,
the S has taken on several further meanings. It can stand for
“science,” in that one takes a scientific approach to
investigating what the information means: given a certain area of
greenery, one might use GIS to determine its makeup, what effects it
has, how long it has been there, and what will eventually happen to
it. S can also stand for “service,” or making systems and
research results available to the general public: think of how GPS
has become part of our everyday lives in such handy forms as car
navigation devices or Google Earth. Alternatively, the S can stand
for “society,” referring to the “advanced geospatial
information society” (also known as “G-spatial society”). This
is a society in which GPS-linked mobile phones are in common use,
enabling anyone to come and go freely between geographic space and
cyberspace without even thinking about the existence of positional
data, and to take advantage of a wide array of applications, from
street safety and security to leisure uses. Thus, the acronym “GIS”
has come to express four meanings in one.
The Value of Geographic Information
I studied surveying at university in
China, then came to Japan for graduate studies in 1986. At that time,
Japanese universities did not offer a specialization that coincided
exactly with my major, and so I entered the Surveying Laboratory of
the University of Tokyo’s Department of Civil Engineering, which
offered a closely related field of study. Researchers there took a
scientific approach that linked civil engineering, economics, and
geographic information. To tell the truth, back when I was doing
fieldwork and taking measurements as an undergraduate in China, I
hadn’t fully appreciated the value of the information and maps that
we worked so hard to produce. Thus, it was exciting to see for myself
how the University of Tokyo’s laboratory utilized geographic
information for different purposes, such as assessing the economic
impact of public works and civil engineering projects and making
policy proposals. I thought, “Wow, geographic information can be
put to truly meaningful use!” I realized that the information could
be turned into more than mere figures, that you can generate added
value by incorporating the user’s viewpoint, and this gave me a
broader outlook. Then, in 1993, I came to the Shonan Fujisawa Campus.
I felt that a many-sided, interdisciplinary perspective was essential
to future research on geographical information, and therefore SFC’s
community of cutting-edge researchers collaborating freely across
fields was just the place for me.
The Approach to Environmental Problems
My main focus is the environment. But
environmental issues pose a difficulty: in spite of their recognized
importance to society, in Japan, where development has already
peaked, it is not clear what should be done in practice. And even if
one has a solution to offer, to gain its acceptance one must be able
to show how it will contribute new value to society. I approach this
challenge from a dual viewpoint: the “bird’s-eye view” provided
by GIS and a “worm’s-eye view” that takes in environmental
values.
A “bird’s-eye” or aerial view
permits one to grasp the problem strategically, because one can take
in a wide area as a whole. But when one flies over the problem, so to
speak, one often misses its essence. For that, one must come down to
earth, investigate the problem in detail from a worm’s-eye point of
view, and find the solution that is right for the natural environment
and the people of that particular locality. Another way of expressing
“bird’s-eye” and “worm’s-eye” is “top-down” and
“bottom-up.” In the past, I think GIS tended to involve a
top-down approach. In future—and this applies to all areas,
including environmental issues—a bottom-up approach, or a
combination of the two, will become increasingly important. I adopt
these two approaches in studying methods of sustainable development,
both urban and regional. For instance, in studying Japan’s
satoyama, or traditional rural landscapes,
I provide members of a
local community with the on-line environment they need to utilize GIS
via the Internet, and I ask them to enter ecological information such
as the location of woodlands, residential land, and paddy fields on a
common map. Turning this detailed information into a database for
analysis enables us to make a quantitative assessment of the value of
that particular satoyama. The ability to analyze detailed information
obtained from local residents gives us a detailed picture of the
special features of a satoyama area, and thus we can propose
conservation guidelines at a more specific level. Similarly, in a
project to combat desertification in the Horqin Sandy Land in China’s
Inner Mongolia region, and in a project that focuses on the
Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, we maintain both a global perspective and
the perspective of the local people. We propose and implement
concrete solutions to problems with the government, researchers, and
NPOs working in unison. By pursuing this new approach, I hope to
demonstrate the potential and the effectiveness of GIS.
The Future of GIS
Traditionally, mapmaking has been, by
nature, a national government undertaking. It has also been very
expensive to produce digital maps and disseminate GIS. Consequently,
it is only very recently that this field has acquired a solid
infrastructure, developed partly through government initiatives and
partly on a commercial basis. The question we face now in the
geographic information field is how to give added value to those
foundations, or how to enhance the value of information. As I see it,
in creating added value for geographic information, the viewpoint of
the general user will become very important. Having a solid
infrastructure for geographic information in place and merging this
with the Internet has made it possible to share data across
disciplines and national borders using common platforms. The rapid
development of handy devices like mobile phones means that in today’s
environment the layperson can use GIS without having any technical
knowledge, and it is becoming increasingly popular. Thus, general
users can upload large quantities of information to Internet-based
common platforms. They can gather information that interests them and
create original, personal maps, and they can share these with the
world over the Internet. This shared information no longer represents
the viewpoints of government, businesses,
and research institutions
alone, but contains inputs from the general public. What this means
is that people from all walks of life can cooperate on the same
basis, transcending the barriers between different fields. I
anticipate that all kinds of novel ideas and partnerships will emerge
and map information will take on new added value. Currently, social
and environmental changes are bringing about far-reaching changes in
the way we behave and communicate. We have entered an era of
collaboration among many actors—government, business, citizens,
research institutions, and others—working together to give added
value to GIS and create new services. In September the
government-sponsored G-spatial EXPO will be held at Pacifico
Yokohama. Our laboratory at SFC will be exhibiting at this event. The
Expo’s catchphrase is “‘When & Where’— Information
Changes Our Lives, Now and in the Future,” and many new
technologies and services will be on display. The fourth S of GIS,
the advanced geospatial information society or “G-spatial society,”
is poised to enter a new phase.
A Brief Background of Professor
YAN, Wanglin
Professor Yan graduated from Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping, China, in 1982, and went on to complete the master’s program at the School of Engineering’s Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Tokyo in 1989. He also completed the doctorate program at the same university in 1992 and was awarded a PhD in engineering. In 1993, he became a research assistant at the Faculty of Environmental Information of Keio University. After holding a position as associate professor at Musashi Institute of Technology, he returned to Keio University’s Faculty of Environmental Information in 2001 as an associate professor, and was appointed professor in 2007. Professor Yan’s specialties are geographic information science, the urban and regional environment, and sustainability science. His major publications include GIS no genri to ōyō (Principles and applications of GIS) (Tokyo: Nikkagiren [JUSE Press], 2003), and Kokusai kankyō kyōryoku no atarashii paradaimu (The new paradigm in international environmental cooperation) (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2008).
(16 August 2010)
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