Write a report (6-7 pages, double space) on some examples of Internet Applications. You can choose only ONE of the following application areas:

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1 UPR 6905 Internet GIS Homework 1 Yong Hong Guo September 9, 2008 Write a report (6-7 pages, double space) on some examples of Internet Applications. You can choose only ONE of the following application areas: 1. Transportation, travel information; 2. Urban planning, zoning, land use, tax assessment; 3. Environmental applications; 4. Business applications, including real estate, business location analysis; 5. Mobile (wireless) applications; 6. Tracking applications; 7. Public participation applications; 8. Online decision-support systems; 9. Online data services; 10. Natural resources management applications. In your report, you should select at least 5 examples (using different Internet GIS software programs) in your chosen application area (list detailed URL), and report on the following: 1. What is the purpose of the application? 2. Who is the targeted audience? 3. What is good about the application? 4. What is bad about the application that needs improvement? 5. How do you suggest make the improvement? 6. What Internet GIS software is used? In your opinion, which Internet GIS software is the best fit for these applications? Writing style: Please refer to Chapter 12, particularly 12.2 and 12.3, and Chapter 13. You need to create your own Taxonomy.

2 Internet GIS and Urban Planning Application Yong Hong Guo Internet GIS has been widely applied in urban planning in the United States. Internet GIS in urban planning is mostly used in the public sector such as government agencies. This can be seen through surfing the city and county government websites across the country. This report briefly introduces 5 examples of using Internet GIS in urban planning. The examples include land use, zoning, tax assessment, and other related fields. Example 1: Monroe County, Indiana, Web-GIS Application In Indiana, Monroe County s Planning Department adopted a web-based GIS application in It is an interactive Internet GIS parcel search engine with on-line mapping function together with other presentation features such as infrastructure (road, hospital and library, etc.), land (land use, zoning, etc.), and reference information (political boundary). The purpose of the application allows the county residents to access the county parcel database through a user friendly interface enabling supplemental data to be overlaid with the parcel information. Additionally, the application allows the county staff members to utilize land use, parcel, and demographic information through one-shot efforts so as to avoid the cumbersome of inter-departmental bureaucracy. The Monroe County web GIS is a whole-sale Internet GIS application package which has advantages over single-purpose applications. It not only presents the nonspatial parcel data through provided search engines but also offers spatial information for those searched parcels. Similar to other web-based parcel engines, the Monroe County web-gis application offers searching functions based on parcel number, owner name, 1

3 owner address, and property address categories. In particular, the application provides a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet for downloading queried results in addition to mapping those parcels. Additionally, when a parcel is searched, relevant information of a resulting parcel such as tax bill, photo, overlay, and sales is also shown. Moreover, the application has a draw function which allows the user to draw points, polylines, polygons, or circles on the map. Users can also mark text annotations on their maps. Uniquely, the application has an attribute query function. Finally, the application has a Print Map function that allows users to print maps based on two layout options. It includes a map title, legend, and scale elements on their maps which is quite similar to ESRI ArcGIS desktop software map output function. The software of the application is a combination of ArcIMS, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, and Flash. It also utilizes centralized ArcSDE (see The software performs superbly to connect spatial and non-spatial GIS data. The URL of Monroe County s GIS service is The URL of Monroe County web-gis viewer is Figure 1 presents the Monroe County web-gis viewer interface. 2

4 Figure 1 Example 2: Town of Fishers, Indiana, GIS and Town Map Town of Fishers, Indiana, is an example using a different software package for web-gis application in the urban planning field. Different from Monroe County, Indiana, which used ArcIMS to handle non-spatial and spatial GIS data, the Town of Fishers utilized Autodesk MapGuide. The Town of Fishers web-gis application is called Town of Fishers GIS. It allows local citizens to access spatial information such as zoning, flood plains, schools, municipal facilities, capital improvement projects, political boundaries, road networks, and so on over the Internet. In addition to normal GIS practice of overlaying maps, the Town of Fishers web-gis application allows users to redline their maps where users can insert a point, line, polyline, rectangle, polygon, or a circle. The application allows 3

5 inserting a text on the map as well. When finishing redlining, the user can save the redlined mwf file or retrieve saved mwf file onto the map. The Town of Fishers web-gis application utilizes the town s general map, zoning map, and flood plain map. The application is equipped with parcel search engines based on parcel number, address, and subdivision. However, the application does not have a buffering function of which Autodesk MapGuide is capable. The map print function is also very basic compared to the one in Monroe County, Indiana. In addition, the Town of Fishers did not put aerial photographic images on this web-gis application in which Autodesk MapGuide is good at handling. Autodesk MapGuide performs exceptionally well in handling both vector and raster layers in Town of Fishers example. It is also capable of redlining a map. The redlined feature can be saved and retrieved onto the map which provides an edge over other web-based GIS softwares. The disadvantage of the software is that it requires the user to install the MapGuide viewer and run the ActiveX Control before using the application. The URL of the Town of Fishers GIS service is The URL of the web-based GIS application is Figure 2 presents the Town of Fishers GIS application interface. 4

6 Figure 2 Example 3: Lee County, Florida, Property Appraiser's Aerial Photography Web Site The Lee County, Florida, Property Appraiser's Office (URL: used ERDAS ER Mapper software to provide the general public with the property aerial photographic imagery. The aerial photography web service is called Lee Property Appraiser Tax Map Application (URL: The application allows the user to view his or her property through the property search engine. To use this application, the user will first need to find a property through the On-Line Property Information Inquiry search engine (URL: When a property is found, the user will need to click the Viewer link which directs to the Lee Property Appraiser Tax Map Application that uses the ER Mapper software. This is actually a two-step process. Together with the relevant parcel information through the parcel search engine, the 5

7 website also provides other information related to the property including photos of building structures. The advantage of Lee County s web-gis application is that the ER Mapper software does an excellent job to present the aerial photographic imagery based on a number of viewer functions. These viewer functions include Simple Viewer, Linked Viewer, Overlay Viewer, Coordinate Viewer, Scale Viewer, and Measurement Viewer. For example, for the Linked Viewer function, the application allows users to compare two images side by side or half and half based on two different images acquired on different time periods. For the Measurement Viewer, the application allows the user to measure the distance between two points. Besides, the software runs very fast for aerial photographic data processing. This helps the user to reduce time spending in browsing this information for his or her property. The disadvantage of the application is its two-step process. The user should go to the search engine to find a parcel first and then link to the aerial photography for that parcel. In addition, the application only provides the raster imagery service while not offering the services for the vector data. As a result, vector data cannot be overlaid onto the aerial photographic images. Moreover, the application requires the user to install a plug-in to view the aerial photographic images. This could prohibit some residents from accessing the imagery database because of the complexity of the plug-in installation as well as the unavailability of the plug-ins for Apple Mac machines. Figure 3 presents the Lee Property Appraiser Tax Map Application interface. 6

8 Figure 3 Example 4: City of Menlo Park, California, Zoning Map & General Plan Land Use Diagram The City of Menlo Park, California, Zoning Map & General Plan Land Use Diagram (URL: used a Static Map Publishing technique to present city s geographic information over the Internet. Land use and zoning maps are created in PDF format which are linked from the Community Development Department s website. To use its service, the user will just click on the link of the map based on the city s sub-areas and obtain the relevant map of the area. It is a basic on-line GIS map service with no interactive web-gis functions. The advantage of this application is its low cost. It is also easy to maintain. The city staff can handle the information update through simple Internet operations. The disadvantage of the application is its limited information provision. The user is unable to get overlaid information because each overlay has a separate map which is dependent 7

9 upon the service provider to provide. This precludes the user from obtaining needed information based on his or her customized requests. As a result, interactive Internet GIS applications shall be used and relevant software such as ESRI s ArcIMS can be utilized for this purpose. Figure 4 presents the interface for the City of Menlo Park, California, Zoning Map & General Plan Land Use Diagram. Figure 4 Example 5: San Jose, California, Fiscal Impact Modeling Tool The City of San Jose, California, utilized UrbanXplorer, an interactive Flash GIS software, to find potential redevelopment sites based on city s fiscal, zoning, and land use arrangements. The application is called San Jose Fiscal Impact Modeling Tool (URL: The user of the application is the San Jose Redevelopment Agency (URL: The application was developed by Urban Explorer, a San Francisco based company. 8

10 The San Jose Fiscal Impact Modeling Tool allows the user to navigate through the city s 4 sub-areas to search for the sites suitable for redevelopment. The user can query needed information based on APN (Assessor's Parcel Map) or land use categories. The user can query the information according to IL (improvement-value-to-land-value) ratio, lot acres, stories, building square footage, and FAR (floor area ratio) for each land use type. When a query is done, a list of searched results will show up in the Select From the List frame where users can select one result that best suits their needs. Then the relevant information of the site such as zoning, land use, year built, lot acres, stories, building square footage, FAR, IL ratio, assessed value, and so on will be shown in the frame right below the Select From the List frame after the user clicks the Site Details tab. The tenants and taxing information will also be presented by clicking the Commercial Tenants tab and the Site Taxes tab. The mapping information for each site will be presented by two mapping frames with one zoomed in to the site extent and the other showing the full extent. When finishing searching the information, the user can export the data to Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. The advantage of the application is its interactive web-gis function which presents both the spatial and non-spatial information simultaneously. The macromedia flash handles parcel and mapping data excellently by putting them together in one interface. The flash software has the potential to add photos, sound and video clips to the interface so as to provide more useful information to the user. Also, pop-up windows can be developed to show detailed text and graphic information. For that reason, this interactive flash GIS interface has the potential to become a multi-media platform for a web-gis application. 9

11 The application, however, requires the user to install the macromedia flash plugin when using it. Unlike Autodesk MapGuide, the San Jose Fiscal Impact Modeling Tool is read only which does not let the user participate in online GIS manipulation. In addition, from the spatial perspective, the UrbanXplorer software does not provide the overlay function which allows the user to view different spatial overlays at the same time. Figure 5 presents the San Jose Fiscal Impact Modeling Tool interface. Figure 5 10