Geographic Information System(GIS) Education Based on Ecological Niche Theory CHEN Qiuji School of Geomatics, Xian University of Science and Technology, Xi an, Shaanxi, P. R. China, 710054 Abstract:In recent years, GIS applications have been expanding and become one of the important tools for the rapid development of national economy, which demand more research personnel and technician of GIS. However, the corresponding discipline construction of GIS has lagged far behind. The theory of ecological niche was adopted in this paper to analyze the development of GIS discipline. There are cooperation and competition, dynamic balance in the field of GIS discipline development. Based on it, some strategies for GIS education development were provided for the sustainable development of GIS disciplines. The research result can also give an inspiration for other discipline development. Keywords: GIS, discipline, ecological niche 1 Introduction A geographic information system (GIS) is an information system that is designed to work with data referenced by spatial or geographic coordinates. In other words, a GIS is both a database system with specific capabilities for spatially-referenced data, as well a set of operations for working with the data. In a sense, a GIS may be thought of as a higher-order map [1]. In recent years, GIS applications have been expanding and becoming the one of the important tools for promoting the development of national economy. With the growth of geographic information systems application, the demand for professionals & technician of GIS is increasing. GIS education in China started in the late 80 s of 20th century, At present, China has more than 140 colleges and universities setting up GIS discipline, every year thousands of undergraduate and graduate student leave from schools, which provides a good human resources for our GIS technology and industry. At the same time, a large number of related master's and doctoral discipline is under construction currently and development, the education of GIS is in unprecedented thriving situation. However, the correspond subject construction has lagged far behind, the causes are: one is that subject positioning is not clear, and the other is that infrastructure construction for disciplines cannot keep up with the requirement, and three is that technical standards for discipline development lag and so on. Faced with this situation, GIS-disciplinary construction and personnel training is been confronted with enormous opportunities and challenges, the problems such as positioning and construction for disciplines, professional settings and the curriculum system, and the objectives and mode of training,and so on, have been on the agenda [2]. As institutions of higher education, how to maintain their professional edge with its own characteristics, and the students can be able to find an ideal job. The current GIS educators are required to consider urgently the question, which are subjects of long-term development strategy. The colleges and universities shall adjust to the current great environment to avoid blind competition through scientific and rational positioning. Just like production doing, it is not necessarily to cultivate first-rate scientists by all universities, the educators know how to do good market position, and then do a good job. How to make decisions and choices requires a certain degree of scientific theory as a guide. The theory of ecological niche is used in this paper to analyze the development of GIS discipline. Just as the ecosystem, there are cooperation and competition, dynamic balance and development, which provide a philosophy of survival for development of discipline. Therefore, we can make use of theoretical ecology to promote the sustainable development of GIS disciplines. 2 The theory of ecological niche Ecological niche have been widely used in the field of ecology terminology and is the research hot spots at home and abroad. Since the beginning of the 90's in 20th century, the concept of ecological niche has 535
been unprecedented ecological concerns in the academic world, which are the second development of the climax for theoretical research of ecology. Because of species diversity, species competition and community structure and function, and species succession and evolution are based on niche theory, it has gradually become an important theoretical foundation of ecology, which has attracted the extensive attention of domestic and outside scholars, and is constantly applied to the field of various disciplines [3-6]. The niche theory suggests that the niche including the "state" and "potential" two-fold. "State" refers to organisms of the state unit (including energy, biomass, individual quantity, share resources, adaptability, intelligence level, the level of economic development, science and technology development level, etc.), and are the development result of organisms over the past growth, as well as the result of accumulation interaction with the environment. "Potential" refers to the biological influence or power of unit of on the environment, such as energy and material exchange rate, biological growth, economic growth, the ability to occupy the new habitat and so on. Niche is used to describe the relative position and role of organisms unit in a specific ecological system during interaction with environment, is a comprehensive index. The biological unit usually takes with "state" and "potential" aspects. Niche Theory has an important role for guiding significance in the fields, such as the mechanism of competition, the adaptability of eco-unit (including humans) to the environment, ecosystems, evolution, diversity and stability, human ecology, urban ecology research, etc. Thus, in recent years, with the continuous expansion of niche concept, niche theory has been widely used in economics, sociology, urban planning school disciplines, and its theoretical implications are constantly expanding. In the society - economy - natural complex ecosystem, niche is not only applicable to natural biological subsystem, but also applies to the functional and structural units of social economic subsystem. With the research of niche continued to deepen, and ecological theory will be applied to more fields of various disciplines [3-7]. In recent years, niche theory gradually introduced into the institutions of higher education in technological innovation and academic development. Sun Yun-zhi et al (2008) used niche-based theory to study the development of higher vocational college of traffic category. Wu Xiao-feng (2008) set up the concept of niche theory for quality of higher education, the niche theory was used as tool to analyze the advantages of its own and its competitors. The degree of difference between institutions of higher education, that is, the quality of competition, is analyzed by calculating the niche overlap index to reflect competition to find a unique education mode for sustainable development. Chen Yuan (2008) based on the situation of niche theory, put forward scientific and technological innovation evaluation system for colleges and universities, and designed the model of scientific and technological innovation ability evaluation for colleges and universities. Then 10 colleges and universities were selected as an example to verify the validity of the model for colleges and universities in scientific and technological innovation ability. 3 The construction strategy for GIS discipline based on ecological niche theory 3.1The status quo of China's GIS discipline In the mid and late of 80s in 20th century, with the GIS software of foreign country entering Chinese universities and research institutes, some department of geography in university of (such as Beijing University, Nanjing University, Beijing Normal University, etc.) began to train graduate students in master's degree in GIS discipline. Then proceed to establish GIS discipline for undergraduate teaching based on the original cartography and remote sensing professionals. Although their title is different, but after ten years of development, each formed certain professional characteristics, taking the lead in cultivating a group of GIS professionals, and have laid a good foundation for the subsequent theoretical research, technological development and industrialization of the GIS. In order to meet the requirement of social and economic development, at the meeting of National Academic Degrees Committee in 1997, the discipline of "Map and Geographic Information System" (Science) was set up in the original directory of geography at the base of mapping of science and technology disciplines directory level. At the same time, the discipline of "Cartography and Geographic Information engineering" (Engineering) 536
was established based on the discipline of Geomatics, and began to carry out these two disciplines doctorate or master's degrees postgraduate training. This is also the beginning of China's first master's degree or doctorate degree education of GIS. However, only the high-level GIS training have been far not meeting the needs of community. Therefore, in July 1998, the Ministry of Education issued a new undergraduate professional directory, despite the original professional of 504 reductions and adjusted to 249, the professional of Geographic Information System" is kept in both science and engineering category. At present, there are more than 140 colleges and universities having the discipline of GIS according to the statistics of Li Deren. In addition, there are dozens of institutions of higher education and scientific research institutes having right of granting the degree of doctor or master. After ten years of development, our country has made enormous achievements in GIS education and training, has taken shape of training system of GIS from undergraduate to post-graduate (master's and PhD ) [2]. 3.2 Discipline niche establisionment It is necessary to give definition of ecological niche of discipline for the use of ecological niche theory to study the construction of GIS discipline problem. Song qian(2008) carried out a definition for discipline niche modeled on the definition of biological niche. The discipline niche was a collection of conditions on which a professional or professional group to maintain the survival and development, is a relationship of discipline with the environment and resources, and it is a balance state after interactive action between professional and the environment. Discipline niche is a signal for competitive strength of higher education. The differences between discipline niche and the biological niche are [3] : Biological niche is the passive result of natural selection, relatively speaking, is relatively stable; and discipline niche in a greater extent is determined by human choice. The discipline niche continuously changed with the environment changing. The process reflected the change of resources occupied by professional, that is, the niche changed, when this change achieved to a greater degree in a certain period of time, discipline niche will transition. Relationships between discipline niches mainly have [3] : Symbiotic relationship: because the environment is far from reaching saturation, professional is relatively small and there are relatively rich resources for development, population density is low, so professional competition between professionals has not yet formed. Competition: With the quantity and density of professionals continues to increase, some professions that required the same scarce resources would compete for limited resources in order to survival. When competition tends to fierce, it will lead to professional niche separation. Synergy: disciplines take the complementarity to evolution, different professional rationally plan the resources as much as possible to use a variety of resources effectively under the premise of avoid competition. When professionals achieve synergy, the professional efficiency continues to improve, and more knowledge can be produced. In the above several discipline ecological relations, the relationship of competition is the most common. In order to use the same scarce resources, institutions of different professions or professional have to use different method to obtain it, such as the two professional institutions or two prefessionals with the similar targeting will compete for the talent market, when one professional or institution will affect the other disciplines or professional development. The synergies are the senior level of professional development. General speaking, the overlap of niche will lead to the competition between universities. It is believe that the GIS professional competition among colleges and universities can be summed up as the four categories of ecological resources, that is, student s resources, teacher resources, graduates market and R & D competition. Characterization of the factor as follows [4] : (1)Students ecological factors. Students are important resources of professional, the quantity and quality of students directly affects the quality and efficiency of schools. College Expansion resulting in competition for limited high-quality students (2) Ecological factors of teacher. Colleges in order to attract high-quality students, the key depends on the quality of teaching, while teachers also affects the ability of research and innovation. Therefore, teachers are the core of school resources and are keys to competitiveness. Teachers of high level in general school frequently transferred to brand-name schools, which lead to the loss of good teachers; 537
there are also competition for good quality teachers between famous universities, so there are ecological factors overlap in teacher resources. (3) Graduates of ecological factors. The product of school is its graduates for the society. The ability of social services of graduates can reflect the level which the quality of teaching in schools, can also affect the social reputation of colleges and universities, thus affecting their competitiveness. Because colleges and universities have the trend of following others, professional settings lack of characteristics, and the ability of graduates is close, resulting in difficult situation of the employment of college graduates. (4) Ecological factors of research. colleges and universities as an important base for national R&D, scientific research capacity of colleges and universities not only reflects the level of thier contribution to country, but also continuously impart innovation capability to the students during the training process. The research factors are the potential competitiveness of colleges and universities. If colleges and universities for short-term interests of blind expansion, reduce R & D inputs, it will decrease their compete capacity of Research ecological factors. 3.3 Development strategy based on niche theory (1) Development strategies of staggered niche position According to niche theory, no two species niches are the same, even with the same habits or lifestyle of species, their niche will be respective separated in the natural space. If they appear in the same place, they must be using different food to survive. If they need the same type of food, the time to find food y must be staggered, and this is the staggered niche [5]. For GIS discipline, the development strategies of staggered niche position is defined as that to build their own core competencies and further enhance the level of employment of graduates, the educators should give full play to local economic development advantage and highlight the advantages of their own disciplines and professional characteristics. They can realize niche separation, based on characteristics of zone, industry and its own with the combination of ecological factors different from other types of institutions in order to achieve products (graduates) of the differences in ecological factors. GIS discipline of mining institutions should highlight the application of GIS in the field of the mining industry based on industry characteristics, the appropriate lesson about the industry foundation shall be increased in addition to the core of GIS courses, such as mining introduction, geological introduction, environmental engineering, and so on. For the GIS of agronomy institutions, the precision agriculture-related curriculum should be highlighted to help students deal with problems encountered in agricultural development based on GIS. Normal institutions can emphasize the GIS application in the field of environment. Objectives in the training of personnel should also be different, institutions with solid scientific research foundation should strengthen the basic theory education in the cultivation of students, to help students grasp the dynamic development of GIS, and to bring up the new force for the development of academic disciplines. The general institutions should focus on general skills, and highlight the ability to solve practical problems. (2) Innovation Strategy On the condition of relative saturation in the job market circumstances, the institution can be find new space for development through innovative strategies, thereby gaining first-advantage. Because of the niche are multidimensional, so there are still a lot of potential resources or space for development that is potential niche for GIS professional [5]. Therefore, the School of GIS professionals must strengthen scientific research, and promote teaching through scientific innovation to occupy more ecological space. School should constantly expand the fields of application on basis of its own foundation. For example, GIS professional of Mining category shall keep up with the mining industry in order to realize the expansion and development of space. Current security problem is more serious in the mining industry, how to play a in the role of security, GIS teachers should be actively explored in the fields of early warning and monitoring for safety, then form a new core competitiveness, at the same time, the research results can impart to students increasing student s competitiveness and employability. Comprehensive universities shall combine GIS with the current rapid development of information technology, communications, networking and other new technologies in research and training, so that GIS really become a necessity tool of life. Through innovation, expansion of the new development space, not only 538
niche overlap can decrease, but also highlighted the characteristics. (3) Cooperative management and co-evolution strategy Different from staggered strategy and innovation strategy, cooperative management and co-evolutionary strategy emphasizes the idea of a cooperative co-existence to avoid niche competition. Under the guidance of this philosophy, the real ecological niche can expand through cooperation and mutually benefit, meanwhile, the division of professional collaboration can be strengthened. The cooperation includes inter-school co-operation as well as cooperation between different professions. Through cooperation can save costs and complement each other to achieve win-win goal [5]. Taking GIS professional of mining institutions as an example, in the mining category of institutions, the general predominance professionals are mining professional, they have developed for a long history and have a better development platform, with more resources. GIS professionals can develop combined with mining professional, taking full advantage of the mining professional scientific research platform, and expand the width of niche. In scientific research process, the sense of team should be strengthen, actively promoting technological innovation team construction based on key disciplines and laboratory in order to form the backbone of scientific and teaching of colleges and universities. It is necessary to form a number of international competitive team of scientific and technological innovation to occupy the forefront of international science and technology positions based on the academic leaders, bringing together talented people. 4 Conclusion Since the eighties of the last century, the scale of personnel training in GIS field has been begun to take a shape, and can meet the needs of GIS industrious development. However, with the development society, professional training for GIS also exposes some problems. The educators should work hard to strengthen the discipline construction and scientific personnel training based on the actual educational resources, combined with its symbiotic and competitive positioning, at the same time pay attention to strengthen their horizontal linkages, continue to exploit some new space for development and to adapt to the era of knowledge economy. This work is supported by Research foundation for Youth of Xi an University of science and technology (N0. 200804). References [1] Chen Shupeng, He Jianbang. Basic research for Geographical information systems - earth information science, earth information, 1997, (3):11-20. (in Chinese) [2] SHI Pei-jun, Li Jing, PAN Yao-zhong, etc., the Chinese GIS disciplines construction and personnel training, the first national "geographical information system" Professional Education Seminar, Beijing, 2003. (in Chinese) [3] Song Qian, Zhang Yan, Zhou Lei, professional building of e-commerce based on niche-based theory, China Management Informationization, 2008,11 (15) :110-113. (in Chinese) [4] zhang Xin-dong, YANG Ting, based on niche theory to build the core competitiveness of colleges and universities, higher education research, 2008, (1):57-60. (in Chinese) [5] Sun Ho Yuk-chi Wang, research of traffic category Vocational Colleges competitive strategy based on niche theory of, Journal of Jinan Vocational College, 2008,6(71):50-53. (in Chinese) [6] WU Xiao-feng, the quality of higher education Niche Theory Analysis, Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management Journal (Social Science Edition), 2008,27 (1) :168-169. (in Chinese) [7] Chen Yuan, scientific and technological innovation capacity assessment of colleges and universities based on niche theory [J], Guangdong Science and Technology, 2008,(185):16-18. (in Chinese) 539