Geographic information systems in China
Encyclopedia
Geographic information systems (GIS) are becoming an increasingly important component of business, healthcare, security, government, trade, media, transportation and tourism industries and operations in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

and GIS software
GIS software
The umbrella term GIS software refers to a geographic information system application, which is software used to create, manage, analyze and display geospatial data on digital maps...

 are playing an increasing role in the way Chinese companies analyze and manage business operations
Business operations
Business operations are those ongoing recurring activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders...

.

History

When GIS first became widely available in the 1980s and 1990s, the only source of geographic data for China was paper maps. Several universities elected to undertake the huge task of digitizing
Digitizing
Digitizing or digitization is the representation of an object, image, sound, document or a signal by a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called digital representation or, more specifically, a digital image, for the object, and digital form, for the signal...

 this information so that other researchers could use it.

The two earliest projects were conducted by The Australian Consortium for the Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network (ACASIAN) at Griffith University
Griffith University
Griffith University is a public, coeducational, research university located in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current...

  and the China Data Center at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. ACASIAN specialized solely in spatial coverages while the China Data Center included GIS coverages as a supplemented to their primary mission of providing Chinese statistical and census data.

There is a great deal of high quality GIS data being produced in China by both government organizations and private companies. Today, China's National Spatial Data Infrastructure Project, uses the WGS84 standard.

In 1991, China's first color Map Editing and Publication System, MapCAD.

In 1995, China's first National Advanced GIS Software, Computer based GIS, MapGIS.

In 2005, The fourth generation of large scale distributed structure GIS, MapGIS 7.0

In 2009, China's GIS new ero -- MapGIS K9.

Geographic Names Information System

China in the early 1980s began studies for the establishment of its Geographic Names Information System
Geographic Names Information System
The Geographic Names Information System is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer...

 (地名信息系统), Geographic Names Information System Research Laboratory and the establishment of the National Atlas of geographical names database research.

Education

The China Association for Geographic Information System (http://www.cagis.org.cn/ 中国地理信息系统协会), Peking University
Peking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...

 and other institutes jointly sponsored the first "Innovation and Development, 2006 College GIS Forum", in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

. More than 300 experts and scholars attended the forum. Sessions involved China's geographic information system (GIS) research in multi-disciplinary fields, personnel training, and technology. China has now more than 500 institutions of higher learning training GIS-related professionals, of which more than 200 universities and colleges have established a GIS lab.

Industry

The GIS industry in China is worth 400 billion yuan per annum as of November 2007. More than 300,000 people were involved in either building or using these systems, according to Zondy Cyber Group president Wu Xincai, who is also the president of the China Association for Geographic Information System. Almost 20,000 enterprises are estimated to have engaged in the industry. The biggest vendor of GIS in China is Zondy Cyber Group, followed by SuperMap. Around 2000 of these have GIS as a core discipline or function. The industry's rapid expansion is attributed to the country's economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...

, which has led to an increase in capital input, from both government and businesses. Between 2001 and 2005 the Ministry of Information Industry allocated more than 20 million yuan to fund the development and application of GIS. GIS has been put to use in many spheres, including land survey, mineral exploitation, water conservancy and environmental protection
Environmental protection
Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and humans. Due to the pressures of population and our technology the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently...

. It also has applications in power generation, map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....

ping, telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

, and the management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

 of public administration
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....

 and public services
Public services
Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...

.

Notable persons

Prof. Chen Shupeng, born in 1920, is considered the founding father of Remote Sensing and GIS in China, died on 25 November 2008.http://www.digitalearth-isde.org/news/539.html Chen started the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System (LREIS) in 1987.

Institutions

Major institutions include:

Global navigation satellite system
Global Navigation Satellite System
A satellite navigation or SAT NAV system is a system of satellites that provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage. It allows small electronic receivers to determine their location to within a few metres using time signals transmitted along a line-of-sight by radio from...

  • Beidou navigation system
    Beidou navigation system
    The BeiDou Navigation System or BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is a project by China to develop an independent satellite navigation system...

     is used for GIS data gathering

See also

  • :zh:地理信息系统 - Chinese Wikipedia on GIS
  • China Historical Geographic Information System
    China Historical Geographic Information System
    The China Historical Geographic Information System is a Historical GIS project for creating a database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 222 BCE and 1911 CE. The project creates a dataset which track changes in placenames,...

  • National Historical Geographic Information System
    National Historical Geographic Information System
    The National Historical Geographic Information System is a historical GIS project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate census information for the United States between 1790 and 2000...

  • Geographic information system
    Geographic Information System
    A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...

  • Canada Geographic Information System
  • Historical geographic information system
    Historical geographic information system
    A historical geographic information system is a geographic information system that may display, store and analyze data of past geographies and track changes in time...

  • Information science
    Information science
    -Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...

  • Geoinformatics
    Geoinformatics
    Geoinformatics is the science and the technology which develops and uses information science infrastructure to address the problems of geography, geosciences and related branches of engineering.-Overview:...


External links

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