A Route to Societal GIS ? - Geospatial Web Services

A Route to Societal GIS ? - Geospatial Web Services

Dr. Winnie S.M. Tang
Chief Executive Officer
ESRI China (Hong Kong) Limited
Level 10, Cyberport 2
100 Cyberport Road, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 27306883, Fax: (852) 27303772
E-mail: wtang@esrichina-hk.com

Mr. Jan Robert Selwood
Project Manager
ESRI China (Hong Kong) Limited
Level 10, Cyberport 2
100 Cyberport Road, Hong Kong
Tel./Fax: 81 5617 2 8887
E-mail: jrselwood@attglobal.net

Information and Society
Lying at the heart of any society is communication – the transfer or ‘flow’ of information. Through the flow of information understanding between different groups is gained, commonalities discovered and shared, coordinated action towards common goals defined. Equal access to information dispels rumour, suspicion and fear.

Society often goes unnoticed as individuals circulate within their own groups defined as they are by family, profession, age, nationality, race, religion or interest. It is more often that not, major events – festive, arduous, traumatic –that highlight both a basic human need for society and the strength of the one that surrounds us. The response, for example, to 9/11 or humanitarian relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters such as landslides, earthquakes, tornados, draught and famine. The response to the Olympics or football’s World Cup. The collective response to outbreaks of pandemic disease – Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Such events 'bring people together' – they create a shared experience that provides contact between normally separate groups and aids the flow of ideas and information between them. In the case of emergency or humanitarian relief operations, the ability of society to effectively respond to a particular situation, is directly dependent on the transfer of information through it. It is only through the pooling and sharing of resources can communities effectively respond to what are often unexpected and seemingly insurmountable challenges.

This applies equally at the local neighbourhood level as it does at the global.

Societal GIS
A Societal GIS is defined as an "infrastructure that supports Society by facilitating the flow of spatial information and analytical technology between participants". Critically such systems must ensure the flow of information to all sectors of society and that the technology involved is available to, and can be easily integrated within, society.

Characteristics of such systems include:

Openness – both in terms of access (encouraging all parts of society to participate) and in terms of technology (facilitating open exchange of data and application resources).
Interoperability – enabling applications and software held and developed separately to be integrated and work collectively.
Robustness and availability – Societal GIS must be able to operate continuously on an ongoing, permanent basis (these are not emergency response systems that are switched on at the time of an event – they foster information flow continuously), they also need to be built to withstand and indeed operate through unspecified disaster.
Capacity for Multi-Participation – information and resources do not flow through Societal GIS in one direction (for example a local Government distributing information to its citizens), they flow in multiple directions in recognition of their inclusive nature.
Capacity to Integration – information flowing through such systems is diverse and varied. The system must facilitate its integration and presentation as a complete whole.
Capacity for organic evolution – catering for users and requirements that are never clearly specified or defined, such systems need to be capable of evolving as society evolves and to be able of rapid expansion to meet new challenges.

Figure 1: The components of Societal GIS
These are high aims. Open, flexible, robust, inclusive, evolving – are such systems really practicable?

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