With the contribution of HCSO the BlomInfo Consortium
has prepared the GIS concept giving the technical framework of current
and future developments. The direct aim of the study is to support the
implementation of the ÜST project. Among other things, the reader
is informed about the guiding principles of the planning of the GIS concept,
about the support of standard data processing and workflow functions of
the HCSO and the use of the GIS concept.
Statement of Aims
The GIS concept is an input during the design process that is aimed at providing the framework , both for present and expected future work. The GIS concept is designed to
- Establish high level GIS vision/ framework for the future within the HCSO
- Establish High Level Mission Statement
- Establish scope of GIS vision
- Outline basic approach to geo-encoding statistical data
- Provide a conceptual platform for future development
Within the Context of the BlomInfo Consortium project, the GIS Concept is also used to help finalise/ refine the requirements analysis and the conceptual design. It is therefore an input document of the next activities:
- Requirements Definition
- HCSO Digital Map Rapid feasibility Study of Options
- HCSO Digital Map Conceptual Design
The approach is to firstly establish the design principles. These need to consider the current situation within the HCSO Department of Agricultural Statistics, their current approach to data management and their expected use of geo-information within their business environment.
The expected use of geoinformation specifically for the Agricultural statistics Department is established separately in detail through the Business Analysis and the Requirements Definition.
There area also some developments within the European Commission and its approach to the use of geo-information with statistics which should be considered at the conceptual stage.
Design Principles
The Design Principles can be summarised as
- The GIS Concept must bring clear benefits and reflect core business activities
- The GIS Concept needs global vision that can accommodate local solutions
- The GIS Concept must cater for existing 3 layer HCSO data management strategies
- The GIS Concept must have maximum flexibility in design and based on industry standards
- The GIS Concept must Support Business Processes through user friendly workflow
- The GIS concept should be independent of media, distribution channels and must provide for future external use / connectivity using Metadata.
The EU, Statistics and GIS
There are existing initiatives underway within the European Commission that are aimed at providing a GIS capability for the reporting of spatially related information, whether it is in the fields of agriculture, regional development, statistics, or another. Within the field of Statistics there are accepted reporting units based on NUTS, and other identifiers according to theme. There is a strong desire to harmonise the statistical base, where possible, and this impacts
- The definition and maintenance of the NUTS units at all levels
- The definition and collection of attribute data
- The publication of the data
With respect to GISCO, the reference database is maintained and the structures are published, data is organised by theme and layer, referenced geographically (often by NUTS) and the information is published, - standard formats are developed.
The EU/EUROSTAT limitations placed on the development of a GIS Concept are few. The key issues are
- connectivity and maintenance of consistency with the NUTS definitions
- ability to export/import other data by NUTS according to layer and theme
- acceptance of standard publishing /reporting formats
- awareness of ongoing programmes
The GIS Concept
The GIS concept allows the framework to be established for the future corporate GIS in the HCSO. This conceptual approach is designed to retain the maximum flexibility, yet offers a robust solution. The solution proposed is able to
- bring clear benefits and reflect core business activities
- supports a global vision that can accommodate local solutions
- It caters for the existing 3 layer HCSO data management strategies
- It retains flexibility in design based on industry standards
- It will upport Business Processes through user friendly workflow
- it is independent of media, distribution channels and can provide for future external use / connectivity using Metadata.
High level Mission Statement
To Enhance capability of HCSO through supporting Geographic Referencing, Processing and Presentation of statistical data.
Conceptual basis
GeoStatistical Object
The Conceptual basis relies on the introduction of a Geo-statistical object. This is the GIS domain equivalent of the statistical object, which is the basic building block of the HCSO statistical system.
Geostatistical Object = [ geocode, statistical object]
This approach allows us to connect any existing statistical data to a geographic position at the conceptual level.
Geostatistical Cover
Data Objects dealing with information such as statistical data are not normally simply geographic elements, e.g. boundaries, regions, possibly height or other data, or perhaps over an where geoststistical objects are displayed/positioned on a cover (eg map cover), then we have created a new kind of cover, which we can call a geostatistical cover which consists of the original cover plus the statistical data. This geostatistical cover can be stored, displayed, edited, published etc in the same manner as any existing cover. The implication is that standard GIS tools can be sued to manage , store, edit, retrieve, or otherwise manipulate the data.
We can introduce the idea of the Geocode and the Geostatistical object / geostatistical cover to the existing data management strategy. We have now created a spatial domain equivalence to the data domain of the elementary level, and we can call this the Elementary layer in the GIS system.
Similar thinking can be applied at both the aggregate and the presentation layer. Ie there is a spatial domain equivalence, called the Aggregate layer of the aggregate level in the existing data domain.
The movement from one level to another in the data domain is accomplished using data filters. We can introduce the idea of spatial filters within the spatial domain that will have the same effect., ie move from an elementary layer to an aggregate layer to a presentation layer.
The output of the system can be either conventional statistical data or it can be geostatistical data.
GeoBase Data
The Geobase data can consist of a simple vector map showing polygons that represent basic aggregation units. It could have a topological structure, or it could be a conventional topographic map (ie a product from another agency), it could be any kind of gereferenced object, There will be standard Geobase Data sets needed for routine statistical operations. These can be stored In the coverage library using the standard GIS tools.
The Complete GIS Concept: equivalence of spatial and data domains
Data processing and workflow
The introduction of GIS through this concept allows the standard data processing and workflow functions of the HCSO to be supported, and even extended into the spatial domain.
Elementary data
Elementary data operations are concerned with the initial reporting, quality control, classification, and then aggregation or the development of certain indicators. The existing operations and workflow with elementary data continue to be supported (figure seven), however the data can be linked to a geocode and then exported to the spatial domain for processing, This could be particularly interesting where operations such as
- Area frame sampling
- Cellular analysis
- Merging/comparison with ground truth data (eh aerial remote sensed images)
may be carried out.
Aggregate Data
The process of aggregation can take place using the traditional approach or, with the GIS concept, using spatial aggregation. The GIS supports resampling in that data aggregated by one set of criteria or polygons can be resampled into a different set of polygons, This can be useful with different administrative boundaries existing at different levels, or at the same level but for different objects.
Presentation data
Where it is desired to publish data and show the distributioin geographically, the data can be quickly exported from the data layer presentation – to the presentation coverage, Standard formats, reports, and the merging/overlay of different data sets can be supported.
The use of standardised GIS tools means that many of the functions can be automated within the GIS application, especially at the presentation level. This means that a lot of the routine use of GIS will be largely transparent to the user, and will simply appear as if small macros are being run on the data.
Modified workflow following introduction of GIS
Data Structures supported
The system will support all of the standard formats and structures that are normally encountered. Vector, raster, topological, and simple filled polygons can all be supported and also combined in the same set of coverages.It is advised to ensure that any chosen GIS is OGC compliant.
Benefits of the GIS concept
Immediate
- all statistics data geocoded
- selective geographic aggregation
- spatial analysis
- examine influence of location
- structure of holdings / production
- visual representation
- publish and distribute data
- all existing functions can show results spatially
- provides link for all activities between statistics and geography
- connectivity with other data sets (georeferenced)
- linkage with other data sets and update
- short term immediate requirements
- longer term requirements
- Potential linkages
- Farm Register
- LPIS
- cadastral database
- soils and environment data
- environmental protection
- rural development / less favoured areas
Wider benefits
- linkage with other registers ands spatial data sets
- farm register, cadastre, LPIS
- soils, environment
- tool for controlling/monitoring production
- support for rural development, less favoured areas
- greater access to information
Future
- linkage with remote sensing data ?
- Validation functions ?
