Land Information Systems for Development (LIS4D): A Neglected Area within ICT4D Research?

A Geographic Information System (GIS) was recognized as a tool for facility planning and public relations coordination early during SSC construction. Since October 1991, the SSC GIS group has been compiling regional, planning, engineering and surveyed information about surface and sub-surface features in the project area. Descriptive information (attributes) are stored in a relational database and associated with the mapped features. GIS provides a support service for many people working on the project by coordinating geographic database development between SSCL, DOE, PB/MK, Texas National Research Laboratory Commission (TNRLC), Ellis County, and the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Several construction phase applications have been identified and are in various stages of development, including GIS input to: site development planning; facility construction tracking; Land Information System (LIS); Real Property Inventory System (RPIS); building and structure naming; construction access routing; environmental permitting and annual impact reporting; chemical and hazardous material inventory system; emergency preparedness planning and E-911 system interface; land use management; and natural and cultural resource baseline characterization and monitoring.

Land as a natural resource plays a major role in the livelihood and in a growth of any country, therefore an effective land management can help communities and Governmental institutions to easily plan and manage land resources. Due to the complexity involved in land issues, land management has not been an easy task especially in developing countries. Land information in Tanzania is kept manually especially at districts land offices. This is due to the lack of proper and computerized systems such as the proposed Land Information System (LIS). The manual way of handling land use information cause unnecessary issues which causes land resources management practices difficult. Literature review, Analysis and feasibility study were done to understand the context of land use information management which is important to determine the system user requirements. The study look at how districts do land administration and how LIS can be applied in supporting land administration processes. We then propose, design and develop the LIS. The structures and functionalities of the LIS are developed using UML notation. The implemented prototype of the LIS system demonstrates the system features. This dissertation aims to improve land administration at the districts in Tanzania particularly allocation of land uses and valuation by using LIS. To conclude, application of LIS in land administration at district level have impact towards improving performance in delivering land services to the customers as well as enhancing valuation process. This is based on the fact that LIS can ensure the availability, security and accuracy of land information. The proposed LIS helps in optimizing decision making when it comes to land issues.

This book brings together works presented in the mini-courses given at the 16th Brazilian Symposium on Information Systems (SBSI), held online and organized by the Federal University of ABC, from November 03 to 06, 2020. Participate in SBSI, the national debate forum of Information Systems (IS) area, students and researchers with the presentation of scientific papers and discussion of contemporary topics related to the area. This year, 5 valid mini-course proposals were submitted and two were selected, as decided at the last meeting of the Special Information Systems Commission. Such proposals were evaluated by at least three researchers who are part of a committee composed of 38 research professors. The two mini-courses contained in this book address topics of interest to the Information Systems community and related to the 16th theme. Edition of the event, entitled “Information Systems in Digital Transformation and Innovation”. The first chapter, “Using Network Science in the Development of Complex Systems”, teaches how the context of complex systems affects the development of contemporary applications and how models in network science can be used to better understand the structure and characteristics of these systems. The second chapter, “Development of Service Solutions: SOA, Cloud and Microservices”, discusses the synergy between the concepts of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Cloud Computing (Cloud), and Microservice Architecture (MSA) in the context of the development of Information Systems software, showing how to apply these paradigms in the development of distributed applications for information systems. We hope that this book will help students, researchers, and professionals in the Information Systems area in building knowledge on specific topics related to what was presented here.

Geographers and Computer Specialists have developed geographic information systems (GIS) for land-based decision making in resource management. These systems provide a set of analysis and display functions suitable for the land data model. The paper describes some important differences between land and ocean information systems. A preliminary data model should have the ability to store the locations of features in (x, y, z) reference space. Each feature may be a point, line, contour, polygon, pixel, or volume record in a common data-base management system. In ocean information systems, the analysis and display functions have to be able to handle the dynamic, continuous nature of this three-dimensional environment. Application projects undertaken with the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and the Defence Research Establishment Atlantic illustrate the potential of current GIS.

In over 30 years of history, the field of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) has asserted itself both within Information Systems (IS) and across disciplines. However, the core assumptions on which the field was built have been questioned over time, resulting in a situation in which such assumptions—on development, the role of ICTs towards it, and the meaningfulness of the term “developing countries”—have been problematized. As a result, this paper poses the question on whether it still makes sense to do ICT4D research: starting from older ICT4D landscape papers, it fleshes out three main assumptions made at the origins of the field. It then problematizes such assumptions through more recent works, noting that the old theoretical grounds of the field do not apply anymore today. Having said that, it states three reasons for renewed ICT4D research efforts: the reframing of “development” in terms of justice, the potential of multitheoretical research approaches, and the turn to indigenous understandings of ICTs. For all these reasons, it concludes that doing ICT4D research is especially important today, in virtue of a juncture of history that problematizes its older assumptions.

Real-time geographic information systems (GIS) mapping is possible with online suppliers for application in surveying and mapping projects. Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is the format used to display geospatial points in Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for Mobile. Some tags are optional for programming with KML. Because this is a mark-up language, key words or tags are used to generate geographic features and map elements. In each element, the tags must be in a specific order within the KML. When Google Maps is generating a map within the KML the features and elements are drawn within a linear progression through the coded file. Utilization of this KML data for real-time mapping activities on land surveying and engineering projects is investigated in this research. This research will show how producing database files in the office or field and making the data available to users in real-time.

Part 1 What is a geographic information system?: geographical information systems - an overview, Duane F.Marble geographical information systems - a new frontier, Roger F.Tomlinson a classification of software components commonly used in geographical information systems, Jack Dangermond GIS versus CAD versus DBMS - what are the differences?, David J. Cowen. Part 2 Examples of practical applications: MAGI - a state-level grid cell system, State of Maryland ARC/INFO - a modern GIS, Environmental Systems Research Institute technical description of the DIME system, US Bureau of the Census prinicpal components of the census bureau's TIGER file, Joel Sobel the Tiger system - automating the geographical structure of the United States, Robert W.Marx current and potential uses of geographical information systems - the north American experience, Roger F.Tomlinson an experiment in land-use allocation with a geographical information system, C.Dana Tomlin and Kevin M.Johnston Integration Of Geological Datasets For Gold Exploration In Nova Scotia, G.F.Bonham-Carter, F.P.Agterberg and D.F.Wright modeling community vulnerability to hazardous materials using geographical information systems, Robert B.McMaster representing and applying knowledge about spatial processes in environmental management, J.R.Davis, P.Whingham, and I.W.Grant. Part 3 Operations and problems of building a database: creating large digital files from mapped data, Hugh W.Calkins manual digitizing systems, E.Alan Cameron interaction between the cartographic document and the digitizing process, Donna J.Peuquet and A.Raymond Boyle a review of digital data commonly available and some of the practical problems of entering them into a GIS, Jack Dangermond efficient digitizing through the combination of appropriate hardware and software for error detection and editing, Nicholas R.Chrisman. Part 4 GIS internals - data representation and analysis techniques: spatial data models - a conceptual framework and comprehensive review, Donna J.Peuquet historical data as an explicit component of land information systems, Ric Vrana it makes me so CROSS, David Douglas the accuracy of map overlays - a reassessment, Nicholas R.Chrisman. Part 5 Design and evaluation of GIS: establishing a geographical information system in relation to its use, a process of strategic choices, W.H.Erik DeMan a conceptual model of the manual digitizing process, Duane F.Marble, Jean P.Lauzon and Matthew McGranaghan performance eval and work-load estimation for GIS, Michael Goodchild and Brian R.Rizzo liability for information, Earl F.Epstein and Howard Roitman.

General ontology is a prominent theoretical foundation for information technology analysis, design, and development. Ontology is a branch of philosophy which studies what exists in reality. A widely used ontology in information systems, especially for conceptual modeling, is the BWW (Bunge–Wand–Weber), which is based on ideas of the philosopher and physicist Mario Bunge, as synthesized by Wand and Weber. The ontology was founded on an early subset of Bunge’s philosophy; however, many of Bunge’s ideas have evolved since then. An important question, therefore, is: do the more recent ideas expressed by Bunge call for a new ontology? In this paper, we conduct an analysis of Bunge’s earlier and more recent works to address this question. We present a new ontology based on Bunge’s later and broader works, which we refer to as Bunge’s Systemist Ontology (BSO). We then compare BSO to the constructs of BWW. The comparison reveals both considerable overlap between BSO and BWW, as well as substantial differences. From this comparison and the initial exposition of BSO, we provide suggestions for further ontology studies and identify research questions that could provide a fruitful agenda for future scholarship in conceptual modeling and other areas of information technology.

The purpose of the study is to reveal the objective transformations that have occurred in information technology. Conceptualization of these transformations is also important. System, information, network and cognitive approaches allow to reveal the main aspects of the development of information technologies - technical and technological, software and hardware, network, communication, cognitive. The article considers the evolution of information technology. The relationship of information technology with its increasing role and importance of information in the life of man and society is analyzed. Information technologies are disclosed as technologies to create, store, record and process information. Technical and technological direction of information technology development is analyzed. The connection of the information technology concept transformation and development of the information society theory, in particular, the theory of post-industrial society, information society, network society, knowledge society and the digital world is revealed. The connection of the information technology concept transformation and the emergence of the media civilization and global information space is also revealed. The article shows that the development of information technology is an important factor in the development of the information society. Technology transition (the electronic computer as a machine) to the modern stage of development of digital technologies is characterized by the formation of a single technical and technological basis for the formation of the information society. The classification of information technology according to its application scope is proposed. Information and communication technologies characterize subject-to-subject interactions, among which pedagogical and political technologies are primarily distinguished. Information space is separate area of information technology application. Information processing technologies in the information space are the basis of modern democratic discourse. An important area of information technology is the information sphere. Information sphere is the sphere of information activity, information exchange and information relations, the regulator of which is the information law. Information security technologies ensure the protection of human rights, society and the state in obtaining objective information. Cybersecurity technologies protect critical infrastructure. The technologies of reality – virtual, cognitive, and augmented – provide the ability of a person’s consciousness and thinking to process and create new information. Identifying the social significance of the technical and technological development of information technologies becomes the basis of recommendations for the implementation of a strategies for the formation of the information society in Ukraine.

Recent decades have witnessed significant research efforts by both the developed and developing countries in the development of advanced information systems. The current emphasis on information technology and management is presenting a challenge to the surveying and mapping profession. This paper evaluates the surveying curriculum at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) in the light of the increasing use of Geographical and Land Information Systems (GIS/LIS) and the need for surveying education to adapt to the consequent change in user requirement. The areas considered to be in need of improvement are highlighted and a model curriculum is suggested. The author was a member of the staff at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka from 1985 to February 1991.

This paper explores Ghana’s two-decade journey in developing a digital land information system (LIS), exemplified by Ghana Enterprise Land Information System (GELIS) and Enterprise Land Information System (ELIS). Despite advancements by Ghana’s Lands Commission, manual processes persist and coexist with digital ones. Our study uses a qualitative approach to assess the effectiveness of the LIS implemented in Accra. This study found that Accra’s LIS is highly aligned with clear institutional mandates, roles, and responsibilities, as well as the availability of laws and policies to support analogue-to-digital conversion. Furthermore, a robust approach to protecting the data, operating system, and software underpins the system. Subsequently, the integration of a digital LIS has enhanced service delivery and accountability. Nonetheless, Accra’s LIS is still at the beginning of a comprehensive learning and development curve. Sustaining the LIS requires furtherance in the implementation plan, funding, law implementation, ICT strategy, divisional integration, work processes, data quality, and communication strategy. These findings will inform the next steps of improvement for Accra’s LIS and guide its nationwide scaling, contributing to discussions on technology acceptance dynamics in predominantly analogue environments.

The purpose of the study is to adapt the antipattern method to improve the effectiveness of teaching students in the fields of “Applied Informatics”, “Information Systems and Technologies”, “Software Engineering” to the principles and techniques of relational database design within the framework of relevant disciplines and practices. Training in database design is an important component of the formation of a specialist software developer. The totality of decisions taken in the design process should be based on generally accepted rules, principles and recommendations, as well as on the existing experience in creating and operating information systems, which is difficult to reproduce in the conditions of the university audience.Materials and methods. An approach focused on the concept of antipatterns – unsuccessful common design solutions will allow increasing the effectiveness of students’ training in database design. The antipattern concept has become widespread following the wide spread use of the concept of a pattern, that is, a common standard solution inscribed in the context of the problem being solved. Both the concept of a pattern and the concept of an antipattern were initially focused on object-oriented software, but later gained recognition in all areas of information technology. The paper proposes a scheme for describing the antipattern, includ ing the name, a brief description, possible causes of occurrence, a list of disadvantages of application in the construction of relational databases, a conceptual model in the form of an ER-diagram (entity-relationship diagram), an example of the appropriate database structure, ways to avoid antipatterns, as well as possible exceptions when using just such a design decision when creating a database may be justified.Research results. Based on educational, scientific and technical literature and periodicals, as well as on the basis of an analysis of the existing practice of designing information systems, a catalog of common antipatterns for designing relational databases has been compiled and described. Examples of antipatterns: “Jumble of names”, “Duplicate tables”, “False abstraction”, “Non-atomic attributes”, “Duplicate columns”, “Changing data in due course (temporaryfields)”, “Parallel connections”, ““Divine” table”, “Speculative metadata modification”, etc. At the same time, some of the patterns made it possible to illustrate the general principles of relational database design, for example, such as “No sophisticated programming is capable of correcting fatal architectural flaws”. It is shown that the existing unsuccessful solutions are often due to certain prerequisites, for example, the need to perform a hotfix that is, a “temporary” solution, or a premature attempt to improve system performance, or the desire to get some report with one request, avoiding unnecessary connections, etc. In addition to the technical aspects, the relevance of a correct and uniform naming system is shown, the absence of which makes it difficult to maintain and develop the system and leads to unnecessary costs. The proposed approach was tested when teaching students the disciplines “Databases”, “Database design”, “Architecture of information systems”. The students who completed the training improved their understanding of the principles and practices of database structure design. Conclusion. The use of the proposed catalog of antipatterns in the educational process of the university makes it possible to accelerate the training of young specialists in the techniques of designing the structure of relational databases, avoid common mistakes when creating information systems, and improve the overall design culture.

For the performance of geographic information systems, it has been widely recognized that efficient data structures and algorithms supporting proximity based access to spatial data are a crucial ingredient. Because of that, in the last years, a lot of data structures for storage of multidimensional non-point objects have been proposed in the literature (for an overview see our tutorial introduction in this volume). Almost all of these approaches are made to support queries based on spatial neighborhood of objects, so-called proximity queries. Common examples of such proximity queries are range queries, returning all objects intersecting a given (rectangular) region, or nearest neighbor queries, determining the object nearest to a given point. But a geographic or cartographic information system should also support queries that do not exclusively refer to the spatial neighborhood of objects. For example, different versions of spatial data must be organized such that proximity queries to any version of the data can be answered efficiently. Or, given a set of object classes, a spatial query that involves an arbitrary combination of these classes should also be supported. Because of the growing size of data sets to be handled in geographic information systems, an appropriate data organisation to support such and several other application-specific queries becomes more and more important. In this paper, we will present two approaches for access structures supporting the two types of queries mentioned above. Handling of versioned, spatial data is the topic of Section 2, while Section 3 discusses queries on some classes selected from the set of object classes stored in a geographic information system.

Today, Information Systems research and in particular in the area of ICT4D in developing nations is dominated by positivism and interpretivism paradigms. Information systems contributions are influenced by historical, cultural, and political contexts in which it is done. Researchers in this area question the appropriateness of positivism and interpretivism philosophical foundations to conduct ICT4D research. This paper explores the use of pragmatism as an alternative research paradigm to that can be employed to understand the state of the ICT4D research. Research drawing explicitly on pragmatism is still relatively rare. The paper reviews the pragmatism in terms of its ontology, epistemology, axiology and methodology and its value in the ICT4D research discipline. As a new paradigm, pragmatism disrupts the assumptions of older approaches based on the philosophy of knowledge, while providing promising new directions for conducting and understanding the nature of research in the area of ICT4D in developing countries. It is anticipated the readers of the article to make a more informed choice for themselves on whether or not to pursue the path ofpragmatism their own research. KeywordAxiology, epistemology, ICT4D, methodology, ontology, pragmatism, research paradigms

This article aims to understand the behavior of project managers in a context of skidding when monitoring and controlling projects in the area of information systems and technologies and identify which performance dimensions are most valued in this context. The results obtained in this research indicate that the most experienced project managers prioritize Cost and Time, while in internal projects the project managers act by norm on the Scope.