Product development for presentation of temporal GIS results for non GIS specialists : A case study application to present terrorist activities and government humanitarian efforts, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Geographic Information Systems incorporate spatial information as a layered data set to facilitate the generation of information for rational resource management. Incorporation of temporal data and analysis of time series data in a geographic information system and therefore requires a specialized GIS operators to produce outputs. GIS is useful to managers, decision makers and for the general public to visualize and capture spatial information. This requires GIS products to be developed for the use of non GIS personnel and to function as independent products. This paper presents the development of such a product through a case study of a public information dataset in a GIS and then to presenting the same in a sequence. The work systematically approached the database creation using ArcGIS software. GIS software generated outputs were exported to Macromedia Flash trial version and animation layout and presentation sequence etc., were designed. Product was tested at different user tiers to ensure suitability for management objectives. Case study incorporated representation of the spatial distribution of terrorist activities and the government humanitarian efforts. The web presentation identified and incorporated specific temporal milestone of events and provided the user to evaluate the sequence for management directives. The present application enables a user to incorporate the methodologies and issues for many similar applications of web presentation of GIS data products.