This paper describes a simple GIS application developed for local government daily office work. This system is named “Stationery GIS”, because the aim of this development was for simple use as stationery. This system was developed based on a spatio-temporal information system named STIMS which can manage duration of geographic entities on time axis. Then, even when a statistical data disagrees with local government partition (for example “ward”), this system can display the statistical information on the old map which agrees with the statistical data.

Relationship between Sasa kurilensis distributions and climate was modelled and clarified at ca. 1-km² spatial resolutions in eastern Honshu, Japan. Occurrence probability was then predicted under both current climate and a future climate change scenario to assess the impact of climate change. A classification tree model was used to predict the potential habitat. Five climatic factors (warmth index: WI, minimum temperature of the coldest month: TMC, summer precipitation: PRS, maximum snow water equivalent: MSW, winter rainfall: WR) were used as predictor variables, and the species distribution data obtained from Phytosociological Relevé Data Base (PRDB) was used as a response variable. Deviance-Weighted Scores (DWS) revealed that the most influential factor for the species distribution was MSW, followed by WI, PRS, WR and TMC. Predicted potential habitat was divided into “suitable habitat” and “marginal habitat”, based on the optimal threshold occurrence probability calculated from the ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) analysis. Climatic thresholds of potential habitat were also detected. The area of suitable habitats and marginal habitats were predicted to decrease 78.3% and 32.9% respectively, due to decrease in MSW and increase in WI.

We compare the land price time-series data of cities in Tokyo metropolitan area from 1993 to 2006 and plot groups of cities whose fluctuations are similar each other on a map. It is difficult to illustrate time-series data on a map directly because we have to treat it as the third dimension. But illustration of cities owning similar land price fluctuations jointly is useful for analyzing on change of land price change. We use annual increase rates as data of change of land price. Significance test is used to judge agreement between of city's average annual increase rates. Then we have found that cities reducing land price drastically indicate close fluctuation patterns but cities whose land price are falling little or rising present various land price changes.

Charrette, a French word, describes an intense work session that includes analysis of a focused area and proposals for future designs of the area. It is becoming a popular method also in the urban design field in Japan. Particularly, GIS seems to be useful for charrettes: it can provide vital information efficiently to the charrette participants. Therefore, the authors held a charrette using GIS, in this study, for investigating its effectiveness and discovering problems. Results show that GIS is effective in the design process. However, some future challenges were also revealed. At the next step of this research, we will develop an urban design charrette support system using GIS.

The objectives of this paper are: first, to report the methods of developing on-line learning materials for exercising GIS software; and to report students’ achievement observed from the access logs of the on-line web-server and their test results. The authors and their four colleagues conducted classes using the on-line learning system. From the access-logs of their classes, the followings were observed. First, the students learned how to use GIS according to the instructions of the teachers. Second, the students spent much time when the operation of the software was complicated; when the software interface was not sensitive against wrong operation; and when the students were supposed to fill in conditions according to a fixed format. Third, in the undergraduate classes, the average score approached a standard level as the students repeated tests; in the master-course classes, the students tried tests until they got full marks.

It is necessary to assure the quality of GIS data used in work by regional public organizations. Currently, the GIS data is often created by converting information originally developed in the DM format. However, because practical inspection and assurance methods for the original DM data are not established, low quality GIS data arises, and situations occur where large resource investments are required for correction. In this study “intersections” are selected from the various error types as representing a typical and frequently occurring problem, and by distinct determination of the position, existing miscalculations are estimated and a method is developed which allows the quantitative evaluation of the quality. Through the analysis of actual data, it is shown that increased efficiency in the objective evaluation of the quality of DM data and the data correction process can be obtained.

Regional images play an important role in human spatial behavior. However, since they are vague and vary among individuals, it is not easy to understand, communicate and share regional image among different people. This study proposes a method to analyze and visualize regional images. We use Semantic Differential (SD) Method to extract the image of place in a study area, which is followed by regression analysis that describes the relationship between land use pattern and regional image. The model is used to interpolate the image distribution of the study area and to visualize it by using three different color schemata.