Surveyors require training before they can gather infrastructural spatial data for government officials to distribute, as intended by the Basic Act on the Advancement of Utilizing Geospatial Information. We systematically examine the factors that influence surveyors’ knowledge and workspace environment. Covariance structure analysis shows that the effect of innovative product specifications from government officials is greater than the effect of promoting disclosure of infrastructural spatial data on surveyors’ workspace environments, which in turn strongly affect the surveyors’ ability to maintain awareness of the product specifications.

Local governments are obligated to use geospatial information under the fundamental law of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. In this research, we investigate the evolutionary process of the geographic information system (GIS) in relation with Nolan's stage model in the context of three local governments that plan to adopt Integrated GIS, which is developed from individual GIS. As a result, we found that it is possible to delineate the developmental stages of the GIS by analyzing it in relation with Nolan's stage model. Moreover, we studied three local governments that are scheduled to introduce Integrated GIS and examined the effectiveness of the evolution of the GIS on the governments.

In recent years, town planning has increasingly focused on regional history and culture. The education of town planning students now emphasizes such factors, particularly in fieldwork education where we are looking for more efficient and effective ways of doing research. Our students prepared a report emphasizing local culture in an effort to develop an ideal plan for a historically significant region - a post town that prospered during the Edo period (1603-1867). The town has changed greatly because of the reclamation of coastal areas and the loss of buildings burned during a conflagration in the Edo period. The “town that had been lost” was experienced by walking through the area using a PDA input with a current map of the coastline and/or an old map drawing from the Edo period. Of special significance is the software we developed for the PDA that was used by students. This paper describes the functions of the software, the fieldwork that was performed, and what this study should contribute to the region.

We analyze characteristics of the learners who improved their ability of operating GIS by taking the GIS practical training class using online learning materials. These characteristics are: 1) short experience in GIS, 2) lack of confidence in the operation of computers and GIS software, 3) difficulty in asking questions to other students, 4) looking forward to using online learning materials, 5) well-balanced number of accesses per a week, 6) long access time. To improve the class, we need to: a) add more explanations of GIS basics, important details and full pictures in the explanation, b) revise the volume and the presentation in the explanations, c) add explanations for GIS experienced learners, d) set assignments considering proper frequencies.

The road buried objects are managed using paper maps and GIS by road administrator. Paper maps are still used for road possession permit application and continuation. It is necessary for road administrator and utility company to cut cost down by using GIS. The objective of this study is to investigate importance of spatial data infrastructure (SDI) shared between the public and private sectors using examples of road possession permit and continuation. The road possession permit and application system was developed using shared SDI. The efficiency method of possession continuation application was proposed, and evaluated with Kadoma city and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd.

This paper analyzes spatial distribution of a sports school (swimming and gymnastics) members and usage of school bus. This school is close to a railway station on the outskirt of Tokyo Metropolitan area. The obtained data was the membership list including membership code, sex, age, membership type, and home address. The information on the school bus such as bus users list, location of bus stop, and bus route map was also provided by the school. The findings of the analysis are summarized as follows: (1) Most of the members reside within 3km radius or 3.5km road-distance area from the school. (2) The exponential relationship between road-distance and the participation rate was observed. (3) Approximately 91% of the school bus users reside within 500m road distance from the nearest bus stop. (4) Only 21% of the members living within both 1-3.5km road-distance from the school and 500m road-distance area from the nearest bus stop use the school bus. The results of this study suggest that school bus service is not necessarily efficient in attracting a large number of new customers.

In this paper we propose a simple method which analyses the similarity of river networks with different spatial resolutions. We use the coordinates and upstream catchment areas at major confluent points in order to represent the features of river networks. Turning counter- clockwise around the river network from the estuary, we arrange confluent points into one string. The sets of the one-dimensional data obtained from river networks are compared by using DP matching. The method is successfully applied to the Hayakawa river (a branch of the Fujigawa river): the fine-resolution network is made from 50mDEM, and it is rescaled into coarser spatial resolutions.

Active RFID (Radio Frequency ID) systems are used for positioning. For easy installation of RFID tags, we embedded them in tape. Power is supplied to all the tags by a battery assembly, which reduces the work of battery replacement. The power cable also functions as antennas. One-dimensional positioning accuracy was found to be roughly the same as the tag interval. The tape was adapted to outdoor-use and tested at and around the Nagareyama-Ootakanomori Station.

When fire department receive an emergency call, it is important to determine its place of origin in order to respond without fault quickly. When such a call is made from a cellular phone, its place of origin can be determined by using GPS or a cell-based positioning technique. However, this technique is sometimes inaccurate for example lack of information on the exact floor of a building and existence of blind spots. We have been developing a system that would determine location using active radio frequency identification (RFID) reader and GPS equipped cellular phones. This paper introduces the outline of the prototype system.

We have been developing a mobile GIS terminal for damage investigation in disaster situation. The terminal contains GPS receiver and RFID readers in order to obtain its location. RFIDs installed in field are used for correcting the location of the terminal. Six types of RFID readers are built in the terminal.