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The Active Map of Aalborg
| Title | The Active Map of Aalborg |
| Aidamount | 4.148.000 |
| Organization | The Municipality of Aalborg, the Technical Administration |
| Conclusion | Ingen side valgt |
| Homepage | www.detaktiveaalborgkort.dk |
| Contact | Jørgen Pedersen, Development Manager, jp@cowi.dk |
| Other participants | Informi GIS A/S
SAS Institute A/S
Nordjyllands Amt
COWI A/S |
| Theme | Digital Admin. |
| Keywords | Citizen Self Service
Geographic Informations System
Organisational development
Systems integration, digital administration
Systems integration, e-business
Transparency in public administration
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| Project start | 22 February 2001 |
| Project end | 31 December 2003 |
| Description | One of the earliest known examples of using a map for geographical analysis dates back to the late 17th Century. During a typhoid epidemic that haunted London, an English doctor got the idea of entering the addresses of typhoid casualties on a map of London. He noticed that the addresses were concentrating around one particular pump for drinking water from which the citizens were collecting their supplies of household water. Having gained this knowledge, the tapping point was closed, and the number of casualties for that area fell significantly. In other words, a waterborne source of infection had been located by means of a geographical pattern formed by the address information, i.e. a clustering around one certain locality.
GIS
The same underlying principle is applied in the Active Map of Aalborg combined with several new potentials in the GIS (Geographical Information System). While achieving one single result in the 17th Century may have been quite time-consuming, today a similar task is completed in a fraction of that time. The maps of our day are digital; information, e.g. addresses, have been entered in a range of registers, powerful computers have been deployed practically everywhere, and we are electronically connected via the Internet.
The Active Map of Aalborg offers facilities round the clock on the Internet (WEBGIS), within what we have named the Municipal Directory. In addition to this, access will be provided to comprehensive information of a statistic nature, and the Physical planning, including e.g. district plans and municipal planning.
In Project Phase 1 (2001) the vast amounts of information are collected, processed and made accessible for producing answers to questions, in particular to those like 'Where is this and that'. Complete statistic information can be viewed spread on a map, and links will be established between physical plans which are available today as complete electronic plan documents (15-16,000 pages), and a specific location, e.g. your own title number in the Land Register , enabling you to view the regulations laid down for your particular area.
In Phase 2 (2002) a growing amount of data will be made available, while providing means for the user to process data on a self-service basis. Adding to simple visualising, as carried out in the example from London, other GIS analyses can be carried out as buffer analyses i.e. selecting data in specific distances to points, lines or polygons (e.g. a building), for example: Where are General Practising Clinics located within a radius of 10 km of my new home address, - producing overlay analyses i.e. view several themes simultaneously and detect coinciding conditions and conflicts, e.g., are any sewage pipes or overhead lines crossing my building site?
Easy to use solutions will be provided allowing users with less computer knowledge to achieve a usable result. This is enabled by producing predefined solutions 'Press a button' on the most common queries, still allowing more advanced users to build their own analyses and define the viewing of results. During the three project phases, a thorough on-line guide for introducing the user to the qualifications required will be extended on an ongoing basis.
In Project Phase 3 (2003) the aim is pointed towards the interactive potentials of the technique and making them instrumental for self service solutions, and a dialogue on local conditions (democracy forums). Editing and adding graphic information and returning it to the Municipality will be enabled. This is useful for e.g. processing a building application where the applicant can be provided with all relevant information (maps, cadastral maps, BBR Central Building Register Information etc.) on the basis of which the application can be completed. Automatic control of the projected building e.g. plot ratio, distance to property lines and altitudes including conflicting earthed traces of power lines, sewage pipes etc. are notified to the applicant at the point of creation, thus saving time for both the applicant and the administration.
Hopefully the graphic interactivity should facilitate the democratic process once citizens are enabled to respond immediately to a given proposal for a district plan, e.g. a wish to modify the location of a residential building, visualizing the modified location, or attending discussions dealing with a revision of the municipal planning with own sketches on a map.
Beyond 2003
The Active Map of Aalborg will produce underlying and new functionalities to take us way into the years to come. For example, voice control and voice enabled answers are being made reality already today. Combining this with automobile navigation systems and dynamic WEBGIS facilities (The Active Map of Aalborg), will enable a user dialogue with the vehicle to produce real time information on obstacles, e.g. road construction work and accidents; A hotel room could be booked while keeping both hands on the steering wheel after the receipt of information on vacant rooms, and booking a table for that night on a downtown restaurant.
In short, this is about utilizing an existing electronic version of the real world, which is made available using our common skills: Seeing, Hearing, and Speaking. Systems transmitting tactile and olfactory signals (signals addressing the senses of touch and smell) are included in this experiment, too. Thus, a whole line of new potentials are out there to be put to a future use, and we have probably not seen the most recent fields of making use of all of our senses. |
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