EGIS (1994), copyright EGIS Foundation.
In this article, we give a brief introduction to GIS's educations, researches and applications in China. Now in most universities in China, GIS courses are given to students of geosciences such as cartography, geography, photogrammetry, urban planning and environment resource management. In Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping(WTUSM), two bachelor's programs oriented to spatial data handling are offered, namely, Information Engineering and Computer Cartography. From about 1977, some research instituts of Academy of Sciences of China, the National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping and some universities such as WTUSM, Nanjing University began their research programs in GIS, the initial works were much related to computer cartography and remote sensing, at the beginning of 80's, people began to study on data exchange formats, some results were proposed as national standards. China's Association of GIS is under the way of organizing. Along with research activities, application developments are also carried on. till now, China's cartographic database at 1:1,000,000 and 1:4,000,000 have been created, that at 1:250,000 is under the way, in Hainan province, a database at 1:50,000 is completed, some cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are in course of constructing their own urban information systems of which urban GIS is the major component. Generally speaking, GIS is widely discussed and practiced in China, but its future will depend much on what people can finally get from it.
The GIS community in China is mainly composed of researchers from three parts, universities and instituts subordinate to the State Education Committee or other ministries, instituts of the Academy of Sciences of China(ASC), and the National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping(NBSM), among the others, we would like to cite the Institut of Geography of ASC, the Institut of Surveying and Mapping of NBSM, and WTUSM where the authors work, which is under NBSM. The Institut of Geography of ASC is perhaps the first to start researches in GIS in China, it was where the first national key laboratory in the field of GIS is created. which is named the Laboratory of Resource and Environment Information System(LREIS), in China, such key laboratories are invested directly by the central government(more precisely by the State Planning Committee), and considered leading research units in their field. The Institut of Surveying and Mapping is under NBSM as WTUSM, there are more than 100 researchers of different levels working there, and a special laboratory for land information systems was set up in the early 80's. WTUSM is a special university under NBSM, geodesy, photogrammetry and cartography are its main working fields, in this university, the department of cartography and the department of photogrammetry and remote sensing are much devoted to GIS studies, the department of cartography began with computer cartography and cartographic database studies in the late 70's, the department of photogrammetry started from remote sensing so the department name was added with 'remote sensing', as WTUSM is a very active research unit in GIS, China's second key laboratory related to GIS was created there which is named Laboratory for Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote
[End Page 1935]
Sensing(LIESMARS). Along with these research and education units, some cities have set up their own 'Information Center' created in land management or urban planning bureaux, such centers are mainly in charge of developing urban geographical databases and supplying digital map data, so they are real GIS practitioners.
GIS is talked very widely now in China as in other countries, the GIS community is growing very rapidly, many important GIS-related units can not be mentioned in such a brief presentation.
In some universities, cartography is offered to geography students of bachelor program as an independent course, and GIS is arranged as a part in cartography or quantitative techniques, but postgraduate students(of master or doctoral program) may have a special GIS course, GIS-related problems are often taken as dissertation subjects, in others, GIS courses are much more complete and systematic, here we present briefly two bachelor's programs offered in WTUSM.
In the Department of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, the Information Engineering program offers following courses and practices.
Compulsory courses: course time(hours) credit Math. 196 32 English language 250 34 Linear algebra 60 6 Probability and Statistics 54 9 Physics 120 20 Geography 70 7 Topography 40 4 Programming 70 8 Analog electronic technique 70 7 Digital electronic technique 70 7 Photogrammetry 70 8 Digital image processing 70 8 Information theory 40 5 Remote sensing 50 6 Data structure and database 60 6 Computer theory and application 70 7 Natural resource investigation 50 6 Computer graphics 50 6 Principles of GIS 60 7 Remote sensing data processing 60 7 System engineering 40 5 Advanced programming 50 5 Information system design 50 8 Cadastral surveying 50 4 Regional and urban planning 80 10 Total 1860 231 Optional courses: course time(hours) credit Fuzzy mathematics 50 6 Discrete mathematics 40 5 Topology 40 5
[End Page 1936]
Environment planning 40 5 Urban information system 40 5 Economic information system 40 5 AI and expert system 40 6 Office autmation 40 5 Pattern recognition 50 7 Document handling 30 3 Image interpretation 40 5 Photography 50 6 Database theory and design 40 5 Chinese text processing 30 5
In addition to classroom teaching, some laboratory or practice works are arranged along with some courses, and a guided research work of 15 weeks called graduation design is required, students do their graduation design in the university or in a GIS-related service.
The Information Engineering program was set up in 1988, and it is the unique bachelor's program, now in China, oriented totally to GIS, we enroll 30 students each year, graduated students are sent mostly to work in urban planning or land management public services.
In the Department of Cartography, a new bachelor's program named Computer Cartography is planned, and it will be offered this autumn. Now in China, an upsurge of GIS is in sight, such a program is thought to be in time. This program offers following courses.
Compulsory courses:
course time(hours) credit
Math. 196 32
English language 270 34
Linear algebra 48 6
Probability and Statistics 60 10
Physics 120 20
Programming I 50 7
Programming II 70 8
Fuzzy mathematics 50 7
Map drawing and coloring 50 7
Surveying 60 8
Physical geography and
geomorphology 80 10
Micro-computer application I 40 6
Software engineering 70 10
Computer graphics 50 7
Introduction to photogrammetry 50 7
Mapping from remote sensing data 50 7
Map projection 40 5
Map design and compilation 50 7
Mathematical mapping models 50 7
Computer-aided mapping 60 8
Map analysing and map using 40 6
Digital image processing 60 8
Map printing 40 6
Cartographic database 70 10
Geographical information system 70 10
Introduction to expert system 30 4
Total 124 258
[End Page 1937]
Optional courses:
course time(hours) credit
Computation methods 50 6
Micro-computer application II 50 6
Color theory 30 3
Topology 40 4
Algorithms for computer
cartography 40 5
Economic geography 36 4
Digital surveying 30 3
Land information system 30 3
Map algebra 50 7
Computer-aided generalisation 50 7
Urban planning 40 5
Also some laboratory and practice works will be arranged along with some courses generally speaking, bachelor's degree needs about 400 credits in WTUSM.
Research activities in GIS can be traced back to the late 70's, but the early researches were mostly of personal interests, not supported by state finance, so of small scale. Most early GIS researches were much related to computer cartography and remote sensing, large part of efforts were devoted to algorithm studies and specific function-subroutine writing. From the beginning of 80's, some national research programs were launched. Two of these programs should be mentioned here, one was the design and development of cartographic database management system by the Department of Cartography in WTUSM, this was a Fortran-written software finished in 1985, and upgraded lately, now this system is used to construct the Cartographic Database of Hainan Province at the scale of 1/50000. Another program we like to mention here was that lead by LREIS and joined by many other universities or instituts, this program was planned to establish the Loess Plateau Information System(LPIS), several softwares including ARC/INFO were used in LPIS, the results of this program gave some very good experiences, not an operational spatial database or information system. Along with the researches on LPIS, people began to work on data standards and exchange formats, some tentative proposals were put forward but not formally accepted.
From the late 80's, especially from the beginning of 90's, GIS researches were much more intensive and extensive. Several state research projects authorized by China's State Committee of Science and Technology were carried out, this includes GIS software developing, national data standards, thematic application case studies. The creation of China's Association of GIS have been under consideration for more than one year, and it will be very soon to come into true.
We must mention again LREIS and LIESMARS, China's two national key laboratories for GIS, which play a very important role in GIS field, LREIS organised the first international GIS colloquium in China in 1987, and LIESMARS arrange, each year, an international colloquium since 1991.
It won't be possible to give a list of GIS application projects fulfilled or under the way in China, there is no such statistics. We cite some examples.
As national projects, NBSM has a plan to create a series of base land information systems, those at the scales of 1:4,000,000 and 1:1,000,000 have been completed, and that at 1: 250,000 is under the way. The database of 1:4,000,000 is a mapmaking-oriented one, which is used for cartographic applications, not for spatial analyses, that of 1:1,000,000 is rather a spatial
[End Page 1938]
database than a spatial information system, the data derived from it have already been used in some government bureaux.
In Hainan province, the cartographic database at 1:50,000 has been established, this database is a digital version of topographic maps at the same scale over the province. Liaoning Land Information System is another example of province-leveled GIS application project. Some regional information systems are also under development.
The most part of GIS application projects in China is unquestionably urban information systems, these systems, in fact, are not purely geographic, because these systems are generally created directly for daily works of a urban planning service or a land management bureau, most of them include some office automation functions, some serves more aspatially than spatially. Large cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and many others are all in the course of developing urban GIS, such projects are often very large, for example, the Shenzhen city plan to invest more than 30,000,000 yuans for its project. Many small cities in south China, especially in Guangdong province, are planning their GIS projects. Many urban GIS projects accept ARC/INFO or GENAMAP as base software, but there are also some others.
In our opinion, GIS has a very promising future in China, because there is a very large potential market for GIS softwares and for digital spatial information, besides, there is a large GIS research team. Like cartography, GIS will evolve to be a discipline. But whether the GIS wind can blow all over China depends much on if the application projects of today will give good results.
[End Page 1939]