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DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF SPATIAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 
FOR CITY LAND ASSESSMENT 
Genong Yu 
Chengdu Subcentre of Agricultural Remote Sensing 
CHENGDU 610066, P. R. China 
Commision Il, Working Group 3 
KEY WORDS :Geographical Information System, Land Class, Estate Base Value 
ABSTRACT 
The development of geographical information system enables the full management of spatially related data and information, 
which is true for city land evaluation. A general purpose system for city land assessment, named CLAS, was developed with 
the combination of C and Assembly Language. Two application cases in China prove the functions of CLAS and the 
effectiveness in land classification and base value determination for large and moderate city. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The collection and analysis of information improved greatly 
in most aspects with the development of computer 
technology. The development of geographical information 
system (GIS) enables the full management of spatial data 
and information. Classification of land class and the 
evaluation of estate base value has an obvious significance 
in the regulation of the estate market, the efficient use of 
land, the reasonable allocation of land resources and the 
reduction of the national property loss in China (Shuangliu 
Bureau of Land Management et al 1993). It was found that 
GIS is a feasible and economical tool as to time, quality, 
convenience and dynamics (Chengdu bureau of Land 
Management et al 1992). This paper discusses the design 
and programming of a city land assessment system (CLAS) 
and its applications in practices in Chengdu, a big city, and 
Dongsheng, a moderate town at county level. 
2. CONCEPTUALIZATION 
An important step in the conceptualization of general CLAS 
involved the research and selection of the proper data 
structure and suitable platform, and the development of a 
method for storing large quantities of data that would satisfy 
the requirements of a hierarchical system being developed 
specifically for case studies. 
The advantages and the disadvantages of raster and vector 
data structure seem to complement with each other. This is 
true concerning programming, analysis, accuracy and 
output. For raster data structure, programming (Peucker et 
al 1975, Nagy et al 1978) and land use suitability (Buckner 
1977) is much easy. It is typical to complete the overlay 
analysis with. high speed and relative accuracy that 
interested regional planner, plant site designer and military 
strategist (Burrough 1986). Effective storage, especially 
for spatially sparse data (Nagy et al 1978) , high accuracy in 
measurement and area estimate, and direct accesses to 
most available thematic and administrative maps (Bartolucci 
1983) are the main advantage for vector data structure. The 
plotted maps and vector legend and symbols, like railway, 
circle, triangle, are precise and illustrative (Burrough 
1986). In the actual projects, therefore, both data 
structures are jointly in use and indispensable. 
The suitable platform for software operation should consicer 
the widespread hardware available in China. At big city and 
provincial institute, there may be high-class computers and 
high-quality input and output peripherals available or 
affordable. Most potential users, however, are from 
moderate city or town at county level and there are only 
low-level computer platforms, such as microcomputer 386/ 
286 with standard EGA/VGA, small size tablet digitizer/ 
scanner , printer and plotter. Therefore, the basic computer 
requirements are set at 80386 CPU, 640K RAM, EGA/VGA 
display, one hard drive, one serial port and one parallel 
port. 
To manage the attribute data for both raster set and vector 
one, a simple relational data management system is 
developed. It enables key-entry, data list and querying. 
3. DESIGN OF CLAS 
With the consideration of the incorporation of raster and 
vector data and map matching, the final system includes the 
following modules and the general structure is shown in Fig. 
1l. 
  
MAPS/IMAGES| | HISTORICAL DATA 
' 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
CLAS 
  
Raster | Vector Data Map 
Core Cate. ly any rsion Projection 
  
  
  
  
  
Output 
  
  
  
  
  
Y 
/ 
GRAPHS 
Fig. 1 Components of CLAS 
Y Y 
REPORT DATA BASE 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B2. Vienna 1996