GIS AND THE KEY TO ALL DATA 
R.E. Bartlett 
Podbieisk Street 16 
30163 Hannover 
Germany 
ABSTRACT 
The emphasis in GIS has moved on from software development, through basic database 
establishment, to serious software implementation. By 'serious' implementation I mean "technical" 
and not just 'the implementation of GIS software to produce informative graphics.' These 
implementations include the engineering analysis of electrical networks, drainage networks, urban 
master plans, road traffic forecasts, and even (through GIS-CAD) detailed highway designs. 
In another growth curve, use of GIS is spreading as rapidly -- if not more rapidly — throughout 
the developing world as through the developed world. So we now have 
• a pool of leading GIS systems, more or less compatible with each other 
• a pool of basic databases, ranging from satellite images to national road networks to 
technical databases of urban cadaster defining land-use, floor area and so on 
• a growing pool of applications formulae and procedures which are usually custom-built 
• a growing number of countries where clients expect GIS to form at least part of the 
technical advisor's toolkit. 
As more and more consultants begin work with an increasing number of clients in different 
countries they find that the rules and procedures they develop in one project in one country do not 
fit the data in the next country. The situation is rather like driving across Europe used to be 
before they introduced standard international traffic signs. The new international signs meant that 
a driver could travel from country to country without having to learn a new hand-book at each 
frontier. 
This paper puts forward the argument that 
1. land-use defines all data (so for example, if the suer knows that a 1-hectare plot of land has 6 
detached dwelling units, then he will know the number of residents, the electricity consumption in 
the evening peak, the road traffic generated, and so on) 
2. an urban land-use system (ULS) is more important than environmental land-use(in many 
technical studies 'people' create more problems than 'trees') 
3. a standard international definition of ULS will facilitate the international use of 
'technical GIS' (setting up a technical analysis to work in one country will mean setting up a 
technical analysis for all countries) 
4. a standard ULS definition will provide the common key to most technical GIS studies (in 
other words, once you know the standardized urban land-use database of ran area you will know 
its road traffic, electricity consumption etc; this will allow the integration of GIS across technical 
disciplines)