ISPRS, Vol.34, Part 2W2, “Dynamic and Multi-Dimensional GIS", Bangkok, May 23-25, 2001 
346 
Applications 
Functionalities 
Licencing 
Overlay 
Aqualculture 
Recreation Fishing 
Conservation 
Research 
Regional analysis 
Commercial Fishing yOwvS Fuzzy analysis j~ 
Random Simulation 
Map production 
Image processing I 
I 
r 
raster 
I 
Vector 
-U 
GPS 
Other DB - 
RDBMS 
^..Estaury water quality 
i Fish cSosire 
i Aquatic ¡ease 
j Aquaculture stratergy plan 
j Commercial fishing zone 
I Fishery management zone 
J Sea grass / Mangrove 
Aquatic reserves 
Coastline 
Baythemetry 
Roads 
Cadastral 
Contour 
Fig. 2. Functionalities of a Fisheries GIS. 
Conservation: 
• mapping: seagrass, mangrove (Fig.3), 
• using imagery processing techniques in raster-based GIS, 
Fisheries management: 
• Fishery Administrative Districts Boundary (Fig. 8). 
This data layers can be linked the other RDBMS for utilities 
and resources analysis, 
• Fish closures (Fig. 9), converted from Gazette and regulation, 
with respects to legal issues, 
• Commercial fishing zone, and 
• EA/EIA. 
Research: 
• lobster tagging (Fig. 10), and 
• Estuaries fisheries assessment. 
Recreation fishing survey: 
• Mapping of survey results 
All different aspects of fisheries need to be integrated and share 
the data that are collected by different divisions and individual 
project. This multiple functions of GIS have greatly enhanced the 
effectiveness and efficiency of operations of the organisation. 
3. Functions versus applications in coastal environment 
There are two different perceptional meaning of GIS function: 
one refers to the ‘role’, such as management tools, decision 
supporting tools and research tools (Barllett 1993). Another is 
referred as the ‘technical capability’ that a GIS system can 
provide operationally, which is the focus of this section. 
As is described as above, different user groups have different 
perceived role and requirements for GIS functions (Green, 1995). 
Most of coastal community members recognize the potential of 
spatial data, however, they may not always realize the balance 
between the level of application they intend to reach and the 
appropriate GIS functions they need. 
It exists a common syndrome of imbalance between functionality 
and application: Some do not have adequate for GIS function, 
while others do not realise that they purchased the surpass GIS 
capability that they do not need and do not make full use of their 
available resources. This 'under value’ or ‘over sell’ of GIS could 
be harmful to its implementation in CZM. 
• environmental assessment for habitats, 
• using multicriteria analysis and decision trees, 
To success in a GIS application, other than available resource 
and time, one should achieve the balance the level of application 
and the required functionalities. 
• aquatic reserves / marine parks (Fig. 4) (as above), and 
• river surveying. 
Aquaculture: 
• aquatic lease management / mapping (Fig. 5), 
• using GPS survey and building a RDBMS and automatic 
mapping, 
• aquatic site selections (Fig. 6), 
• using methods of Fuzzy set analysis Zadeh (1965), Kaufman 
(1975), and Zinmemmen (1991), exemplified by Zhou and 
Charnpratheep, 1996; Zeng and Zhou (2001). The fuzzy 
analysis module is designed for the purpose of planning, 
stratergical assessment and optimal site selection, and 
• strategies planning (Fig. 7). 
Before discussing the GIS functionality requirements for coastal 
application, it is necessary to exam the general characteristics of 
coastal issues. 
Common characteristics of coastal issues 
Form the above brief review, it can be seen that coastal issues 
have some characteristics in common: 
A) Zonalisation. Traditionally, different fields have 
investigated coast area from different prospective and classified 
coastal area into different zones (Fig.1), such as habitat zone, 
surf dynamic zone, navigation zone, aquaculture zone, fisheries 
management zone, etc. Obviously, classification and zonal 
analysis functions are essential in Coastal GIS. 
B) Multiple variables: The coastal system has hierarchy 
structure. Particular user groups have their focus on a portion of 
coastal system or subsystem with multiple variables interacting 
upon it. Therefore, multiple variables analysis or multi-criteria