Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2011, Geography

This thesis documents the design and development of a web-based data distribution system for brownfield site redevelopment in Toledo-Lucas County, Ohio. The system is designed to advance smart growth initiatives for economic redevelopment and the sustainable utilization of brownfield sites in the region. As with many Midwestern cities, industrial decline has lead to an abundance of brownfield sites in the area. A lack of data resources is one major barrier to redevelopment of these sites. The system developed here seeks to reduce that barrier by providing a user interface and information delivery system to support the identification and reuse of brownfield sites; in addition it can be replicated for use in other regions. Detailed here is the development and implementation of an interactive web-based geographic information system (GIS) designed as a user-centered decision support tool to augment policymakers' and stakeholders' site selection and infrastructure capital investment decisions to support brownfield redevelopment. This system thus provides not only a comprehensive data delivery tool and decision support system but also serves as a template for application in other urban regions.

Committee: Peter Lindquist PhD (Advisor); Daniel Hammel PhD (Committee Member); Sujata Shetty PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Geographic Information Science

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, Geography

The World Wide Web (www) has dramatically changed our way of producing, utilizing and consuming information, especially geospatial information in recent years. Web-based GIS (Geographic Information Systems) are designed to provide Web users analytical tools to assist their spatial decisions making process. With the advantages such as platform independence, customizability and cost effectiveness, Open Source Geospatial (OSGEO) software has been more adopted to develop Web-based GIS applications. Also, the increased availability of spatial functionalities in OSGEO software has opened many possibilities towards the implementation of a more powerful, interactive and collaborative Web-based GIS platform which is favorably referred to as the GeoWeb. However, compared with proprietary systems current open source based online GIS systems have several limitations. For example, most of them do not provide customizable web mapping service and spatial data processing service. However, these two types of services are essential to effectively filter spatial information and explore area of interest. This research introduces a framework of implementing a Web-based GIS using Open Source Software, including Postgresql/PostGIS, MapServer, and OpenLayers. On the server side, Postgresql/PostGIS is used to store and process spatial data. MapServer is adopted to provide Web Mapping Service (WMS). Server side scripting language PHP is employed to dynamically generate map file from PostGIS for MapServer to render. On the client side, OpenLayers provides the programming interface to incorporate layers from different data sources into a same DOM container. Web-based GIS for political redistricting, as an example, has been developed to demonstrate both merits and demerits of adopting this framework. Initial results of the demonstration show that the integration of PostGIS, MapServer and PHP could facilitate query based map generation and make mapping of massive spatial data efficient. Query b (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ningchuan Xiao (Advisor); Mei-Po Kwan (Committee Chair); Daniel Sui (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Geography; Information Systems; Political Science