A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) TO DEFINE

INDICATORS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

IN JORDAN

Balqies Sadoun

and Bassam Saleh

Department of Architectural Engineering, Philadelphia University

Jordan and on Sabbatical Leave from the Department of Surveying and Geomatics Engineering

Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Salt, Jordan

Department of Surveying and Geomatics Engineering, Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Salt, Jordan

Keywords: Geographic Information System (GIS), Data Management, Spatial Information and Analysis, Statistical

Analysis, Decision Making, City and Regional Planning.

Abstract: The computerization and the creation of a digital data base is a must for the employment of many of the

state of the art tools in the Optimal Planning process. This is easy made using Geographic Information

System (GIS). GIS is an effective modern planning technique which gives the power to create maps,

integrate information, visualize and solve problems, present future ideas and develop valuable solutions in

basically no time while relating information to a geographic component. The planning challenges today are

mainly due to overpopulation, pollution, deforestation and immigration, which definitely have a geographic

dimension. The Departments of General Statistics/Census in all countries are considered the main source of

data for governmental and private agencies. In this work, we are using a Geographic Information System

(GIS) to create a database system for Jordan (a developing country) to be used for optimal planning

purposes. The created GIS for the country by governorates (12 Governorates) cover all aspects of life

including social, economical, resources, among others. All the departments’ data in addition to a large

quantity of field data that we gathered are utilized to create GIS system. Results of many GIS analysis

techniques are presented for demonstration purposes. Different kinds of data will allow concerned people to

have proper planning, and development according to existing realities, and can aid in deciding on priorities

of such plans. The digitizing of the data is a step will be a great step forward towards optimal and well

informed decision making process in the country.

1 INTRODUCTION

Planning is a comprehensive tool to an enormous

data to pick patterns, define relations and present the

results to help in better and optimal decision making

in virtually no time and cost. Planning the future of a

country or planning everyday life (such as starting a

new business, or finding the best soil for growing

vegetables, or the best route to a location, etc.), has a

geographical dimension and always related to a map.

Thus, GIS role is vital such a process as it has the

potential to offer the optimal solution.

GIS is a simulation methodology of all past,

present and future situations at a minimal cost

compared to other planning tools. It is a computer-

based technology and methodology for collecting,

managing, analyzing, modeling, and presenting

geographic data for never-ending applications. It

consists of a data base, map information and

computer link to allow viewing, inquiring,

interpreting, and visualizing data in many ways that

reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form

of maps, reports, and charts (Burrough, 1986),

(Chrisman, 1999), (Ducker, 1979), (Star and Estes,

1990), (Andronache et al., 2006). Ducker (Ducker,

1979) defined GIS as the management of the data to

retrieve new related data for ad hoc queries and

analysis. Chrisman (Chrisman, 1999) considers GIS

to play a role in the society as people measure and

represent geographic phenomena, then transform

these representations into other form while

interacting with social structures. GIS changed the

heart of planning and informed decision making

Sadoun B. and Saleh B. (2010).

A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) TO DEFINE INDICATORS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING IN JORDAN.

In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business, pages 32-38

DOI: 10.5220/0003105000320038

 SciTePress

especially in the world of emergencies and life

saving process. During Catharine storm in the USA,

GIS (created for transportation purposes) was the

only way to locate people during the hurricane when

all other methods failed (Andronache et al., 2006). It

helped in saving the lives of thousands of citizens

and opened the eyes to the benefits of GIS

technology. GIS and related technology will help

analyze large datasets, allowing a better

understanding of terrestrial processes and human

activities to improve economic vitality,

environmental quality, and response to emergencies

as well as, finding the way to a supermarket. Today,

GIS is a multibillion-dollar industry employing

hundreds of thousands of people (planners,

engineers, economists, etc.) and used extensively in

all aspects of planning.

Jordan is a Middle Eastern country located in

Southwest Asia. Administratively, it is divided into

12 governorates: Ajlun, Amman, Aqaba, Al-Balqa,

Irbid, Jerash, Al-Karak, Ma'an, Madaba, Al-Mafraq,

Tafilah, Az Zarqa (Fig.1). The department of

General Statistics in Jordan categorizes its data

according to governorates. GIS is used in this work

to create a digital data to reflect the different nature

of each governorate, its resources, population, etc.

The created digital data for the country will allow all

kinds of analysis by governorate to clarify and

reflect their strong and weak points, needs. This will

help in defining indicators for development and

planning. ArcGIS software is used in our work for

capturing, organizing, analyzing, mapping, and

presenting spatial information.

Our main Objectives are to: (a) create a global

digital data for the country by governorate, (b) allow

the usage of endless capabilities of GIS analysis and

government utilization.

Figure 1: Jordan Governorates.

2 METHODOLOGY

GIS Data Model: GIS systems handle two types of

data, raster and vector data. Raster data from

scanned or remotely sensed images are poor at

representing points, lines and areas, but good at

surfaces. Vector data model uses points stored by

their real coordinates, sequence of these points build

lines and areas. The spatial data we used in building

our GIS includes: Jordan Map (scale 1:1,000,000)

and a Spot Satellite Image for Jordan. Global

Positioning System (GPS) is used to collect the

coordinates of important points to enrich our GIS

such as: Universities (8 points), Hotels (58 points),

Hospitals (29 points), Police Stations (44 points),

Water Companies (11 points), Civil Status and

Passport department (11 points), Municipalities (12

points), Airports (3 points). All points were taken

according to Google Earth Map.

Attribute data give more information about features

in tabular form. Attribute Statistical Data for Jordan

for the years (1990 - 2005) were used to create the

GIS database. All kinds of data such as: population

count, population density, urban population, rural

population, population by gender, number of births,

deaths, marriages, and divorces, crimes, rain fall,

water supply for domestic purposes, fuel

distribution, number of new telephone subscribers,

pharma- cies, registered engineers, post office mail

boxes, post offices, road accidents, hotels, registered

lawyers, charitable societies, bookshops, hospitals,

health centers, dental clinics, schools etc. Available

and field collected data were included in the work.

Figure 2: Collected data flowchart.

Collected data

Spatial data

Maps

Spot

Satellite

Image

Points

by GPS

Statistical

book of

Jordan

Field

data

Available

data

Attribute data

A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) TO DEFINE INDICATORS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND

PLANNING IN JORDAN

Data Processing: spatial and attribute data, maps

and images were processed as follows: (a) scanning

the map of Jordan to convert it to digital format, (b)

defining the coordinate system; (Universal

Transverse Mercator: UTM) and the Ellipsoid, (c)

registering the scanned map (image) in the

coordinate system using ground control points

(points of known coordinates), and (d) creating the

layers by digitizing the map (Fig.3).

Many layers were created using GIS. The output

layers included: Jordan by Governorate map, cities,

sea, water companies, Police stations,

Municipalities, Hotels, airports, border stations,

Civil status and passport departments, roads

networks, universities, Governorate buildings, etc.

3 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

GIS analysis is finding geographic patterns in the

database and the relationships between features. The

analysis methods can be very simple such as making

a map (Fig.1) or more complex, involving models

that imitate the reality of the situation, or by

combining many data layers. The tabular data allows

different analysis techniques such as classification,

buffering and statistical analysis. The analysis

achieved is in clear presentations and real interaction

with the needed information.

Figure 3: The Methodology.

Spatial Analysis: Queries offer a method of data

retrieval from the data base, or on a new data

produced as a result of the data analysis. There are

many methods of querying Data, which include:

Identify, Find, Hyperlink, Query data by attribute,

Query data by location.

Identify is the fastest tool for getting information

about features by clicking on the feature, then all

attribute data will appear in a tabular from. Find data

is used to locate the position of such feature on the

map in different layers upon the need, for example,

to locate an airport or university on the map.

Hyperlink data Hyperlink is a tool to obtain more

information attached to features such as Photo or

text (Fig.4).

Figure 4: Hyperlink; the University of Jordan.

Query data by attribute. The features could be

selected using the Standard Query Language (SQL),

such as: Querying about the location of Universities

in the northern city of Irbid (Fig.5).

Figure 5: Universities in Irbid.

Data In

GPS

points

Attribute

data

Spot

Image

Paper

map

Scannin

Georeferencing

itizin

Creatin

ers

Anal

sis

Thematic maps

ICE-B 2010 - International Conference on e-Business

Figure 6 presents another type of queries such as

Querying about the Highways in Jordan which are

more than 75Km long.

Figure 6: Highways more than 75Km long in Jordan.

Query data by location Selecting features by location

is a function that lets you select features from one or

more layers based on where they are located in

relation to the features in another layer such as: how

many "Police station" within (5km) from the Hotels

(Fig.7)? Hotels within (50km) from the Airports

(Fig.8)? and so on.

Figure 7: Police Stations within 5km from hotels.

Connectivity Analysis is done between points, lines,

and polygons in terms of distance such as: travel

time, optimum paths etc. Using the distance tool, we

can measure the distance between any two features

on the map. Figure 9 for example shows the distance

between Queen Alia airport and Aqaba airport.

Figure 8: Hotels within 50 km from the Airports.

Figure 9: The distance between Queen Alia and Aqaba

Airports.

Figure 10: The Jordanian Governorates Areas in km2.

Maan

Al Mafraq

Aqaba

Amman

Az Zarqa

Al karak

Irbid

At Tafila

Madaba

Al Bal qa

Ajlun

Jarash

Legend

jordan

Area

410

411 - 420

421 - 940

941 - 1119

1120 - 1572

1573 - 2209

2210 - 3495

3496 - 4761

4762 - 6900

6901 - 7579

7580 - 26541

26542 - 32832

A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) TO DEFINE INDICATORS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND

PLANNING IN JORDAN

The Arc GIS software enables the conversion of a

shape file into a feature class, which includes the

area as an attribute file. Then, these areas could be

used in statistical and spatial analysis. Figure 10

presents the areas of the governorates in km2 using

classification technique.

Statistical Analysis entails the representation of the

numerical data of the layers into graphical forms; a

lot of mathematical functions are used to help in

making engineering decisions.

Classification is used when we need to symbolize

quantities, or want to see where attribute values lie

in relation to one another on a continuous scale.

Classification is an easy way for comparison in

order to find or clarify any change in a situation or

setting. It could reflect more than a result according

to what is included in the classification process.

Examples are many in city planning and in

monitoring the results of the planning process in

general. Figure 11 presents a comparison of the

Population (number) for the years of 1990 & 2005 in

a pie form. Figure 11 shows an increase in the

population in all governorates. The pie plot is good

only to show if there is an increase or decrease in

each governorate, but it doesn't show the value of

this increase in comparison between governorates as

when using the histogram plot (Fig. 12).

Figure 11: Population by governorate in the years 1990 &

2005.

Classification of population density for the years

2000 and 2005 (Fig.12) shows that Irbid

Governorate has the most population density. Mean

while, in Figure 13, we compare the population for

the same years 2000 and 2005 and the results reflect

that Amman has the largest population and not Irbid

governorate.

Figure 12: Population density by governorate in the years

2000 & 2005.

From a closer look to the population (number) by

Rural and urban for the years 2005 and 2003, we can

see clearly that the urban population in Jordan (blue

color) is more important than the rural one.

Figure 13: Population in 2005 & 2003 of the Urban and

Rural.

Figure 13 shows that in year 2005 the rural po-

pulation decreased alertly in the Maan governorate

(2005). This may be explained as the incline in the

agricultural area in the desert due to the lack of rain

and water in general. In a previous study that we

conducted using remote sensing, we found out the

same results in Maan area. Another Classification

ICE-B 2010 - International Conference on e-Business

method of population density in 2005 could be used

to clarify other relations.

Figure 14: Population density (2005).

Figure 14 shows that the governorate of Irbid has the

most population density in the country as it is the

mainly agricultural governorate with the most rural

population. The second in line is Amman, AlBalqa,

Ajlun and Jerash as they all contain big cities and

the least populated are the desert governorates with

the least population density and resources. In this

classification method we used the colors to join the

governorates which have the same density. Another

mode of presentation is the population density using

dot representation (Fig.15).

Figure 15: Population density in year 2005).

Figure 16: Population by gender in year 2005.

Figure 16 presents the Population in year 2005 by

gender, 17 and 18 present other examples to be used

in environmental (e.g, rain fall) and emergency

analysis and planning. Endless possibilities and

outcomes are offered using the created GIS system.

Figure 17: Rainfall in the years 2000 & 2005.

In Figure 18, we see that the highest General number

of Crimes in 2005 is in the big cities. Again we can

better understand reality of the statistics if we used

percentages (crime/pop) or a histograms repre-

sentation.

Figure 18: Numbers of General Crimes in year 2005.

A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) TO DEFINE INDICATORS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND

PLANNING IN JORDAN

4 CONCLUSIONS

To conclude, a GIS system is created for The

Department of General Statistics in Jordan for all

purposes especially in optimal and informed

decision making and planning. The created digital

database is easy to use. We can manipulate, maintain

and update info effectively. In addition the data is

presented in an easy to understand and act upon it.

Finally, the ability of international information

sharing through a web-site creation, collaborative

environment and e-government development is

possible with such a system.

REFERENCES

P. A. Burrough, “Principles of Geographical Information

Systems for Land Resources Assessment". Clarendon

Press, Oxford, 1986.

N. R. Chrisman, “What Does 'GIS' Mean?” Transactions

in GIS, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 175-186, 1999.

K. J. Ducker, “Land Resource Information Systems: A

Review of Fifteen Years Experience". Geo-Processing,

Vol. 1, pp. 105-28, 1979.

J. Star and J. Estes, “Geographic Information Systems: An

Introduction". Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs New

Jersey, 1990.

C. Andronache, R. Hon, B. Mento, and R. Dalgin,”

"Mapping Hurricane Katrina with GIS", Proceedings

of the 2006 ESRI International User Conference

Proceedings, 2006. http://gis.esri.com/library/

proc06/papers/papers/pap_2320.pdf.

ICE-B 2010 - International Conference on e-Business