Index to Cartography and Geographic Information Science,Volume 27

A number of decision support systems (DSS) were evaluated prior to commencing public participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS) workshops within a small rural town undergoing rapid development. A paucity of existing information regarding the capabilities of these tools and their utility in supporting various PPGIS applications was noted. In order to improve this situation and to better understand the strengths and limitations of the selected DSS CommunityViz, we monitored and measured its utility in supporting community-based spatial decision-making processes from both a technologist and citizen's perspective. Results indicate that CommunityViz has several strengths; however, the software exhibits some weaknesses in the context of our study. In assessing these results we realized that the utility of such findings could be much enhanced if contained within a structure that enables comparison between various DSS. Thus, a major objective was to develop and apply a DSS Evaluation Matrix (DSSEM) that can be used by PPGIS practitioners and participants to evaluate DSS in various project settings. The application of DSSEM will help formalize evaluations of DSS and encourage dissemination of results. Furthermore, it will assist practitioners, citizens, and agencies to make better choices when selecting DSS for PPGIS applications and provide DSS developers with the appropriate information to improve tool design.     

A Transition in Improving Maps: The ColorBrewer Example

Many map makers seek to share their map design efforts by distributing styles, fonts, templates, software, tips, and other sorts of instructions. For example, <www.mapsymbols.com> offers links to a variety of symbol and font design efforts by mapmakers who use ESRI's GIS products. In this article, I will reflect on the format for offering map design assistance that I have used in ColorBrewer (Figure 1). ColorBrewer <www.ColorBrewer.org> is a web tool for selecting color schemes for thematic maps. It has elicited a trickle of enthusiastic e-mail from pleased users who tell me that their maps are improved, and they are relieved to save time on a design challenge for which they are not confident of their skills. ColorBrewer is described in detail in two papers (Harrower and Brewer, in press; Brewer et al. 2003). It is described briefly here to provide context for my reflections on a transition in cartography toward assisting people who want to represent their information spatially but who have little or no training in the conventions and principles of map design and data representation.