Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-132).

M.Phil. (Geography) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Many local planning departments have acquired and put into use advanced automated geocoding and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to store, process, map and analyze geographic data. GIS technological advancements in hardware, software, and geographic databases - specifically, in geocoding methods to reference street address data to geographic locations - enable data to be integrated, mapped, and analyzed more efficiently and effectively. Also, technological advancements depend on organizational and institutional environments. The relationships between technological advancements and technical (data mapping and analysis), organizational, and institutional environments are not clear. The purpose of this study is to explain these relationships to help planning and development directors make better decisions in acquiring and using advanced geocoding and GIS technology. The findings are based on a mail survey of planning and development departments in cities with populations of 50,000 or more in the United States. The study found that planning departments with advanced geocoding and GIS technology are capable of conducting advanced geocoding applications. Data can be tabulated, aggregated, linked, and modeled for mapping and planning. Geocoding to aggregate data to small geographic areas helps by providing required and up-to-date information to solve urban problems. However, the study did not find that advanced geocoding systems enhance data quality as measured by spatial resolution and volume. Further studies are needed to explore this issue. The adoption and implementation of advanced geocoding and GIS technology are influenced by organizational and institutional environments. Large cities have more experience with hardware, software programs, computer professionals, and training programs, but they are dependent on centralized systems from an earlier computer era. Consequently, more recent entrants to using computers for geographic data processing are emerging rapidly. As technology is becoming more advanced, hardware and software costs are declining. Some of the organizational and institutional issues are eliminated while new ones are emerging. As a result, small area cities are adopting advanced geocoding and GIS technology more rapidly than they were previously, and sometimes they surpass large cities. This study improves understanding of automated street address geocoding methods and how these methods are related to advancements in GIS technology. The study also examines how technical, organizational, and institutional environments are interrelated in adopting and using geocoding and GIS technology. The challenge in the 1990s will not be how to fund and acquire a GIS, but how to integrate all of the pieces in order to make the technology work properly.

Protection of the visual environment begins with a comprehensive documentation and evaluation of existing conditions followed by the development of guidelines pertaining to future alterations. This thesis examines existing methods of visual assessment and the needs of the land planner for the purpose of understanding the necessary components of evaluating the visual environment effectively. The objective has been to develop a new method of visual documentation and evaluation that can be utilized by land planners for the visual assessment of road corridors. In order to achieve this objective, a visual assessment of a Significant road corridor in Blacksburg, Virginia has been conducted. Various necessary components have been included in the assessment and a relational database management program has been used in the storage of all collected data. As a result of this process, it was found that a new method, which borrows from past processes, addresses the needs of the land planner, and utilizes an interactive medium for storage of data, is successful in addressing the objective. The new method has been successful in including the necessary components such as qualitative evaluation with adaptive descriptive nomenclature and photographic documentation of the existing corridor. The database has many qualities which are meaningful to land planners. Relational database management programs have the capability of storing text as well as photographs. For land planners to view the various aspects of the corridor, a simple pressing of their computer mouse button moves the them from one aspect to another. / Master of Landscape Architecture

A planner driven by a causal theory and based on hypothetical reasoning is constructed and discussed. The task is approached from the fundamentals of time and event logics, and causality, resulting in a planner suitable for modeling a wide variety of realistic problem domains, and capable of reasoning in an intuitive manner about dynamic domains. The underlying causal theory drives the planning process directly and, in conjunction with the uniform representation of time and causal facts, allows elegant solutions to planning problems. A new type of planning problem, the indirect goal problem, is identified and solved It is also shown that previous planners cannot solve this type of problem. The frame problem is discussed in detail, and given a computational definition, suitable for allowing objective comparison between different approaches. The hypothetical reasoning approach is shown to allow an elegant solution to the frame problem appropriate for planning systems. / Master of Science

For local authorities to manage land policies effectively data bases of land use information that are current and mirror development on the ground are required. At present local authorities have no mechanisms in place to acquire maintain and spatially link land use information. Detailed land use information is not generally available at the local level. Generally little attention is paid to maintaining the expensive data which is assembled when planning schemes, development plans or projects are prepared. Land use planning has traditionally focussed on the control rather than the facilitation of development. Details of the actual land use on the ground are generally ignored as tariffs for tax purposes are set on the zoning of the land or a flat rate rather than the actual land use. This lack of land use information, which is exacerbated by informal settlement, causes delays in approving new land uses. There is generally no data available for informal areas and land use and tenure is subject to the informal rules that have evolved with such settlements. If these areas are to be included in the formal land management systems, ways of including and maintaining land use information about these settlements must be developed. By reviewing land information theory, the South African legal land development framework and using a small town as a case study, I have shown that provided certain conditions are met a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), designed to record and maintain the land use data necessary to support land use planning in both formal and informal contexts, could be a valuable land management tool. Such a system should be implemented in partnership with local communities and should; • support local level land use decision making and regulation • serve as a land management tool to integrate formal and informal communities • have mechanisms to keep land use information current • be transparent about the type of land use information • develop linkages with regional government to provide detailed land information over time. / Thesis (M.Sc.Sur.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Many electric utilities have been tapping such energy sources as wind energy or conservation for years. However, the literature shows few attempts to incorporate such non-dispatchable energy sources as decision variables into the long-range planning methodology. In this dissertation, efficient algorithms for electric utility capacity expansion planning with renewable energy are developed. The algorithms include a deterministic phase which quickly finds a near-optimal expansion plan using derating and a linearized approximation to the time-dependent availability of non-dispatchable energy sources. A probabilistic second phase needs comparatively few computer-time consuming probabilistic simulation iterations to modify this solution towards the optimal expansion plan. For the deterministic first phase, two algorithms, based on a Lagrangian Dual decomposition and a Generalized Benders Decomposition, are developed. The Lagrangian Dual formulation results in a subproblem which can be separated into single-year plantmix problems that are easily solved using a breakeven analysis. The probabilistic second phase uses a Generalized Benders Decomposition approach. A depth-first Branch and Bound algorithm is superimposed on the two-phase algorithm if conventional equipment types are only available in discrete sizes. In this context, computer time savings accrued through the application of the two-phase method are crucial. Extensive computational tests of the algorithms are reported. Among the deterministic algorithms, the one based on Lagrangian Duality proves fastest. The two-phase approach is shown to save up to 80 percent in computing time as compared to a purely probabilistic algorithm. The algorithms are applied to determine the optimal expansion plan for the Tijuana-Mexicali subsystem of the Mexican electric utility system. A strong recommendation to push conservation programs in the desert city of Mexicali I results from this implementation. / Ph. D.

In the past two decades policy assisting computer models have made a tremendous impact in the analysis of national security issues and the analysis of problems in various government affairs. SURMAN (Survivability Management) is a policy assisting model that has been developed for use in national security planning. It is a large scale model formulated using the system dynamics approach of treating a problem in its entirety rather than in parts. In this thesis, an encapsulation of SURMAN is attempted so as to sharpen and focus its ability to perform policy/design evaluation. It is also aimed to make SURMAN more accessible to potential users and to provide a simple tool to the decision makers without having to resort to the mainframe computers. To achieve these objectives a personal/microcomputer version of SURMAN (PC SURMAN) and a series of curves relating inputs to outputs are developed. PC SURMAN reduces the complexity of SURMAN by dealing with generic aircraft. It details the essential survivability management parameters and their causal relationships through the life-cycle of aircraft systems. The model strives to link the decision parameters (inputs) to the measures of effectiveness (outputs). The principal decision variables identified are survivability, availability, and inventory of the aircraft system. The measures of effectiveness identified are the Increase Payload Delivered to Target Per Loss (ITDPL), Cost Elasticity of Targets Destroyed Per Loss (CETDPL), Combat Value Ratio (COMVR), Kill to Loss Ratio (KLR), and Decreased Program Life-Cycle Cost (DPLCC). The model provides an opportunity for trading off decision parameters. The trading off of survivability enhancement techniques and the defense budget allocation parameters for selecting those techniques/parameters with higher benefits and lower penalties are discussed. The information relating inputs to outputs for the tradeoff analysis is presented graphically using curves derived from experimentally designed computer runs. / M.S.

The use of MEPLAN by the Metropolitan Transport Planning Branch of the Cape Town City Council since 1984 was not successful due to apartheid anomalies. EMME/2 was then introduced in 1991 in replacement of MEPLAN. The strengths and weaknesses of both MEPLAN and EMME/2 are recorded in this study.

by Stephen Mak Hung Sung. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese Unversity of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves B-1-B-3. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.viii / CHAPTER / Chapter I --- BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Impact of Information Technology on General Business and The Public Sector --- p.1 / Information Technology Trends --- p.4 / The Need for Systematic Planning for the Use of Information Technology --- p.5 / The Broad Problem Issues of Information --- p.7 / Systems Strategic Planning (ISSP) The Situation in Hong Kong --- p.9 / Chapter II --- REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND STRATEGIC PLANNING --- p.12 / Recent Studies --- p.12 / A Refined Statement of the Problem --- p.15 / Chapter III --- A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESSFUL ISSP --- p.16 / The Variables --- p.16 / The General Framework for Success --- p.21 / Chapter IV --- A SURVEY ON THE PRACTICE OF ISSP IN HONG KONG --- p.23 / The Survey --- p.23 / The Survey Method --- p.24 / The Survey Results --- p.28 / Interviews with Information Systems Managers --- p.49 / Revisiting the Framework for Successful ISSP --- p.55 / Chapter V --- A GENERIC MODEL FOR THE ISSP PROCESS --- p.59 / Tasks and Methodologies --- p.59 / Affirming the Benefits of ISSP --- p.61 / Relevance of ISSP to Organizations in Hong Kong --- p.63 / Chapter VI --- RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.65 / A Recommended Approach to ISSP --- p.65 / ISSP and the Information Industry --- p.69 / ISSP and the Government --- p.71 / Chapter VII --- CONCLUDING REMARKS --- p.73 / APPENDICES --- p.A1-A5 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.B1-B3