Design Issues Associated with Discrete and Distributed Hypermedia GIS

Abstract

The advancement of computer technology enables the integration of geographic information system (GIS) and multimedia technologies that incorporate not only spatial-temporal geographic information in image/vector format, but also multimedia geographic information in the form of descriptive text, terrestrial photographs, graphics, digital video, and sound. The concept of hypermedia GIS is reviewed in this paper. Design issues on the development of hypermedia GIS for use on individual personal computers (PC) (i.e., discrete systems) and on the Internet (i.e., distributed systems) are discussed. Software requirements, file formats, and data structures used in each system are described. The discrete and distributed hypermedia GIS provide the essential concepts and techniques for improved GIS applications such as visualization, spatial decision support systems, and spatial database management and exploration.