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REQUIREMENTS FOR PLANNING‐RELEVANT GIS: A SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE
Author(s) -
Couclelis Helen
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
papers in regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1435-5957
pISSN - 1056-8190
DOI - 10.1111/j.1435-5597.1991.tb01716.x
Subject(s) - operationalization , geographic information system , perspective (graphical) , variety (cybernetics) , space (punctuation) , representation (politics) , gis and public health , information system , computer science , public participation gis , geography , cartography , engineering , political science , epistemology , artificial intelligence , electrical engineering , politics , law , operating system , philosophy
For a variety of practical, technical, and theoretical reasons, geographic information system (GIS) capabilities are not yet fully altuned to the information needs of planning. This paper focuses on one of the more theoretical sources of existing discrepancies: the differing underlying representation of space in GIS on the one hand, and in much of planning on the other Indeed, geographic information systems embody an absolute, “container” view of space, whereas the higher‐level functions of planning, along with most of regional science and human geography, treat space as “relational.” It is suggested that the absolute‐relative polarization could he theoretically resolved, and GIS be made more relevant for strategic planning, through the operationalization of an intermediate conception of space as “proximal.”