Managing Geographic Information Systems 2nd Edition

Nancy J. Obermeyer and Jeffrey K. Pinto (2007)
Guilford Publications
Hardback £41.00 ISBN 9781593856350

This book addresses a fundamental challenge that faces researchers that want to design solutions and techniques that are replicable and can be rolled out in other settings. It refers to a “twin pronged problem”: how to make analytical technologies work for a particular problem, and how to manage the effective use of those technologies within organisational or institutional contexts. The technology in question here is GIS: Geographic Information Systems, or crudely put, using computers to deal with information about places.

Those with a background in GIS will recognise the classic status of the original 1996 edition. This edition offers a collection of updates to original chapters together with additional material to reflect the significant diffusion of GIS and development of experience that has occurred in the last decade.

The book essentially begins with a general and relatively simplified exploration of the key contextual challenges of management and the use of the information to inform decision making. Chapters two and three are particularly valuable in this regard because they offer a condensed and extremely accessible account of why information matters and why it is of such important to a range of management and governance tasks. The basic principle here is that ‘information’ is an organisation’s lifeblood, but that simply throwing money at computer systems doesn’t necessarily help to clear the clots. There needs to be careful consideration of what an organisation’s objectives are; what the appropriate levels for decision making are; and what data are required to generate appropriate and useful information. Although the book is light on housing examples per se, it doesn’t stretch the imagination overly to see how its insights apply to housing organisations and to those that are involved in researching or advising on housing issues. The book goes on to develop a simple and cogent argument for how geography matters in most of these activities (it particularly singles out the public sector here) and hence why strategies for information need to explicitly cater for geographic information from the bottom up.

Following this contextual scene-setting, the book goes on to explore some specific issues related to geography. There is a basic plea for transparency and sensitivity on part of those who create and use geographic information. Most GIS books abound with examples of the sorts of things that can go wrong when spatial data are misused – and this volume is no exception – but the clear message that the reader is left with is that everything has its limits, including information itself and our capacity to know how to use it. Again, the value of thinking carefully about these limits within the organisational context is stressed. Inevitably this means investing in staff time (not just more software) and keeping meticulous ‘metadata’ (data about data), which in turn facilitates the sharing of information. Metadata is something that most GIS books predictably get rather evangelical over (much to the boredom of this reviewer) but at least Obermeyer and Pinto develop some pretty strong arguments for it.

One of the limitations of the book is that it does not offer a specific account of how the widespread diffusion of the Internet has impacted the way GIS can be used. The authors are aware of this limitation from the outset, and it is true that they raise the relevance of the Internet at appropriate places when considering other aspects of GIS. But, given its focus on the management of GIS within organisations, this seems a surprising omission, particularly given the increasing centrality of web-tools in nearly all aspects of research and policy making. Indeed, such has been the proliferation of GIS-enabled web-based information in the public domain that Burrows et al (2005) were prompted to remind us of its potentially dangerous impacts on local neighbourhoods and housing markets. Having said this, Obermeyer and Pinto do recognise the ‘social obligations’ that GIS professionals have (in a rather full discussion of GIS ethics). Even if one is left with the overwhelming sense that the solution is seen as democratising access to GIS and spatial data (e.g. so-called ‘public participation GIS’) rather than questioning the limits of our spatial conceptualisations of problems, these are pertinent and well argued insights.

One genuine concern that strongly features in the book is that of information privacy. There are plenty of sobering examples of how unfettered access to, and uncontrolled use of, postcoded data on individuals can disadvantage people or jeopardise public policy programmes. The hypothetical example of life insurance companies exploiting Philip Morris’ database of respondents to tobacco promotions is clearly not far fetched. The comparative value of such a database both to cigarette manufacturers and to smoking cessation services raises interesting questions.

Despite its lack of immediate relevance to the housing researcher, this is a valuable book. This is not because it is a current and comprehensive collection of chapters on the spatial technologies that underpin GIS. Rather, its value can be found in the way it conceptualises GIS as an important tool that can be used in the world of public policy and other spheres. From this it follows that a deep engagement is needed with how GIS can be used effectively within organisations and to help plan to meet strategic objectives. This implies a focus less on ‘technology’ and instead on more ‘mundane’ aspects such as staffing, data, ontology, skills and professionalism.

Housing scholars might baulk at the notion of a ‘GIS professional’ such as this book advances. But this is perhaps the logical outcome of drawing a wide definition of GIS that includes its management as well as the technology. For GIS to be truly effective, it needs to be embedded within other pursuits. Just as housing scholars benefit from the applied knowledge of statisticians, economists, historians, lawyers, and other professions, so too they can benefit from those that specialise in geographic information. It is the application of these specialisms to a substantive problem that is key.

It is fair to say that GIS (and quantitative approaches to problem solving) often attract unfavourable press, particularly among housing researchers. This may partly be because we’re now at the stage that producing thematic maps has become the norm (if not passé) and because over the last 40 years or so, the ‘first law of geography’ attributed to Waldo Tobler and the quantitative geography revolution he participated in has left us no closer to answering some of the more intractable public policy questions. But the way we use geographic information – in a more intelligent, embedded and above all honest way; to stimulate debate – still holds much promise. This book imparts much needed insight and plenty of salient reminders to help us to achieve this.


Reference:

Burrows, R., Ellison, N. And Woods, B. (2005) Neighbourhood on the Net: the nature and impact of internet-based neighbourhood information systems. Bristol: Policy Press.

Ed Ferrari
Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield