AN OPERATIONAL PLANNING INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR SMALL COMMUNITIES

Abstract

THE WEALTH OF DATA COLLECTED ON THE URBAN AREA BY MANY PEOPLE FOR A MULTIPLICITY OF PURPOSES HAS LED TO AN INEFFICIENT, DISORGANIZED UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES FOR DATA HANDLING. UNTIL RECENTLY, MOST OF THE INFORMATION COLLECTED HAS BEEN GATHERED BY A SPECIFIC GROUP FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE. THIS INFORMATION WAS NOT USABLE BY OTHER THAN THE PRIMARY DATA RECIPIENT BECAUSE OF ITS NARROW DEFINITIONS AND SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS. PROVIDED HEREIN IS A SYSTEM WHEREBY DATA THAT ARE COLLECTED ONLY ONCE ARE USABLE BY ALL SEGMENTS OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT. UNIVERSALLY COMPATIBLE DEFINITIONS, AGGREGATION UNITS, AND PROCEDURES ARE DESCRIBED. COMPUTER PROGRAMS WERE DEVELOPED TO HANDLE THE DATA FOR THE SYSTEM. THE ENVIRONMENTAL DATA STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM (EDSARS) WILL MAKE A USEFUL TOOL FOR ALL SEGMENTS OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT BY PUTTING ALL GENERALLY USABLE DATA IN ONE PLACE WITH ONE SET OF DEFINITIONS AND AGGREGATED ON ONE USEFUL MODULE, USING ONE SET OF DATA HANDLING PROCEDURES. THE BASIC UNIT OF DATA COLLECTION ESTABLISHED WAS THE PARCEL, THEREBY PROVIDING A HIGH DEGREE OF FLEXIBILITY IN DATA AGGREGATION. THE CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION THEORY AS IT APPLIES TO URBAN DATA SYSTEMS IS FIRST EXPLORED. THE ACTUAL CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EDSARS IS EXPLAINED NEXT, FOLLOWED BY THE OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES NEEDED TO UTILIZE THE EDSARS SYSTEM. /AUTHOR/