Design and development strategy for multi‐media GIS to support environmental negotiation, administration, and monitoring at the regional level

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Abstract
Environmental protection agencies must administer and monitor compliance with environmental legislation and regulations, provide information to educate the public on the importance of environmental issues, and support the negotiation of environmental conflicts between socio‐economic sectors. To perform these activities at the regional level requires the assembling, management, analysis, and presentation of large amounts of geo‐referenced information from different sources, formats, and scales. Multi‐media Geographic Information Systems (MM‐GIS) offer an alternative to deliver this functionality to support the daily activities of environmental professionals. In the dynamic context of the work carried out by environmental agencies, data and conditions must be updated frequently. The proposed design and development strategy for creating MM‐GIS is based on the premises that these agencies have scarce personnel, computer, financial, and time resources, and that there is a shortage of experienced developers. It expands the multi‐media handling capabilities of GIS and is aimed at facilitating the involvement of professional users in the maintenance and development of a system. It is expected that this involvement will reduce the risk of a MM‐GIS becoming obsolete shortly after its completion. A case study and the resulting MM‐GIS for a region on the west coast of central Mexico is presented.

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