UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2017/2018
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHY IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS
PIS 9304: ADVANCES IN GIS RESEARCH
DATE: DECEMBER, 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE (20 MARKS)
Big data has now become a strong focus of global interest that is increasingly attracting
the attention of academia, industry, government and other organizations.
Big data can be classified in the disciplinary area of traditional geospatial data handling
theory and methods. The increasing volume and varying format of collected geospatial
big data presents challenges in storing, managing, processing, analysing, visualising and
verifying the quality of data. This has implications for the quality of decisions made with
big data.
a) Revisit the existing geospatial data handling methods and theories to determine if
they are still capable of handling emerging geospatial big data.
(7 Marks)
b) Synthesize any problems, major issues and challenges as regards the emergent
geospatial big data development.
(6 Marks)
c) Outline any recommendation of what needs to be developed in the near future as
regards Geospatial Big data.
(7 Marks)
QUESTION TWO (15 MARKS)
The past 20 years have witnessed the emergence of a plethora of research themes in GIS
that are quite different from conventional GIS practices. Early GIS practices and
Research have been predominantly concentrated on automated cartography/map-making,
GIS modeling, geo-computation and database development.
In contrast, Emerging GIS practices and research are transforming GIS into a liberation
technology that is empowering GIS users in their quest for a better, more equitable and
sustainable world.
a) Critically review the past GIS themes from a variety of scientific
materials/literature.
(7 Marks)
b) Develop a explanatory framework that knits together the diverse intellectual
themes in GIS.
(8 Marks)
QUESTION THREE (15 MARKS)
Review the trends in the evolution and development of Open Source and Geospatial
Software and Libraries.
a) Discuss the major geospatial software libraries and packages. How are they
related?
(5 Marks)
b) Discuss the importance of API in Geospatial domains?
(5 Marks)
c) Mention some of the leading technologies/tools.
(5 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR (15 MARKS)
a) Outline how a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is essential to a
country’s social-economic development.
(8 Marks)
b) Illustrate the key steps involved in establishing an NSDI for a country like
Uganda.
(7 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE (15 MARKS)
a) Discuss why Standards are an essential aspect of achieving interoperability.
(6 Marks)
b) What are the benefits of using open standards for geospatial information
processing?
(5 Marks)
c) Discuss some of the free and open sources geospatial software packages that
support open standards.
(4 Marks)
