Gis Implementation
Gis Implementation
Axel Bronder
and
Erik Persson
June 2013
Abstract
This thesis describes in detail how a mobile Geographical Information System (GIS) was
designed, implemented and evaluated for the prevailing circumstances of a land regular-
isation project in Lesotho in Southern Africa. The GIS was developed as an application
for the Android platform, primarily with the tablet-computer format in mind, to be used
for land registration field work.
The main purpose of the paper is to determine whether an ad hoc mobile GIS solution
can improve the efficiency of the field work as well as the integrity of the data collected
in the fieldwork of the land regularisation project in Lesotho. The aim is also to evaluate
the performance and usefulness of modern tablet computers in this context.
The application was developed and tested on site in Lesotho on two tablet computers
borrowed from Samsung Electronics AB in Sweden. After the development phase, the
solution was later implemented on tablet computers of a different model for the remain-
der of the land regularisation project in Lesotho.
The design process started with a field visit where the work-flow of the project was anal-
ysed. From this a needs analysis were formed together with the management staff on site
that served as a base for the development process. The development and implementation
was then performed with continuous communication and evaluation with the personnel
of the project. As the development progressed, the solution was also tested and evaluated
continuously in the field work.
Not only did the solution perform well both software- and hardware-wise, despite strong
sun from high altitudes and lack of internet connection in Lesotho, it also exceeded the
expectations of the staff. The solution significantly improved the work environment for
the field workers of the project and the efficiency was raised, according to the evalua-
tion. A unified management staff concludes in the evaluation of this paper that they will
consider using tablet computers together with an ad hoc application for the field work of
their next project.
Denna rapport beskriver i detalj hur ett mobilt geografiskt informationssystem (GIS)
utvecklades, implementerades och utvärderades inom ett fastighetsindelningsprojekt i
Lesotho i södra Afrika. Lösningen utvecklades som en ad hoc-applikation för oper-
ativsystemet Android, i första hand med pekdatorformatet i åtanke, för att användas i
fältarbetet inom projektet.
Det huvudsakliga syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida en mobil GIS-lösning kan
förbättra fältarbetets effektivitet men också om kvaliteten kan höjas för data insamlat i
fält i Lesothoprojektet. Ett annat mål är att utvärdera nyttan av moderna pekdatorer och
hur de presterar inom ett lantmäteriprojekt i Afrika.
Applikationen utvecklades och testades på plats i Lesothos huvudstad Maseru på två
pekdatorer som lånades från Samsung Electronics AB i Stockholm. Lösningen imple-
menterades även på pekdatorer av en annan modell när utvecklingsprocessen närmade
sig sitt slutskede och metoden kom att användas fram till projektets planerade slut i au-
gusti 2013.
Utvecklingsarbetet inleddes med ett fältbesök för att få en förståelse för de egenskaper
som applikationen behövde ha. En behovsanalys togs fram tillsammans med beslutsfat-
tarna i projektet. Med utgångspunkt i dessa behov utvecklades applikationen genom nära
kommunikation och samarbete med projektets personal. Mot slutet av utvecklingsskedet
testades och utvärderades lösningen i fält och förbättrades sedan genom att de kom-
mentarer och förslag som mottogs från fältpersonalen beaktades.
Den framtagna lösningen fungerade med gott resultat, både i mjukvaru- och i hårdvaru-
hänseende, trots stark och högt stående sol och avsaknad av tillförlitlig mobil interne-
tanslutning i Lesotho. Lösningen överträffade även förväntningarna hos projektets per-
sonal och den förbättrade fältarbetarnas arbetsmiljö avsevärt. I utvärderingen av den här
studien framgår att projektledningen avser utreda möjligheterna att använda en liknande
lösning för fältarbetet i framtida projekt.
Gustav Ekstedt and Torkel Endoff, LTH. For sharing their related work with us upon
request.
Győző Gidófalvi, KTH Geoinformatics, co-supervisor. For great support, swift re-
sponses and extensive technical knowledge.
Ian Corker, ORGUT Consulting AB. For coming up with the idea of extending the use
of tablet computers to involve the 4% checks and for implementing our solution into the
Lesotho project.
Jakob Riise, COWI A/S, co-supervisor. For coming up with the initial topic suggestion
and for inviting us to the land registration project in Lesotho. Also for his supervision,
input and help in solving all practical arrangements on site.
Jan Van Bennekom-Minnema, COWI A/S. For criticism, extensive technical under-
standing and general input.
Khosi Ernest Senekane, COWI A/S. For being very enthusiastic and pushing for the
solution to be implemented. Helped support the implementation and support the other
members of the Tablet Team. Khosi also showed great understanding of the solution and
good ideas throughout the entire process.
Lennart Johansson, KTH International Relations. For his part in granting us the MFS
scholarship and his swift way of solving all practical arrangements involved.
Mattias Källman, Axicom. For contacting Samsung Electronics on our behalf and
thereby supplying us with tablet computers to work with.
Robert Copley, COWI A/S. For using and evaluating our solution.
Valentin Kotzev, ORGUT Consulting AB. For useful technical input in the initial stages
of our project.
Yifang Ban, KTH Geoinformatics, examiner. For criticism and examination of this the-
sis and for support in the initial stages of our thesis proposal.
This study has been carried out within the framework of the Minor Field Studies Schol-
arship Programme, MFS, which is funded by the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency, Sida.
The main purpose of the MFS Programme is to enhance Swedish university students
knowledge and understanding of these countries and their problems and opportunities.
MFS should provide the student with initial experience of conditions in such a country.
The overall goals are to widen the Swedish human resources cadre for engagement in
international development cooperation as well as to promote scientific exchange between
universities, research institutes and similar authorities as well as NGOs in developing
countries and in Sweden.
The International Relations Office at KTH the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm,
Sweden, administers the MFS Programme within engineering and applied natural sci-
ences.
Lennart Johansson
Programme Officer
MFS Programme, KTH International Relations Office
KTH, SE-100 44 Stockholm. Phone: +46 8 790 9616. Fax: +46 8 790 8192.
E-mail: [email protected]
www.kth.se/student/utlandsstudier/examensarbete/mfs
Contents
List of Figures 8
1 Introduction 12
1.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.1.1 The Land Registration Project in Lesotho . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.1.2 The Paper-based Work-flow of the Land Registration Project . . . 13
1.1.3 Background for the Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.2 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3 Aim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 Related Work 17
2.1 Design and Development of a Mobile GIS Application for Municipal
Field Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2 ArcGIS - ESRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3 Collector for ArcGIS - ESRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 The Blade Runner Application - ESRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.5 SeSverige (”See Sweden”) - Metria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.6 LizardTech GeoViewer - Celartem Inc. d.b.a. LizardTech . . . . . . . . . 18
4 Method 22
4.1 Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1.2 Application Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.1.3 Software Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.1.4 Data Storage and Retrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.1.5 Alternative Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.2 The Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.2.1 Meeting the Basic Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.2.2 Solving the Interaction Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2.3 Field Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.3 Supporting the Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4 Evaluation Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6
5 Results and Discussion 30
5.1 The Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.1.1 Functionalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.1.2 Overall System Architecture (3-Tier) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2.1 The Tablet Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2.2 The 4 Percent Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.3 Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.3.1 The Evaluation From the Claimant Support Officers . . . . . . . 35
5.3.2 The Evaluation From the GIS / Quality Control Officer . . . . . . 36
5.3.3 The Evaluation From the Management Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.4.1 Alternative Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.4.2 GPS/Orthophoto Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7 Copyrights 42
References 43
8 Appendix 46
8.1 Appendix A: Field Work Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
8.2 Appendix B: Data Management Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8.3 Appendix C: CSO Evaluation Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.4 Appendix D: GIS / QC Evaluation Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
8.5 Appendix E: Management Evaluation Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8.6 Appendix F: Parcel Plan Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7
List of Figures
1 Screenshot of the Blade Runner application. Source: ESRI . . . . . . . . 18
2 Screenshot of the SeSverige application. Here a downloaded raster-image
overlaying the satellite imagery from Google. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 Picture from the initial field testing of the application: Erik Persson re-
ceives input from the CSO:s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4 Screenshot of the digital version of the Parcel Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5 Sequence diagram of the Maseru Mapplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6 3-tier architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
8
Abbreviations - General
API - Application Programming Interface
A programming specification that allows software components to communicate with each
other.
OS - Operating System
A collection of software that manages computer hardware resources and provides ser-
vices for other computer programs.
OSM - OpenStreetMap
A free editable map project of the world.
9
WKT - Well Known Text
A standardised form of representing a geographical feature.
10
Abbreviations and Terms - Project Specific
CSO - Claimant Support Officer
The CSO, or Field Officer, is responsible for visiting each parcel in the land regularisa-
tion project to collect data from the claimants.
QC - Quality Coordinator
Responsible for the initial quality check of the parcel plans registered by the CSO.
11
1 Introduction
1.1 General
1.1.1 The Land Registration Project in Lesotho
Lesotho is a small, land-locked, kingdom with very limited resources that is highly de-
pendent on the surrounding state South Africa. The country has around two million
inhabitants, of which up to 40 percent lives below the international poverty line [25]. In
order to enhance the life quality of the inhabitants and to speed up the development of the
country a Land Regularisation Project has been started. The project contributes to fulfil
the Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2000 [22]. The
project was started in April 2012 and it has a planned ending in August 2013. The con-
tract for the land regularisation project in Lesotho is a joint venture between the Danish
Consultant company COWI A/S, hereby referred to as COWI for the remainder of this
thesis, and the Swedish company ORGUT Consulting, hereby referred to as ORGUT.
The project is financed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) through the
Millennium Challenge Account - Lesotho (MCA-L), with the aim of reducing poverty in
Lesotho through stimulation of economic growth [6].
The possession of a piece of land makes it possible to have a place to live, grow crops,
and also to sell, buy, take loans, and inherit a property. The authorities can also benefit
from a regularised system with improved taxation control and a more efficient cadas-
tre management [20]. Today Lesotho lacks a fully formalised and functional system for
parcel registration and ownership and this strongly limits the opportunities for economic
growth in the country. The main objective of the Lesotho land regularisation project was
to strengthen the rights of the legitimate occupiers of the land by a process of formalising
those rights. Every claimant (plot-occupier) in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, and in the
surrounding areas of Maseru was visited by representatives, Claimant Support Officers
(CSO:s), of the land regularisation project. The potential claimants were asked if they
want to participate in the project and claim the legal rights to the piece of land that they
are occupying, in the form of a 90-year lease.
The land administration system in Lesotho has traditionally been based on the influence
of local chiefs, Morenas. Several land legislation changes since the 1960’s has tried to
introduce a more formal system and as a result there were already existing leases scattered
across Maseru before the land regularisation project began. These existing leases were
respected in the project and only checked for validation. In the bigger part of Maseru,
however, there were no leases beforehand and the land administration was handled by the
Morenas only.
12
Pilot Project
A pilot project was carried out during a design stage between September 2009 and May
2010. The aim of the pilot project was to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
for the carrying out of systematic land regularisation in the urban areas of Lesotho (sites
adjudication, surveying and titles provision). The pilot study was executed on 5,000 land
parcels in urban Maseru and the lessons learned from this pilot project influenced the
COWI-ORGUT approach to the project [3].
In Maseru, some leases had already been granted before the project began (as mentioned
above) and this existing vector data was used to complement the orthophotos in the pre-
vectorisation.
Outreach-Information Campaign
As already described, the CSO:s (the field officers) focus on one area of around 500
parcels at a time. In order to raise the awareness of the project, radio information cam-
paigns were broadcasted and posters were put up before the establishment of new areas.
So called Pitso Meetings were held with the villagers and the women were informed
about their rights in the coming process. A properly done information campaign was
considered helpful for the CSO:s as they moved into new areas.
Parcel Visits
In the land registration project, all the data is collected by hand by the CSO:s from every
potential claimant in Maseru in the field. The CSO:s visit every concerned claimant
and collect data on a printed form, the Parcel Plan. This form involves some general
data regarding the claimant; name, telephone number, etc., as well as some general data
concerning the parcel: GPS-coordinates, demarcations, etc. In Lesotho the aim was to
regularise at least 46.000 parcels and collect data for them in this way [4].
13
In April 2013, there are eight field teams currently involved in the project. Every field
team is continuously moving from one area to another until all of Maseru has been cov-
ered. The field teams work in each area for about 2 weeks at the time and every area
consist of around 500 parcels. During this time, a Local Field Office is established,
where claimants are obliged to come and speak to the field team. The claimants must
visit the local office to document that they have the legal right to occupy the plot. They
have to provide an allocation letter from the local chief and documentation that they are
the person, who they claim to be. Most field teams consist of one legal reviewer, four
CSO:s and two Data Entry Officers (DEO:s). The legal reviewers responsibility is to try
to solve any disputes that may arise. The field teams are supported by external surveyors
that survey any changes in relation to the pre-vectorised data.
In this embodiment, the CSO:s are required to bring a binder of printed Parcel Plan forms,
an A3 overview-map, and a hand-held GPS device to every parcel that they visit in or-
der to carry out their task. This is the part of the field work that this thesis focus on, to
improve the work environment of the CSO:s, by replacing all these items with a tablet
computer.
Public Display
As soon as all parcels in an area are visited, the legal documents have been examined by
a legal reviewer, and all the surveying has been undertaken, signs are put up at the Lo-
cal Field Office displaying all parcels along with some information about the claimants
registered for the parcels. This procedure is done in order to give the opportunity for the
claimants to verify that their information and parcel is correctly collected before receiv-
ing their lease. If any errors are discovered all complaints are noted by the CSO:s present
and then corrected in the main COWI-ORGUT office.
Lease Delivery
When the above process is completed and all parcels in an area has been controlled, the
data is delivered to the Land Administration Authority (LAA) in Lesotho, and from this
authority the claimants are issued 90-year leases for their parcels.
14
1.1.3 Background for the Thesis
COWI has extensive experience of projects related to law, mapping and surveying from
all over the world [5], and they saw an opportunity to investigate whether the develop-
ment of a project-specific mobile application is an adequate alternative in similar future
projects to increase efficiency and profitability. At the same time, COWI was interested
in evaluating the tablet computer format. The popularity of this format has grown expo-
nentially in the last couple of years, but it has not been tested in this particular context
before and the knowledge regarding their performance cannot be regarded as well-known
as the performance of laptops, for example.
Sustainability
In the land regularisation project one Parcel Plan document was printed for every pre-
vectorised parcel, meaning that at least 46.000 documents were printed in this step. As-
suming that the weight of an A4-sheet is approximately 5 g, this means that a total of
at least 230 kg of documents was printed and carried out into the field by the CSO:s.
As will be proven in this thesis, this can be replaced entirely by an ad hoc mobile GIS
application.
15
Work Environment
The CSO:s had a relatively heavy and uncomfortable work environment. As mentioned,
they were expected to carry around heavy binders filled with Parcel Plans. They also car-
ried an A2 overview-map, a stack of business cards, marking tape for the demarcations,
and a hand-held GPS device. To handle all the equipment at once and at the same time
protect it from rain and wind was a non-trivial part in the work of the CSO:s. An example
of a Parcel Plan can be found in Appendix F of this paper.
1.3 Aim
The development of a tablet computer solution was discussed already during the pilot-
part of the Lesotho project [3]. No application was implemented that time but, as the
potential benefits of implementing an entirely digital solution for the field work in terms
of data quality and data-managing efficiency are many, the interest for the technology for
future projects remained.
The general aim of this thesis is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of im-
plementing a mobile GIS solution into the fieldwork in comparison to the current system
already in use. Since the usefulness also depends on the performance of the tablets, both
the hardware and software (architecture, functionality, etc.) is evaluated.
As the Maseru Mapplication was implemented into the land regularisation project and
one of the field teams was equipped with tablets, another aim became to educate the
personnel on the developed solution and to transfer all knowledge about the MM to the
staff.
16
2 Related Work
Mobile GIS solutions are implemented frequently in different contexts across the globe.
These applications can be public and for commercial use as well as for more private
usage and for a specific task. In most cases the applications are not scientific work and
nothing is published about the work but it is clear that there is a lot of interest in the tablet
computer format. GIS company ESRI, for example, mention tablets as one of the latest
advancements in mobile GIS [15]. There are at least a few publications and applications
within the same category that should be mentioned.
17
Figure 1: Screenshot of the Blade Runner application. Source: ESRI
The user can download raster and/ or vector data from Lantmäteriet, and display it over
a background map from Google Maps. Useful for people who wants more detailed map-
ping over a smaller area. The application has a well functioning data-handling solution,
but the maps are very pricey and they do not cover any area outside of Sweden.
18
Figure 2: Screenshot of the SeSverige application. Here a downloaded raster-image
overlaying the satellite imagery from Google.
Another part of the field visit was to visit a public display in an area that recently had
been regularised. The purpose of the public display is described above in section 1.1.2.
19
3.2 Needs Analysis (Defining the Application Requirements)
In order to clarify the different desired abilities of the application a preliminary Needs
Analysis was sent to different persons involved in the project for consideration. The
received comments and corrections were considered and the final Needs Analysis can be
read below. The Needs Analysis should be considered to contain all the requirements of
the application to make it useful in the project.
20
2. Sketch changes in the pre-vectorised parcels and store changes locally
When field officers notice errors or changes in the pre-vectorised parcels, they
need to be able to sketch these notes directly in the tablet. (These sketches should
be considered as notes of potential changes and not final parcels, as the CSO:s are
not authorised to make any final changes of the data directly in the field).
21
4 Method
In this section the development process is reviewed and described. Initially, the devel-
oping environment and the technical solutions used are described in detail. The most
obvious alternative technologies are also mentioned. The work-flow and milestones are
then recapped together with a review of the final implementation of the GIS application
into the Lesotho project.
4.1 Environment
4.1.1 Hardware
In order not to burden the budget of the study more than necessary it was investigated
whether a tablet manufacturer could provide Android tablets for the MM development
for free. Two tablets of the model Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with 10 inch screens were
borrowed from Samsung Electronics Sweden and they were used for the development
process. In order to prepare the tablets for the application development and to ensure the
development functionality of them, they were set up with the necessary settings ahead of
departure from Sweden. A demo application was developed and tested on them in this
stage as well.
The two tablets were also used in the fieldwork of the initial testing and evaluation of
the GIS application. For the final implementation, however, five smaller Google Nexus 7
tablets with 7 inch screens were bought in by COWI-ORGUT.
Initially, some concerns were raised from COWI:s side regarding the readability of the
tablet screen in very bright sunlight, since bright sun from a high angle occurs almost
every day in Lesotho. This was evaluated during the testing phase with the help of the
employees that used the tablets in the field. Another option, however, could be to use
so called Rugged Devices, that are built strong to withstand harsh conditions and rough
handling. The disadvantage of such devices is the notably higher unit price. A Panasonic
Toughpad costs for example around 1100 Euro in comparison to the around 350 Euro for
a Samsung Galaxy 2 Tab [24].
22
4.1.2 Application Type
The application developed is a so called Native Application. Native applications pose as
stand-alone applications and run directly in the operative system in contrast to Web Appli-
cations, that are run directly in the device’s web browser. Web applications can be con-
sidered platform independent and do not necessarily rely on constant Internet connection,
since caching technologies are rapidly developing, but they have a slower performance
in general than native applications and they do not have full access to hardware of the
tablets (camera, accelerometer, etc.) [23]. Since it was known that the application would
require a lot of computation performance, a native application was the logical choice.
Android provides full support for the SQL database engine SQLite by default. SQLite
is a largely self-contained database engine, meaning that it requires minimal support
from external libraries or from the operating system. It also has no standalone processes
in which the application communicates with a server [26]. In our application the open
source package Spatialite provides the database with spatial capabilities. Spatialite is
widely used to support SQLite on a number of different platforms. Spatialite for An-
droid is based on SpatiaLite 3.0.1 and it has been originally released by the U.S Army
Geospatial Center [17].
23
available. It is predicted to overtake the pole position in market shares for tablet com-
puters in 2013 [2], and there is a great variety of different models for most budgets and
implementations available. Windows mobile is also regarded as less suitable than the An-
droid platform, because of the relatively small number of cheap devices available. Older
versions of the Android operating system is not an option, since some of the functionali-
ties necessary for the application are only available in the Android 3.0 platform (API 11:
Honeycomb) or higher.
When it comes to the mapping SDK:s the most established alternatives to the ESRI Appli-
cation Programming Interface (API) used are the Google Maps API and the Open Source
API OpenStreetMap (OSM). Because the GIS personnel in the Lesotho project were al-
ready using ESRI products (ArcMap), and because the authors were familiar with this
API from before, the ESRI solution was chosen. The ESRI API provides a valuable tool
for creating background map packages from images and the supporting documentation
can be regarded as extensive, at least in comparison to the OSM API.
Displaying the current GPS position of the user was trivial, as Esri provides detailed ex-
amples on how to implement this feature using their API.
Disappointingly, it was found out in an early stage that it would not be possible to directly
use ESRI Shapefiles for the vector layer directly. This file type cannot be read straight
from the local storage of a mobile device. The .shp format is widely used geospatial vec-
24
Figure 3: Picture from the initial field testing of the application: Erik Persson receives
input from the CSO:s.
tor data format for geographic information and even though ESRI:s own API is used, the
interface lacks direct support for the Shapefile format. This is also the case for all of the
larger mapping API:s available for Android. In the land regularisation project in Lesotho,
all of the vector data were generated as Shapefiles and relatively long time was needed
before an adequate workaround for this issue was found. The most suitable solution for
the application was to read the shapes as Well-Known-Text (WKT), a format defined by
the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), from a locally stored spatial database. To create
this solution it was needed to look outside the API:s provided by Google and Esri, and
add a third-party library from Spatialite. To display the geometries from a .shp-file, the
user must first import the Shapefile into the spatial database and then put this database
on the local storage of the device. The application then reads the geometries as WKT
from the locally stored database and transforms the data back into points or polygons and
display them on the screen.
The most important interactive feature of the application was to create a digital version
of the Parcel Plan document. The digital Parcel Plan is designed to reflect the original
document as much as possible, in order to ease the transition for everyone involved in the
project. See Figure 4. Two of the fields were programmed to be filled out automatically,
to speed up the input process and to eliminate a few potential error sources: the Adjudica-
25
Figure 4: Screenshot of the digital version of the Parcel Plan.
tion ID and the current date. The (current) GPS coordinates are filled out with the press of
a button inside the Parcel Plan. The Adjudication ID is unique for each parcel involved in
the project and is assigned in a process before an area is visited. If any other information
regarding the parcel already exists on the database, this information will be displayed
in the Parcel Plan automatically. All of these steps are handled by general SQL-queries
from inside the Java code and the data is stored directly in a Parcel Plan-table on the local
database.
To alter existing parcels, and to generate new ones, a Sketch-tool was implemented that
was partly created from one of the samples available from the Esri Android API [12].
This sample was of great help during the development process, and implementing this
functionality was relatively uncomplicated. The new parcels that the user creates are
given a new preliminary Adjudication ID by the CSO and they are saved to a separate
geometry table on the local database. The uniqueness of the name is secured by the pro-
cedure of using the name of a nearby parcel and adding a suffix to it. To minimise the
risk of assigning the same name as an already existing parcel to a new one, the applica-
26
tion checks the database for potential doublets before saving the geometry. To fill out the
Parcel Plan for the new or altered parcel, the CSO just have to tap inside the new parcel
that is automatically displayed on the screen.
Regarding the data management solution that was implemented, it was realised early on
that a locally stored spatial database would be an adequate solution for the application.
Since it was made clear from the start that an online application could not be considered,
the alternative is to store data locally on the device in one way or another. The database
is a flexible solution that is cross-platform, meaning that it does not directly rely on any
specific Android version and the data can be read and altered from applications that run
on other platforms, such as Windows 7 on a PC.
By that time only two CSO:s had tested and used the application so it was necessary to
educate the other two CSO:s in the Tablet Team on how to use the solution as well. The
two officers that previously had used the tablets were able to work independently from
the start with the new tablets and the other two were accompanied for one day, after an
initial demonstration of the different functions of the application.
27
The next step in the implementation process was to produce a more sustainable knowl-
edge transfer from the authors to the project staff on how to manage the MM. This was
made in the form of an user instruction document containing a description of how all
functions worked and should be used. Some tips about how to deal with different situa-
tions and known errors were mentioned as well. The instructions document can be seen
in Appendix A.
In order to be able to use the tablet solution, a procedure of how to manage the data in
the main office had to be established. Both on how to prepare the pre-vectorised data
before the Tablet Team move into a new area, and also how to retrieve the collected data
from the tablets and how to transfer it into the central server. Furthermore, the procedure
of how to prepare a so called 4 percent check (see Section 5.2.2) was another task to be
performed in the office. An employee working within the GIS team in the main office
was instructed on how perform the different tasks. An instruction document for the office
tasks was also provided. This document can be found in Appendix B.
For future reference, a folder was prepared and put on the project server,containing the
source code of the application, the installation files, background data, database manager
program and instructions.
The Claimant Support Officers comes into contact with the solution only through the
tablets and the questions to them concentrated on working with the tablet and how it dif-
fers from working with the paper binders.
The GIS-personnels role in the tablet solution work-flow is the data management. That
includes both the preparation before the field work can start and the transfer and process-
ing of the collected data. The questionnaire focus on how the work flow, the efficiency
and the quality of the collected data has changed.
28
The questionnaires were made on Google Drive and could therefore be answered and
summarised over Internet. The subjects answered multiple-choice questions and also had
the possibility to give some personal comments. The entire result of the survey can be
found in the appendix section of this paper (Appendix C, D, E). The results were sum-
marised and used to draw conclusions about the performance of the MM.
29
5 Results and Discussion
5.1 The Application
This section contains a detailed review of the MM and all implemented features.
5.1.1 Functionalities
Sequence diagram
All functionalities of the application are visualised in a so called Sequence Diagram
shown in Figure 5. A Sequence Diagram is a widely-used type of interaction diagram
that graphically describes interactions between objects in the sequential order that those
interactions occur [1].
30
Figure 5: Sequence diagram of the Maseru Mapplication
If a newly placed node is accidentally put in the wrong place, it is possible to press
Undo to go back one or more steps. When the sketched parcel has the correct shape and
place, the button Save & Close will open a pop-up where the user can type in the desired
parcel number. When typing in a parcel number some limitations regarding name and
allowed symbols exist. When a parcel is given the same name as an already existing one
a warning dialogue appears and prevents the parcel to be saved with that name. Symbols
like apostrophe and space are not allowed either due to limitations in the nomenclature
system of the database. Another limitation that prevents the users to create erroneous
parcels is a minimum limit of three nodes that a parcel must have, to form a polygon.
31
As described in Section 3.2.2 all parcels that the user draws is given a name based on a
nearby parcel along with a ending prefix, according to the project praxis. When drawing
a new parcel it is good to know the desired parcel number before starting to draw since it
not is possible to check the nearby parcel names while drawing. To cancel a drawing the
Cancel button can be pressed.
When a parcel has been drawn and given a valid name it is saved in the New Parcels
table in the internal database and displayed on the screen. The New Parcels-layer, con-
taining all the parcels sketched by the user, can be turned on and off like any other layer
via the Layer List.
Deleting parcels
It is possible to delete a drawn parcel. To do so, the user have to long press on it and
then press OK on the dialogue appearing. It is only possible to delete parcels from the
New Parcels layer, i.e. that are user-drawn, and not from the layers that are generated
from Shapefiles.
The position
The current position of the user is relevant to collect in order to provide a check that the
CSO:s really have been in the correct parcel when collecting the data, and not mistaken
it for different one. In order to acquire the position, the user is required to stand in the
parcel and press the Get Pos-button. An eye should be kept on the circle surrounding
the position dot on the map since it symbolises the uncertainty of the current position. It
is desirable that the circle is within the parcel boundaries when acquiring the position.
If the tablet has problems with acquiring a position fix, it is possible to use an external
device and type in the coordinates manually.
32
Parcel boundary types
The parcel boundary types are in the project divided into nine categories. In the paper
based solution the CSO noted these boundaries directly on the map on the Parcel Plan.
In the digital version, this data is collected from prepared drop-down lists, where the user
select one of the nine categories. Four fields corresponding to the different sides of a
parcel and named after the four cardinals can be filled out when noting the types. Since
all parcels do not have four sides and are not perfectly aligned in North-South direction,
some improvisation might have to be done in some cases.
All information in the Parcel Plan do not need to be entered at once. It is possible to go
back and update or fill out all fields. The position button should though be handled with
care if the user is not within the parcel since a tap on it will update the coordinate fields
with the current position.
33
Figure 6: 3-tier architecture
5.2 Implementation
5.2.1 The Tablet Team
Towards the very end of the development phase, COWI-ORGUT decided to implement
the MM for the remainder of the land regularisation project. Four tablets of the Google
Nexus 7 model were used and it was decided to make one out of eight field teams com-
pletely digital.
Along with the implementation decision came a need for an end product on very short
notice. The new tablet team had to be educated on how to use the solution in a correct
manner and during the last two weeks in Lesotho much time and effort was put in to
educate the four CSO:s and one person from the GIS staff on the MM. Some of the
CSO:s had very little or no experience from using a similar type of device before.
34
The MM was intended to be used for the data collection work only, but it was asked from
the COWI-ORGUT management if the application could be modified to load and display
older data for the 4 percent checks. The alternative would be to print all the parcel infor-
mation and again use a paper-based solution. The information necessary for the checks
was the name of the claimants and the lease numbers connected to a parcels displayed on
the tablet, along with a more detailed data document, the SAR-1-form, in .pdf-format.
With a few alternations of the data loaded into the tablets compared to the normal proce-
dure before the data collecting work, the MM turned out to work well for the task. The
SAR-1-forms were loaded into the tablets and could then be viewed in a file explorer ap-
plication on the tablet. The preparation procedure is described in the Data Management
Instructions in Appendix B of this paper.
5.3 Evaluation
For the evaluation, a questionnaire was created and the different people that had come
into contact with the tablet solution were divided into three answering groups. Therefore
the evaluation contains three views or aspects of implementing a tablet solution into a
project like this. The three groups were treated separately.
The hardware (Nexus 7): The performance of the screen in sunlight is considered
good even though the robustness could be better adapted to field work. The battery
capacity was good according to the subjects and a positive overall grade was given to the
tablet. One subject is concerned about the performance in rain.
Working with the tablet solution: The subjects are overall positive. Some concerns
existed beforehand, that it would be complicated to use the tablets. All subjects are pos-
itive after using it and they consider the tablet solution to be able to replace the binders,
maps and external GPS receivers. The subjects see a great and positive change in work
environment and efficiency with the tablet-based solution.
35
Other comments: One improvement mentioned is to have some type of bag or cover
to protect the tablets when they are not being used. One CSO think the tablet solution
contributes to the feeling that they are working for a major company and that they are
looking forward to going to work.
Initials expectations and concerns: The subject had expectations that the Shapefiles
could easily be loaded and that it would be possible to search for a parcel number and
to find relevant data, when in the field. A concern that was raised was the battery life of
tablet.
The management of data: After working with the solutions the subject has some con-
cerns. The subject thinks that the data loading into the tablet is a bit complicated and
would prefer an easier solution with fewer steps. The retrieval of data has the same is-
sues regarding complexity and straightforwardness according to the subject.
The quality of data is estimated good and the subject thinks that it is a great improvement
not to print all the Parcel Plans. The main disadvantage with the solution is the com-
plexity of preparing and retrieving data. The subject consider itself to be able to handle
the data management and believes that it can be explained by the good knowledge the
subject has about computers. A less technically inclined person may not perform so well
according to the subject. The efficiency from a GIS-analyst point of view is considered
to have improved significantly compared to the paper-based solution.
Over all opinion and suggestions: The subject is over all positive to the tablet solution
and think it will improve the situation in the field. Some functionalities that the subject
think is desirable are a more straightforward data management process and also to add the
possibility to customise fields in the Parcel Plans in order to adapt it to different situations
that may occur.
36
Initials expectations and concerns: The management had several expectations on the
tablet solution: reduce the amount of paper, help the CSO:s to locate them in the field
and acquire better quality of the collected data. The data would also be in digital format
from the beginning which would facilitate for the surveyors later on. The subjects had
some concerns regarding the battery power and screen readability in sunshine.
Remaining concerns: One subject still thinks the sunshine problem remains, while an-
other one thinks it is of negligible impact for the work. Another concern is the education
of the staff that needs to be altered and that the staff needs to be well informed about how
to work correctly with a tablet.
The collected data: The subjects with a perception about the data quality thinks it has
improved significantly and the efficiency is considered to have improved as well. One
person mentioned that manual entering of owner information still exists with the DEO:s
typing in further information and that spelling mistakes will not be eliminated. The tablet
solution is considered to improve the completeness of the data and to come with other
advantages such as verification possibilities.
Over all opinion and suggestions: The management have a good impression of the
application and the performance of it and think that it has been a good pilot study. They
are positive of the alternative areas of usage of the tablet that came up and it is mentioned
that the field team using the application is satisfied as well.
For future projects all the subjects would consider to implement a tablet-based solution
but they also see some areas for improvement. The application is desired to bee more sta-
ble and more colours when drawing different layers is asked for too. One person wants
SAR-1 functionalities, i.e. more data collection features, integrated in the application to
be able to implement the tablet in other parts of the project as well. Another suggestion
is to stop using the pre-vectorised parcels and to draw all the parcels in the tablet instead.
Regarding the CSO:s one subject thinks that the tablet solution is simple enough to be
used by any CSO:s, and that no special requirements are necessary when recruiting them.
Others thinks that a computer skills test is necessary and that the CSO:s should have some
previous experiences from tablet or smartphone usage, since computer literacy varies in
the country.
37
5.4 Discussion
In this thesis it was investigated whether tablets and a project-specific application are an
alternative for future projects under various conditions. The evaluation shows that this
was an adequate solution and that it worked well under developing country conditions
in Lesotho: even though relatively cheap tablet computers were used, their performance
was sufficient and it was proven that Internet connection is not a must. As a bonus the
solution got very popular with the staff and it was implemented into the project by man-
agement.
The performance of the tablets in the field are of great importance when working with
the solution. They need to be fast, reliable and intuitive to work with, and they need to
endure the different conditions and situations in field. Some of the factors are difficult
to eliminate, for example the sun, but others can be worked around. A decent protective
cover can reduce the fragility and the impact from rain on the tablet. The sun can make
it a bit difficult to use the tablet in some situations but the authors noticed that it is usu-
ally enough with the shadow from the user to make the screen readable, and the tablets
were prepared with sun-repelling films before the implementation. The CSO:s using the
tablets did not think the sun had any major impact on their work.
Regarding the field personnels ability to use the application in an correct and efficient
manner it is the author’s belief that the previous experiences of using a tablet is of minor
importance. Two persons from management disagrees with that statement, thinking that
computer skills tests and some different job qualifications would be necessary, but on
the other hand the CSO:s in the Tablet Team did not think that their prior knowledge
was insufficient. The fact that the application reminded much of the paper Parcel Plan
probably helped the transition to the digital solution to go smoothly.
38
5.4.2 GPS/Orthophoto Accuracy
The GPS of a tablet computer has limited accuracy and this needs to be taken into ac-
count when it comes to evaluating the usefulness of tablets in surveying field work. If a
better accuracy than a few meters is required, the data needs to be collected using a more
accurate device. This data can then be input into the tablet manually or automatically
via one of the tablets communication channels (Wifi, Bluetooth, etc.). Alternatively, one
can try to use application logic to verify or enhance the position accuracy. One can, for
example, make use of an orthophoto with high accuracy as background layer to verify
the spatial accuracy of other spatial data.
In this thesis, the limited accuracy of the tablets was not an issue. The GPS points col-
lected were only used as a confirmation to verify that the CSO has collected the claimant
data for the correct parcel. Therefore an accuracy of a few meters was sufficient, very
well within the limitations of the GPS receiver in the tablets. The user can verify that
the current GPS position is in the right place since it is simultaneously displayed on the
screen over the orthophoto.
The mobile orthophoto is less accurate than the original one because of a projection is-
sue. The background map must be in the .tpk format to meet the demands of the ESRI
Android API and the only projection system allowed is WGS 1984 Major Auxiliary Web
Mercator. In the transformation of the Orthophotos from the original, local, coordinate
system to the world projected system some accuracy was lost locally. This was due to
the limited computational power available in combination with the limitations of the Esri
ArcGIS software in which the transformation was done, the bottom line being that the
background map had to be geo-referenced and shifted instead of being properly projected.
39
6 Conclusions and Future Work
6.1 Conclusions
The tablet-based solution improved the effectiveness of the field-work in the Lesotho
land regularisation project and COWI-ORGUT management decided to implement the
solution for further evaluation. The solution also improved the work environment for the
CSO:s and it proved to have more usages for the project than originally intended (the 4
Percent Checks: 5.2.2).
The thesis has shown that the hardware is not a limiting factor for most users, even under
more difficult external conditions. It is clear that limitations in the external environment,
such as a lack of internet connection, can be relieved by an adapted application design.
Furthermore there is a lot of still unexploited potential in the tablet computer format:
camera, magnetic compass, sim-card, Bluetooth, etc., meaning that one or more ad hoc
applications has an extensive potential to enhance future land regularisation projects.
40
6.2.2 Evaluation
For the sake of potential future implementations, a more extensive evaluation of the MM
than the one performed in this paper is desirable. The application logic negates a num-
ber of known error sources from the collected data, but the data collected with the new
method is yet to be more thoroughly evaluated. It is likely to assume that errors will still
occur, most likely they will also differ in their character from the errors observed from
using the paper-based method.
The MM was only designed to make one single data collection process more effective.
After a CSO-visit the claimant still needs to go to the local office within a certain time-
frame to fill in a so called SAR-1 form. Here the claimant present identification and fill
out more extensive data about the person and the parcel, than the information collected
in the Parcel Plan. In a second development stage the application could be extended so
that all the information about the claimant would be collected directly by the CSO on the
very first visit. In this way the claimants would not need to visit the local field office at all.
The MM has been created to fit the Lesotho project only. But, if necessary, most of the
code can be adapted to fit a wider context. On the long term it might be of interest to
develop a more standardised solution for a wider number of users.
One suggestion is to start developing then next application before or during a project pilot
study, and then to implement it into the project from the start. The developer could then
work within the project and develop the application further when the need for it arises,
and even develop more applications for other needs within the project.
41
7 Copyrights
Except for the ESRI Android SDK, all the source code in the Maseru Mapplication are ei-
ther created entirely by the authors or with support from open source softwares/libraries.
The Android Software Development Kit from Google is part of the Android Open Source
Project and Google agrees that it obtains no right, title or interest in the application from
the authors or from the users of the MM [18]. The default database system for Android,
SQLite, that was used for the MM is in the public domain and anyone is free to copy,
modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or distribute the original SQLite code [27].
Spatialite for Android (used to give SQLite its Spatial capabilities) is also free software.
It can be redistributed and/or modified freely under the terms of the GNU Lesser General
Public License [16].
ESRI attribution is required for all applications using the ESRI Android SDK. Further-
more the developer/distributor of an application based on the SDK may be subject to a
cost with ESRI based on percentage of sales if the application generates revenue and is
in a store or if the developer/organisation is not licensed for ArcGIS server (commer-
cial). [13]. In the context of this thesis a student license for ArcGIS Server was obtained
(even though ArcGIS Server was never used and is completely unnecessary for the MM)
and COWI-ORGUT were already using ArcGIS licenses in the Project in Maseru. Fur-
thermore the application was never ment to generate any direct revenue and it is not
subject for sale.
The Sketching tool of the MM is partially supported by sample code from ESRI. Accord-
ing to the license, this code may freely be used and redistributed, with or without modifi-
cation, provided that the original copyright notice and use restrictions are included [14].
This claim has been respected and the said paragraphs has been implemented into the
source code of the MM wherever it has been considered necessary.
Regardig the copyright claims of the authors, the MM has been developed in the hope
that it will be found useful but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty
of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The authors agree that they obtain
no further right, title or interest in the application, only proper attribution is expected.
At the same time, the authors of this thesis also decline all responsibility for any data,
content, or resources that has been created, transmitted or displayed by anyone else using
the MM or parts of its content.
42
References
[1] B ELL , D. Uml basics: The sequence diagram. http://www.ibm.com/
developerworks/rational/library/3101.html, Last accessed: May
2013.
[2] C OMPUTERW EEKLY. Google android os tablet sales will overtake ipads in 2013,
says idc. http://goo.gl/Fx2ec, Last accessed: May 2013.
[7] EKSTEDT, G., AND ENDOFF, T. Design and development of a mobile gis ap-
plication for municipal field work. Tech. rep., Lund Technical University, 2012.
43
[12] ESRI. Draw graphic elements sample. http://resources.arcgis.com/
en/help/android-sdk/concepts/index.html#/Draw_graphic_
elements/011900000010000000/, Last accessed: May 2013.
[20] L INDSKOV, T., AND T HOMSEN , T. Mass titling in lesotho - and the obstacles.
Tech. rep., Aalborg University Copenhagen, 2013.
[23] MOBI T HINKING . Mobile applications: native v web apps what are
the pros and cons? — mobithinking. http://mobithinking.com/
native-or-web-app/, Last accessed: May 2013.
44
[25] U TRIKESPOLITISKA I NSTITUTET. (swedish) lesotho - fakta och statistik i
landguiden. http://www.landguiden.se/Lander/Afrika/Lesotho,
Last accessed: May 2013.
45
8 Appendix
The different appendices can be found below.
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Axel Bronder
Erik Persson
2013-05-03
Table of Contents
Start the application ............................................................................................................................ 2
Adding pre-vectorised parcels............................................................................................................. 2
Drawing new parcels ........................................................................................................................... 2
Deleting parcels ................................................................................................................................... 2
Filling out the Parcel Plan .................................................................................................................... 2
The position ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Parcel boundary types ..................................................................................................................... 2
“All Clear”-checkbox ........................................................................................................................ 3
Tips & tricks ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Zoom to current position .................................................................................................................... 3
Show a list of visited parcels ............................................................................................................... 3
Known errors (and how to deal with them) ........................................................................................ 3
How to restart the application ............................................................................................................ 4
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Erik Persson
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Start the application
If the screen is black, press the physical button topmost on the side of the tablet and swipe the
screen to unlock it.
Press the Maseru Mapplication icon and wait for the background map to load.
To draw the parcel, simply tap on the map where the corners of the parcel should be. If the previous
point is in the wrong place, press Undo to go back one step. When satisfied, press Save & close and a
pop-up will appear where the parcel number should be typed in.
It is good to know the desired parcel number before starting to draw the parcel since it not is
possible to check the nearby parcel names while drawing.
Deleting parcels
To delete a drawn parcel, long click on it and then press
OK on the dialog appearing. You are only allowed to
delete parcels that you have drawn yourself (i.e. from
the “New_Parcels”-table).
The position
In order to get the position, stand in the middle of the
parcel and press the Get pos button. Please keep an eye
of the circle surrounding the position dot on the map
since it symoblises the uncertainity of the current
position. It is desirable that the circle is within the parcel
boundaries when acquiring the position. If the displayed
coordinates seems strange, press the button again
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noting the types. All parcels do not have four sides and are not perfectly aligned in North-South
direction so some improvisation might have to be done for in some cases.
“All Clear”-checkbox
If the Parcel Plan can be filled out completely, then the checkbox All Clear? can be checked. The
parcel on the map will then be filled with green colour instead of yellow wich is the colour of
unfinished parcels. From the start before a parcel has been clicked they are uncoloured and with this
function an overview over all visited parcels can be seen on the map.
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Try pressing “DRAW” and then cancel. (And cancel again, if necessary). Now it should work.
Otherwise: restart the application.
Why does the new parcel plan have the information of the last claimant already filled out?
This happens sometimes, just press “Close” on the upper right of the parcel plan and then “Yes”
when asked: “Close without saving?” Then press the parcel again, and an empty parcel plan should
appear this time.
1. Go to the home screen of the tablet (Press the house-button), and then go to “Settings”
2. In settings, go to “Applications” or “Applications Manager”
3. Choose “All”
4. Scroll down and select the “Maseru Mapplication”
5. Press the “Force stop”-button
6. Press “OK”
7. Go back to the home screen again and select the application. The application has been
restarted.
1. Press the home symbol (the middle one) in the bottom bar.
2. Press the window symbol (the right one) in the bottom bar. You will see all active
applications.
3. Swipe the Maseru Mapplication to the side.
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1
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Introduction
The tablet application uses an internal database to store and retrieve data. This database,
“MYdb.sqlite” is located inside the folder “DataLesotho”, in the internal memory of the tablet.
The database has two tables by default, “Parcel_Plan” with all the information about the claimants,
and “New_Parcels” with all the geometries the CSO has sketched in the field (the new parcels). The
database can also hold an arbitrary number of shapefiles.
To work with the database, we suggest using the free software “Spatialite”. Spatialite can be
downloaded from:
https://www.gaia-gis.it/fossil/spatialite_gui/index
Choose “download spatialite_gui-1.6.0.zip (zipfile, .zip)”, and unzip this file. No installation is
necessary.
NOTE: Some troubles regarding data transfer between the Nexus tablet and a Windows 7 computer
can occur. When copying the MYdb.sqlite file from the tablet it can get corrupt during the transfer.
Therefore it is very important to test that the database file can be opened in Spatialite (see below),
before it is removed from the tablet. If it can be opened, all is well. If not, see the “Database is
corrupt!”-paragraph of this document.
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Extract the drawn geometries as Shapefiles
The CSO-drawn parcels are in the table New_Parcels. These geometries can be extracted as
shapefiles as shown in the image to the right. The shapefile will be in the projected coordinate
system WGS 1984 Web Mercator Major Auxiliary
Sphere, WKID: 3857, unless you change it.
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4. That’s it! The table is created and the database can be loaded to the tablet. Put the database
in the folder DataLesotho and restart the application. The database must be named
MYdb.sqlite. Press the LAYER(S) button inside the application to add the new layer to the
map.
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Prepare data for a 4% check
The application is not designed for the purpose of doing 4% checks but, through a few extra steps, it
can be used for that as well:
1. Load the shapefiles into ArcMap (for example) and control the data. For a 4% check in a new
area you need a shapefile containing the randomly selected 4% parcels, as well as a shapefile
of all the parcels in that area.
2. Open the attribute table in ArcMap for the layer containing all the parcels and choose ‘Export
Data’. Make sure to save the table as a text-file, in a location of your choice.
3. Import the exported table into Excel. (In Excel, choose ‘data’-> ‘from text’. The table is
semicolon-delimited and you should make sure that the adjudicati-column data format is set
to Text, and not to ‘General’, which is default.
4. The Parcel Plan of the application has 19 fields of information which correspond to 19
columns in the database. Import these the headers of the columns into Excel. Take them, for
example, from an old database.
5. Transfer data between the two different tables: the Parcel Plan and the table exported from
the shapefile. From the shapefile table you can take the claimant-name and put it in the
‘Name’-column, the given lease number and put it under ‘Lease_no’, and the Adjiducati and
put it under ‘AdjID’. Any extra notes can be put in the ‘If_Not_Why’-column. The column
‘Telephone’ may also be used, but please note that the CSO will only be able to input
numbers into this field. All other columns can be left blank. Delete the PK_UID-column, it will
be auto-generated later.
6. Export the finished table as a tab-delimited text-file. (Save as…). Name it Parcel_Plan.txt
7. In Spatialite: Create a new database: and then import your new Parcel_Plan-table:
Make sure that the PK_UID-column has been generated automatically.
5
Axel Bronder
Erik Persson
2013-05-03
11. Put the SAR1-forms of the area of interest in .pdf-format onto the tablet, where the CSO can
find it.
NOTE: Instead of doing the Excel-work of this section, it is probably more efficient to use SQL
queries directly in Spatialite.
1. Load the photos of interest into ArcMap and press File Map Document Properties. Fill out
the information (what you fill doesn’t matter, just make sure there is something) and save
the project.
2. Zoom out so the whole area is visible.
3. Open the Create Map Tile Package tool as
shown in the picture.
4. Choose the newly saved project as Input,
choose output name and location, JPEG as the
Tiling Format, 20 as the Level of Detail and
press OK.
5. Wait for a couple of hours.
Note
The Map Tile Package needs to be in WGS 1984 Web Mercator Major Auxiliary Sphere, WKID: 3857.
Since there is a 30 meters shift in the coordinate system that the project uses, MI_0, the background
will end up in the wrong place. To fix this one needs to manually drag the orthophoto into the right
place. By obtaining coordinates of places in Google Maps and mark them in ArcMap it is possible to
perform the shift. The shift tool is a part of the Georeferencing mode in ArcMap.
Trouble shooting
Computer connection problem
Some troubles connecting the Nexus 7 to a Windows 7 computer can occur. If Windows does not find
the device, a re-installation of the drivers can be necessary. To do so, connect the Nexus and open
the Device Manager in Windows. There you should be able to find the Nexus device. Right-click on it
and choose Uninstall Drivers. Choose remove from computer too. Unplug and then plug the cord in
again. Now the device should appear again. If you still cannot access the internal storage. Update the
driver by choosing the usb_driver folder in Drivers in the Mapplication folder on the server. Now it
should work, if not: Google is your friend.
6
Axel Bronder
Erik Persson
2013-05-03
Database is corrupt!
Sometimes, with the Nexus tablets, the database can be copied from the tablet, but the file becomes
corrupt somehow on the way. This has to do with the USB computer connection. You can change
the connection from MTP (Multimedia Device) to PTP (Camera) by going into Settings->Storage->USB
computer connection (upper right corner). When you use the PTP connection, however, you can only
access the “Pictures”-folder from Windows Explorer. Disconnect from the computer, use the ES File
explorer to copy MYdb.sqlite from the DataLesotho-folder to the Pictures-folder. Put the USB cable
back in (remember to connect with PTP this time) and copy the database from the Pictures-folder to
your computer. Try opening this database in Spatialite. If it doesn’t work, try again…
(Another solution we haven’t tried could be to connect the tablet to the office network (and maybe
the server) and to transfer it wirelessly. The file explorer installed on the Nexus or other installable
applications can probably manage the transfer. Bluetooth could be another solution as well.)
7
CSO Evaluation
Did you have any particular expectations before you started to work
with the tablet?
Yes, I expected a complex and hard to use device I also expected something that would
make my work easy and quick to be done. NOTE: on "Were your expectations met?",
the subject has also written the following: "but it was not complex as I thought" //Axel
Yes, I spend more time inputing GPS coordinates on the handheld GPS filling in the
heavy parcel log. I expected it to be difficult to use which is not the case and I thought it
will be time consuming but as good luck would have it proved me wrong Yes
Yes 3 75%
Partly 0 0%
No 1 25%
Do you have any concerns now, regarding future work with a tablet?
No, not at all. Yes, the more I use the tablet, the easier and faster the work is, therefore
production will be high. I can only recommend tablet use in future-work. No
The format:
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 0 0%
9 1 25%
10 3 75%
Battery power:
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 2 50%
9 0 0%
10 2 50%
Comments about the tablet Nexus 7 and also the bigger Samsung
Galaxy if you have used it?
I prefer this one I like all its qualities. I really enjoy my work since I used it. It is easy to
operate, it is also quick and precise. It is not havey NOTE: Subject is talking about the
Nexus 7 //Axel They make one feel he or she is really working for a major company.
They make faster and interesting. Everyone is always looking forward to go to the work.
It is a portable and flexible device that helps in making work easier.
Consider your normal work environment: Can the tablet replace your
binder with all the parcel plans, the overview A3 map, and the hand-
held GPS device?
Yes 4 100%
No 0 0%
If not, why?
How do you think the EFFICIENCY of your work would change, using a
tablet solution?
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 0 0%
9 1 25%
10 3 75%
How do you think your WORK ENVIRONMENT would change with the
use of a tablet solution?
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 0 0%
9 1 25%
10 3 75%
What is your overall opinion of the tablet solution?
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 0 0%
9 1 25%
10 3 75%
Other comments?
It has been a pleasure to work with Axel Bronder and Erik Persson, I would like to wish
these boys a good luck in their studies. Well, the knowledge I have gathered from you
will remain forever. Cheers :)
GIS / QC Evaluation
Yes 0 0%
Partly 1 100%
No 0 0%
Do you still have any concerns now, regarding the future use of a
tablet solution in the field work?
Ability to change the fields: add fields, alter names of fields. The ease of loading data
into the tablet, shapefiles are quite easy but to populate data related to the shapefiles is
a little messy. Retrieval of data is also a bit of a concern. It would be nice to be able to
retrieve a shapefile with the relevant information in one go. Export a shapefile from the
tablet with the fields from parcel_plans included.
What is your estimation of the quality of the data collected with the
tablets?
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 0 0%
9 1 100%
10 0 0%
How do you assess the efficiency of the tablet solution compared the
current solution, from your point of view?
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 1 100%
9 0 0%
10 0 0%
General
Other comments?
Nice work swedish house mafia. Pretty sweet application, really do think it will make life
a lot easier in the field. Lekker, cheers.
Administration / Management Evaluation
Yes 4 100%
Partly 0 0%
No 0 0%
Do you still have any concerns now, regarding the future use of a
tablet solution in the field work?
There still are things that can be optimized like smaller displacements between photos
and shapefiles and a better distinction between what has been only visited and what has
been registered as finalized parcels, but in general I don't have major concerns. The
problem with daylight seems to be very little, when you don't expose it to direct sunlight.
The most obvious is that tablets do not work well in tropical sunshine; screens are hard
to see. There is no cheap solution to this it appears, as military grade tablets are four or
more times the price. The users did not understand how to put the tablets into
hibernation mode, rather they were either running on full power the whole time; hence
reducing batter life, or they were powering off; hence taking time to reload data before
work can continue. The education of the staff to use the tablet is important for the
SCO's. The staff is not all used to work with computer and IT. no, enthousiasme has
definitely increased
Do you have an estimation of the quality of the data collected with the
tablets?
Yes 3 75%
No 1 25%
If so: Is the DATA QUALITY better, the same, or worse than the current
method?
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 2 67%
9 1 33%
10 0 0%
How do you assess the EFFICIENCY of the tablet solution compared
to the current solution, from your point of view?
0 0 0%
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 0 0%
4 0 0%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 1 25%
8 2 50%
9 1 25%
10 0 0%
Yes 4 100%
No 0 0%
If not, why?
The Application
Did the application meet your expectations?
Yes 4 100%
Partly 0 0%
No 0 0%
If not, why?
I think they met my expectations, and even surpassed them, since we could use the
tablet in a way not anticipated, in the quality control. When uploading final spatial data
together with scanned copies of SAR1 forms and background documents to the tablets
we could carry out a digital quality control in the field much easier and extensive than
using paper print outs.
Management
Yes 4 100%
No 0 0%
Would the recruiting criterias have to be different for the new CSO:s,
using a tablet-solution?
Yes 3 75%
No 1 25%
Why/ why not?
CSO's will need to be more familiar with using tablets, and have more spatial
understanding. I am not sure how you think the recruiting process could be different?
Should we only look for CSOs with experience of using a tablet? The tablet system
should be easy enough to use without expecting any special background. There must
be more focus that the SCO has IT skills. A test is carried out for DEO to see if they have
knowledge of computers and typing. Similar tests could be performed for SCO people.
computer literacy varies in Lesotho
Comments
Thank you for your participation! Do you have any final comments?
It has been a pleasure to have you to work together with the project and develop these
applications that definitely can be used to optimize the field registration processes in
future projects. Thank you for a great job. Good system, useful contribution. Thanks a
lot. The tablet solution is an excellent application, which shows what is possible with
the current technology - and it is giving directions for the up coming projects. The coming
projects shall have an app developer connected.During a project there will still be
continuous development of the data acquisition and it will still not be possible to make a
final version before making the acquisition. Thank You
Parcel Plan for 1-1-701
0 No Demarcation
1 WFPF Wooden Fence Post Fenced
2 WFPU Wooden Fence Post Unfenced
3 MFPF Metal Fence Post fenced
4 MFPU Metal fence Post Unfenced
5 SFPF Stone Fence Post Fenced Annotate on the map:
- The actual boundaries of parcel or parcels (subdivisions)
6 SFPU Stone Fence Post Unfenced
- The parcel number/s or suffix/es
7 W Wall
- The type/s of all boundaries
8 H Hedge - Use other side if there are more than 4 parcels
2013
13-001 Mohammad Amin Alizadeh Khameneh. Tree Detection and Species Identification using LiDAR
Data. Master of Science thesis in Geodesy No. 3127. Supervisor: Milan Horemuž. January 2013.
13-002 Duc Khanh Ngo. Relief Planning Management Systems - Investigation of the Geospatial
Components. Master of Science thesis in Geoinformatics. Supervisor: Tuong Thuy Vu and Yifang
Ban. February 2013.
13-003 Hulumtaye Kefyalew. Investigation of the use of Laser Scanning for Deformation Monitoring.
Master of Science thesis in Geodesy No. 3128. Supervisor: Milan Horemuž. June 2013.
13-004 Annmari Skrifvare. Change Detection in Stockholm between 1986 and 2006 using SPOT
Multispectral and Panchromatic Data. Supervisor: Yifang Ban. June 2013.
13-005 Axel Bronder and Erik Persson. Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Mobile GIS Solution
for a Land Registration Project in Lesotho. Supervisors: Gyözö Gidófalvi and Jakob Riise. June
2013.
TRITA-GIT EX 13-005
ISSN 1653-5227
ISRN KTH/GIT/EX--13/005-SE