The Parisian region is called Ile-de-France. It covers 4 700 square miles (12 000 km2) and has a population of eleven million.
Ile-de-France is a local authority and therefore it deals with different fields: town planning, transportation, environment, education, economic development, etc.

The Parisian Region’s planning agency is called IAURIF, which stands for " Institut d ’Aménagement et d ’Urbanisme de la région Ile-de-France ". This could be translated as the "  Institute for Development and Town Planning in the Ile-de-France region ".
IAURIF was originally created in 1960 in order to develop the Master Plan for the Paris region.
IAURIF has specialized in Regional Council studies since 1983.
Almost 200 people work for IAURIF and this multi-disciplinary team manages all the major problems within the planning and development fields.
In order to work efficiently, we realized that we needed to access information relating to our area of activity. Consequently, we set up our regional GIS very early, about 15 years ago.

In general, we use the abbreviation RGIS instead of " regional GIS ".
This GIS includes over fifty data layers, we are particularly interesed in the following fields : administrative boundaries, population, employment, land use, planning, transportation, public facilities, economy, environment, hydrography, land relief, etc.
It covers the whole region.
We exploit our regional GIS through 20 networked Unix workstations, a data server and some printing or plotting devices. To date, we have fifteen Arc/Info and 8 ArcView licences.

We have been using Arc/Info since 1990. Since then about 20 technicians have been trained to use Arc/info. These specialists work in the technical departments. They support their colleagues who don’t know how to use Arc/info, performing various exploitation tasks such as : data integration, data updates, cartography, analyses, calculations, etc.
This system worked well for many years, but it didn't allow the nonspecialized personnel to access the GIS directly.

The application presented in this paper is called the " RGIS Assistant ".
It was designed and created to improve accessibility to the GIS, for the personnel that have no specialized knowledge of the GIS system.
It’s a PC-based application.
Users can use it on their personal computers, at their desks.
This application is very easy to use and provides basic tools to access the GIS.
The users don’t need previous knowledge about the way the GIS is organized (names of files, directory paths, etc.).

The RGIS Assistant offers four categories of services, which are clearly displayed in the main menu of the application (we have translated most of the application windows into English to make them clearer to the reader) :

- Mapping (printing of customized maps, in various paper sizes and on user-selected areas)
- Viewing and browsing (the users can vizualise geographic data on screen and browse the attributes).
- Information (users can obtain some basic information about the GIS and its content).
- Help (on line help for using the tool).

We are going to take a look at these services, in order to see how they work and what development tools were used.

4.1 the mapping menu

It proposes a map request queue, maps on groups of communes (similar to municipalities), regional maps and examples of these various types of maps.

We are going to see in detail the tool offering maps on groups of communes.

4.2 Maps on a group of communes

What were the user needs ?
The users wanted a tool for printing thematic maps of various types on user-selected areas.

They wanted a very simple interface, allowing for self-training and for occasional use.
They wanted high-quality cartography in various paper sizes.
They also wanted a function for customizing page setting.

The main form of the application
When you launch the application, this form will appear on screen, on which you will be able to build your request.

This form allows users to call wizards to:
- choose the maps
- choose the communes
- customize the page setting

Selecting the type of maps
This form allows for map selection :

The left-hand frame of this form proposes a list of themes, which correspond to various categories of thematic maps (sorry, we did not translate the themes in the frame).
The right hand frame displays the maps related to the selected thematic entry on the left.
The check-boxes show what choices have been made.
The number of selected maps is written at the bottom of the form.
The left button here allows the users to obtain a brief description of each available map and of every constituting dataset.

Selecting the communes
This tool displays a map showing all the communes of the region. It enables the users to select the communes they want in a very user-friendly way.

Customizing the page setting
The users can choose the paper size, type in a title, set the peripheral margins and the binding margin, if any, etc.
The scale of the map is pre-calculated to fit the drawing frame, but users can set it by themselves, for example to enter a round figure.
The effects of these choices are interactively shown on a template.

Check before printing
This form shows a summary of the request in progress.
Users can check their choices. If necessary, they can return to the previous forms to modify the choices that don’t suit them.

What happens then ?

It ’s very simple :
The request has been written as an ascii file and stored in a special directory, somewhere on the network.
Somewhere else on the network, there is an Unix workstation that scans the directory every minute to see if a map request file has arrived.
If a map request file is copied into the directory, the workstation starts up Arc/Info and launches an aml program which moves the request file to a working directory on the station and opens it.
The aml reads the request and calls the specialized ArcPlot aml corresponding to the maps that are needed.
When ready, the graphic files are sent to the printer or to the plotter, depending on the size of the maps.

The map request queue
It ’s possible to consult the map request queue to see how many requests are waiting to be processed.

Each line shows the username, the request time and the nature of the request.
The users can delete one of their requests by double-clicking on it.

4.3 Regional maps

The mapping menu also proposes two categories of regional maps : small size and large size.
For regional maps, there is no Arc/Info processing after the request since the graphic files are pre-processed and are therefore ready to be sent to the printer or to the plotter.

4.4 Examples of maps

The mapping menu also allows users to consult examples of the various available types of maps.
For each type of map, the users can visualize two or more examples, in various scales and in various contexts (urban or rural areas, etc.).

5.1 User needs

The users wanted a very simple tool to view and browse the RGIS data layers even if they didn’t have any knowledge about how the data-base was organized.

They wanted a very simple interface, allowing self-training and occasional use.

They needed a catalog of pre-defined maps, with some simple functions for browsing the attributes.

We have called this application the " RGIS Window " : let us see now how it works...

5.2 The RGIS Window

Once launched, the application asks the user to choose a map.
To date, there are about fifty pre-defined maps in the application.

Selecting the map to be displayed
The available maps are organized in a map catalog, with thematic entries (population, land use, environment, networks, etc.).
These entries are displayed on the left-hand frame (sorry, they have not been translated for the paper...)
The right-hand frame displays all the maps which are related to the selected thematic entry.

Map display, legend box, situation view
After selection, the map is drawn on screen in a MapObjects frame.
The map below shows the railway network to its full regional extent.
The different colors correspond to the various service categories.
The railway stations are small black dots.
The background indicates a simple land use, with only four colors.

On the top left, there are four buttons to zoom in, zoom out, pan and return to full view.

The picture below shows how the display automatically adapts itself to the scale : After zooming in, the land use background becomes more detailed : 11 colors intead of four.
The commune boundaries and commune names are now visible.
The railway stations are drawn with symbols depending on their status.

By using the menu, the user can call up a legend box : it appears in a separate window. This window can be moved above the map and closed when it is no longer needed.
Actually, priority is given to the map display area.
In the same way, the user can call up a location vew which shows the extent of the displayed map and optionally allows to graphically redefine the map extent within the region.

Browsing the attributes
It’s possible to browse the attributes related to the themes which are displayed. To do so, the user must press the button marked with a black arrow and a question mark. This activates the two entry fields on the top right.

These two fields are drop-lists which allow the user to choose which theme and which attribute he wants to browse.
After selection, the attribute values are automatically displayed on a label attached to the cursor, just by moving the cursor across the map.

Examples of maps
These are some samples of maps which can be displayed by the RGIS Window.

The map below shows the population changes between the two last censuses :

This one displays a TIFF image which is a hillshaded representation of the terrain relief :

At a larger scale, the TIFF image is replaced by contour lines with a simplified land use background :

Some other tools
Of course, there is a tool to allow users to set the map extent to a given commune : this tool displays a commune map with a list. The user chooses a commune in the list, and the main map will be redrawn within the commune boundaries after validation.

There is another useful tool to copy and paste from this application to another : users can copy either the map, or the legend, or the situation view and paste one of those in a document they are authoring.

There is also a Help file that gives basic explanations about the application (in fact this help file is very short since the application is very simple to use).

Development aspects
The application has been developed with Visual Basic and MapObjects 1.2.
The geographic data is stored as shapefiles or TIFF images.

We had to add some functions to MapObjects.
The first one is a Librarian-like approach for very large datasets.
In our regional GIS, we use Librarian within ArcInfo to store some large data layers : for example the land use layer, which encompasses about four hundred thousands polygons.
We have kept the same tiles for our shapefiles and we managed to make MapObjects cope with them.
We also managed to adapt the display to the scale : Some datasets are or are not displayed depending on the scale. And the way most datasets are displayed also depends on the scale.
In the same field, there is another function that we added to MapObjects : the size of the symbols is proportional to the scale, with mini and maxi thresholds.

Last point : the maps are not coded within the application. They are described outside the application in INI files.

INI files are text files which are managed by the Windows system.
We use these ascii files to store the descriptions of all the maps which are proposed by the application.
For each map, we store the thematic entry, the name, and the constituting layers.
For each layer, we store :
- the symbology, which may depend on the scale,
- the elements used to build the legend box,
- the browsable attributes (with their name in clear language).

This technique allows for an easy handling of map descriptions without modifying the code.

6.1 Help services

In each form of the RGIS Assistant, help buttons provide information for the user on how to use the application.

We use the Microsoft Windows Help System, which provides some useful functions such as :
- contextual help
- hypertext links
- index with key-words

In the main menu of the application, the Help menu proposes direct access to some general help tools :

6.2 Info services

The Info menu of the RGIS Assistant gives information about the RGIS itself or about the datasets in it :

There is also some information about the partenerships which have been established around the GIS and some recent news about the RGIS.

Users can also call up several working documents in Word or Excel format, in order to copy them onto their own PC and re-use them for example in a text that they are currently writing.

Very few files are stored on the users’ PCs : all the executable files and all the data files are stored on a server, somewhere on the agency local network.
But the PCs can see these files in their directory tree and they can use them as if they were local.
This brings two valuable advantages :
1. the footprint on the PCs is very small.
2. updates of the application are made solely on the server : the 120 networked PCs become updated in the same operation.
We have also installed the application on a few standalone PCs, mainly laptops. We use a CD to install (the footprint on the hard disk is about 500 Mb).

8.1 Reactions from the users

The application was developed last year and put into practice last September.
So far so good : the users are very satisfied with the application.
They find it easy to use.
They like the wide range of functions available, the large number of available maps to date and the quality of paper maps and displays.
Over five hundred paper maps of various sizes are printed every month.
Since last September we have produced five thousand paper maps with the application.
An average of forty users access the RGIS window per month to display maps on their PC ( these users change from one month to another, depending on the studies in progress).
We have constant requests to add new maps to the application.

8.2 Nice surprises and unexpected benefits

Our first big surprise was our success at the Esri-France Application Contest last September.

Another unexpected indirect benefit is that we are now able to use this application to demonstrate our regional GIS to our visitors. We use a laptop and a box light for this. It is very convenient.
This was also an opportunity for us to work as a team with many colleagues throughout the company. During the development phase, they shared their knowledge and experience, providing existing Aml programs and helping to design the maps. This application proved to be a fantastic way to capitalize on this very important expertise stored up for years.

8.3 Positive and negative aspects of Esri products

We have chosen ArcPlot to produce the paper maps because of its good mapping capabilities. We already knew this product very well. On the whole we were very satisfied with its performance.
As for Aml, it was neither good nor bad ! We also knew this product very well and were used to dealing with its weaknesses.
MapObjects provided a good starting point for the development of our application. We had very few problems with the 1.2 version, in spite of some missing functions that we had to develop by ourselves.

8.4 Prospects for the future

Some improvements are being considered to enrich the application. But we want to keep it simple : we don’t want to replicate ArcView !

We are in the process of installing the system at the Regional Council and intend to do the same in other organisations.

We are also thinking of an Internet version which would provide similar functions.