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V. INFORMATION SYSTEM
[ V-A ]
A. Information resources
Urbanization facilitates the transformation of urban functions and industrial
structures, which conversely promotes a more rapid urbanization. The proportion
of tertiary industry is almost 70% of GDP in most international metropolises,
while that of Shanghai increased to 40.1% in 1995 as secondary and tertiary
industries began to play their part in the economic expansion of the city.
The world is being rapidly transformed into a global information society.
The information industry, as the most vital branch in the tertiary industry,
must promote the process of urbanization, with the flow of information
increasingly taking the place of substance, energy and population flows.
And this formless information freeway permeates and radiates throughout
the whole city, irrevocably affecting peoples' living and working habits
and attitudes, and becoming an important criterion when evaluating the
development level and quality of a city.
1. Internet and information harbour
Shanghai is expected to have become an information harbour in 2010. Its
main projects include: (1) To build a main network which covers the whole
city and is connected with other networks, both inside the country and
overseas, with the Internet penetrating every organization and household;
(2) To collect information and develop information systems. That is, to
carry out a Golden Card Project and Golden
Gate Project to serve all communities, including Shanghai
Information Exchange Network, Shanghai
Social Security Network, Electronic
Data Interchange Network of Shanghai International Economy and Trade, Social
Service Network, Golden Card and Point of Sales. (3) To study and introduce
the key techniques of information communications, including super-speed
fibre-optics, comprehensive exchange, ISDN, intelligence networks, multimedia
communication terminals, person-to-person communication techniques, to
upgrade platforms of information transfer to digitalization, wide frequency,
etc. By building these communication networks and fabrics across the Pacific
and along the western shores, installing satellite ground stations in Pudong
and Puxi, and accelerating the construction of the Jinhuning Fabric, Huhui
Fabric and the fabric along the south-eastern coast, Shanghai will be one
of the central nodes on the coast of the western Pacific with influence
on the coastal zone and on the hinterland of China.
2. Urban construction
information system
An information system is not only a warehouse of information flow during
urbanization but the activator of urbanization. The purpose of an urban
geographical information system is not only to collect, store and monitor
data and information on the progress of urbanization, but also to supply
feedback for evaluation, planning and decision-making and to simulate and
predict the city's future.
Shanghai was quick to recognize the importance of an information system.
The Construction Committee of Shanghai began to design an urban information
system in 1985, and laid a detailed ten-year plan for an urban construction
information system for Shanghai, which is made up of twenty sub-systems,
including mapping, urban planning, underground comprehensive pipelines,
water supply and coal gas, real estate management, land management, municipal
administration, land, environmental protection, general sanitation, traffic
management and the Construction Committee's macro-management. In 1990,
a small-scale experiment was carried out in Putuo District which has an
area of 20 thousand square km and a population of 36,000. In this experiment,
thematic spatial databases were first established for the different functional
departments of the city, based on which relationships among these departments
could be viewed clearly by overlay. Meanwhile, such functions as inquiry
and index, report form and statistics of thematic data were also taken
into account, which proved to be a step of great importance. Considering
the development history of Shanghai, a huge city in a developing country,
it is easy to understand why it lacked an integrated plan during its development,
a situation resulting from its long colonial period and the effects of
a backward agricultural economy. An urban investigation, therefore, as
the first step in scientific management and data processing, centred on
a survey of land resources, proper house registration, super-scale survey
of terrain and so on, is the most. fundamental work of the establishment
of an urban geographical information system.
Progressing from the small-scale experiment, the urban construction
information system has moved into the middle stage of application. For
example, within the administrative union of districts, the general sanitation
information system mentioned above has efficiently and scientifically been
applied in respect of urban function departments. At the same time, a number
of thematic information systems have also been developed, such as the "100
Police Map Command System", "People's Government Comprehensive
Geographical Information System of Shanghai", "Comprehensive
Management Information System of Jinqiao Export and Processing District"
and "Urban
Construction Comprehensive Management Information System of Jingan District".
It can almost certainly be expected that based on the office automation
of data acquisition, analysis and output, the urban information system
of Shanghai will be applied in urban planning, the optimization and evaluation
of infrastructure, site selection for bridges, tunnels, and airports, the
layouts for urban industrial structure changes, urban disaster prevention,
construction of disaster reduction facilities, and so on. As the city develops
and progresses into the period of suburbanization and concentration, when
satellite towns and urban communities come into being gradually, and when
the planning, construction and administration of the city expand into the
hinterlands, the urban information system will undoubtedly have to meet
the demands of urban sustainable development. It will need not only to
simulate the rapid exchange of substance, energy and population flows,
but also review the dynamic evolution process of the urban system, accurately
predict the perspective of urbanization, and precisely deduce the scale
of urban development and the growing mechanism of its spatial pattern.
Urbanization should be coordinated with regional sustainable development
to create an ecological, civilized and efficient city.
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