Technical Data Module

[stevenyaga]

This module is responsible for holding data that can be utilized in decision making or for diagnostics. There are 2 different types of datasets that can reside here:

• Vector. This is data usually represented as points, lines and polygons. These could representing spatial information about different items and places
• Raster. This is gridded data with each pixel value representing a different meeting
• Tabular. This is spreadsheet data that is not representing any spatial information.

The module will have the following features

• Technical data source. This feature will store the data
• Technical analysis. This represents any analysis that can be performed against the technical data

Vector Analysis

• The user will specify the Shape File to be used for the analysis as well as the formula to manipulate attributes of the shape file. For example, we may want to convert the area of a shape into KM from M. This way, we will define a formula such as {AREA} * 1000.
• The user has also to define the legend to be used to display different colors depending on the computed attributed. It is the responsibility of the user to ensure that all possible values are covered, otherwise a default color will display for computed values that have not been mapped

Raster Analysis

• The user will specify the Raster file to be used for analysis
• The user will specify a formula that will be used to manipulate the pixel values
• The user will define a legend to be used when displaying the results of computation on the pixel values

Multi-file computations

• There might be situations when more than one Shape file or raster file is needed for analysis. For example, we may want to analyse land cover change over a period of time. In this case, the user will be provided with an option to specify if the analysis involves multiple files, if yes, the user will specify the different shape files or raster files to be used

2-Files analysis

• The following operations will be limited to 2 files only and the user must specify which is the base raster and the comparison raster
  1. Subtraction
  2. Division
• The user will firsts specify the formula to be applied to the pixel value before application of the subtraction or division

Multi-Files analysis

• When the analysis involves multiple files, the user can specify the following operations on the pixel values for these files
  1. Addition
  2. Average
  3. Multiplication
• The user will firsts specify the formula to be applied to the pixel value before application of the addition, average or multiplication

[stevenyaga]

Due to scope creep, it is preferred to keep the design of this module as simplistic as possible. This leads to the assumption that if a user needs comparisons between datasets, they can analyse those comparisons using other data manipulation software e.g QGIS, ARCGIS, Excel etc and present the finalized data source to the system for displaying and querying. Allowing for complex analysis will only lead to complication of the module unnecessarily