© Canadian Journal of Regional Science/Revue canadienne des sciences régionales, XXIV: 3(Autumn/automne 2001), 375-386.ISSN: 0705-4580 Printed in Canada/Imprimé au Canada

Business/Retail Geomatics: A Developing Field

Maurice Y eates,

Centre for the Study of Co mmercial A ctivity

Ryerson U niversity

Toronto, M5B 2K3

The Canadian Institute of Geomatics, which has as its prime objective the advance

and development of geomatic sciences in Canada, defines geomatics in general

terms as:

… a field of activities which, using a systematic approach, integrates all

the means used to acq uire and manage sp atial data required as part of

scientific, admin istrative, legal and technical op erations invo lved in the

process of the production and management of spatial information.

The Institute, therefore, c laims that geomatics is a field of activities, which in-

volves the acquisition an d manage ment of spatial information. The means that the

field uses to acqu ire and m anage spatial da ta are not specified, but the definition

places its purview firmly in the spatial arena. There is also a sense, in the phrase

scientific, administrative, legal and technical operations that the range of applica-

tions may be limited to the scie ntific and techn ical spheres.

This focus on scie nce and tec hnology, an d the sense o f a range of applications

limited to the p hysical sphere , is reiterated by G eomatics C anada:

Geomatics is the science an d technolo gy of gathering, a nalyzing, inte r-

preting, distributing and using geographic information. Geomatics en-

compasses a broad range of disc iplines that can b e brough t together to

create a detailed but understa ndable p icture of the ph ysical world and our

place in it.

Geomatics Canada lists the disciplines, or branches of instruction, that are

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FIGURE 1 The Growth of ESRI Software Users World-Wide

brought together as: surveying and mapping, remote sensing, geographic informa-

tion systems (GIS), and global positioning systems (GPS). The physical wor ld is

defined as embracing: the environment, land management and reform, develop-

ment planning, infrastructure management, natural resource monitoring and de-

velopment, and coastal zone management and mapping.

Thus, geomatics includes: long-standing disciplines such as surveying and

mapping, presumably along with geodesy; and, more recent interests such as

remote sensing (which would include the more traditional photogrammetry),

geograp hic information systems (or science), and new techniq ues in GPS (which

lies broadly at th e intellectual intersection of geodesy and navigation). Two fea-

tures that each of these disciplines have in common are that: they are concerned

with information that has spatial properties and can therefore be geo-refe renced in

some way, usually with globa l coordina tes (latitude and longitude); an d, their

utility has undergone a renaissance since 1990 (Figure 1) due to the rapid develop-

ment of computing and visualisation technologies (usually through stand-alone or

networked PCs). Thus, disciplines that were onc e the interest of a mathematic ally

and technically orien ted few are no w more ac cessible. W ith this greater accessibil-

ity, applications have become more widespread.

Nowhere is this more evid ent than with GIS, as is indicated in Figure 1 con-

cerning the growth of ESRI (one of the largest developers and distributors of GIS

software) use rs worldwid e. A geographic information system involves an organ-

ised integration of hardware, software, geo-referenced digital information, and

visualisation technologies, to capture, store (usu ally in the form of relational

databases), up-date, manipulate, analyse, and display (in 2D or 3D form) all forms

of spatial information. Though most uses of GIS through-out the world are fairly

routine -- the most common being for land registry systems and mapping -- there

is increasing emphasis on its application in strategic planning and decision-making

(Goodchild 2000).

BUSINESS/RETAIL GEOMATICS: A DEVELOPING FIELD 377

The GEOIDE Network

Hence, the focus of C anada’s G EOID E network is on the use of geomatics to

inform decision-making. The GEOIDE initiative, headquartered at Université

Laval, was founded in 1998 with funding from the Federal Networks of Centres

of Excellence (NCE) programme ($ 3 million per year) along with a number of

public (Federal and Provincial) and private sector partners ($0.7 million per year,

plus in-kind contributions valued at roughly $ 1.6 million per year). In 2001, the

network connected 140 researchers and nearly 300 students (and post-doctoral

fellows) in 27 universities, 36 governme ntal agencies, and 47 co mpanies (GEOID E

Annual Report 2000/1).

The status of business/retail geomatics in Canada can be identified from the

representation of research in the field within the structu re of the GE OIDE invest-

ment portfo lio. Researc h projects w ithin the portfolio are placed accordin g to:

< their use of (or contribution towards) geomatic technologies; and

< the general ec onomic se ctor to which the research is applied.

Three broad areas of technologies are identified based on the accepted understand-

ing of what geom atics is about -- data acquisition, data management and decision-

support. Data acq uisition techno logies include those within the re alm of geodesy

(including GPS), cartography and remo te sensing (including air photo imagery).

Data managem ent technolo gies include mainly GIS, data fusion, and raster and

vector computation. Decision-support technologies include spatial analysis, inter-

active 2D and 3D imaging, artificial intelligence/cognitive science and Internet

warehous ing.

Four areas of application are identified based on current user c onnection s --

natural resources, environment, transportation and services. The natural resource

sector has historically been of pr ime impo rtance to the C anadian ec onomy, an d it

remains a major focus of geomatic activities. Concerns about environmental

matters, such as pollu tion, global w eather change, disaster management and

ecological change, are more recent but now high on the national agenda. The

transportation sector -- air, water, and land -- provides an interesting rec ent appli-

cation for geomatics, particularly with respect to new GPS technologies applied

in intelligent transport systems (ITS) and automated vehicle systems (AVS). The

services sector, which is really a ‘catch-all’ category, includes: business/commerce,

telecommunications, planning, health care and social service delivery systems, real

estate/prop erty management and assessment, and, parks and re creation services.

The numbers in Table 1 refer to the rang e of categories to which the 27

projects funded through GEOIDE contribute. In this table, one project may con-

tribute in a numbe r of areas -- on averag e, each pro ject contrib utes to 2.6 catego-

ries or sub-categories. The GEO IDE res earch po rtfolio suggests that rese arch with

respect to the development and application of data acquisition

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TABLE 1 Summary of GEOIDE Investment Portfolio, 1998/2001 (with number of supported projects contributing to each category)

Users/ Technologies Natural Resources Environment Transportation Services

Data Acquisition, e.g. geodesy cartography remote sensing

14 8 5 1

Data Management, e.g. GIS data fusion r & v computation

6 3 4 2

Decision Support, e.g. spatial analysis interactive imaging AI/CS

8 -- 4 16

technologies remains an im portant area of concern, particularly in the natural

resources and environmental sector. On the other hand , GEO IDE ha s few projec ts

in the services sector involved with data acquisition technologies, while a number

of projects impinge on different aspects of decision-support, particularly spatial

analysis. Business/commercial geomatics forms just one sub-category of the ‘ser-

vices’ sector, and only one project in the GEOIDE network foc uses on rese arch in

this area.

The Scope of Business/Commercial Geomatics

Business/commercial geomatics is concerned with the testing of theories, and the

discovery of patterns and regularities, that explain and predict both spatially and

aspatially referenced information. Prior to 1990, in practice this duality was often

ignored, even in site loca tion analysis, in favour of more conventional aspatial

multi-variate modeling. In recent years, business geomatics has evolved to take

into account both referential features. These technologies have facilitated the

linking of geo-referenced databases, and hence data mining (DM) -- the search for

regularities and associations through independent databases which are connected

(i.e., made relational) via spatial and aspatial identifier s.

The information involved in business/commercial geomatics relates to the

consumer service sector of the economy. This includes retail activities, personal

services, consume r related FIR E services (i.e ., retail aspects of finance, insurance,

and real estate), restaurants, and entertainment facilities. In Canada, this sector of

activities provides jobs for about 5.3 million people, or about 43 % of the labour

force, working in 1 .2 million loca tions. As it is individu als and hou sehold units

that provide the demand (market), and commercial enterp rises, or units (stores-

BUSINESS/RETAIL GEOMATICS: A DEVELOPING FIELD 379

outlets) that provide the supply, and each of these has a spatial loc ation, it is vitally

important that analytical work be undertaken at the highest level of geo-referenced

aggregation possible -- ideally involving unit record data relating to individuals or

househo lds (Figure 2 ).

Often, unit record data, even if available, cannot be used (for privacy reasons

for example) and has to be aggregated by the data provider (such as Statistics

Canada) in some way (e.g. into census tracts and postal codes such as FSAs).

Nevertheless, the objec tive of the analyst is to generate as much information as

possible tha t will yield the greatest insight into the problem at hand -- regardless

of the variety of agg regative inform ation availab le. With the a dvent of digital

relational databases, this type of informatio n is increasingly ho used in data ware-

houses in which the information is cross-linked in many ways, including by loca-

tion.

Figure 2 illustrates the ways in which eleme nts (examp les only) of a business-

oriented data warehouse (the businesses involve the consumer service sector),

which includes supply-side and demand-side databases at various levels of aggre-

gation, may be utilised in various types of management and strategic planning

activities. These activities may include such activities as site screening and selec-

tion, store portfolio segmentation, and network planning. Whatever the manage-

ment objective, the information contained within the extensive data warehouse has

to be massag ed or ma nipulated in some way for it to be useful in the management

exercise. T his is the function o f a decision-sup port system.

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Studies in the Application of Business/Commercial Geomaticsin Management and Strategic Planning

Business/commercial geomatics forms just one sub-category of the ‘services’

sector in the GEO IDE ne twork, and, d espite much advertising in the academ ic

commu nity, only one pr oject in the network -- G eomatics fo r Strategic P lanning --

focuses on researc h in this area. T his particular node is organised from the Centre

for the Study of C ommerc ial Activity at Ryerso n University, wh ich, during the

1998/2002 funding period, included a lso researchers at Wilfrid Laurier U niversity,

the Université d e Mon treal, the Unive rsity of Toro nto and the U niversity of W est-

ern Ontario. The objectives (including an illustrative selection of articles and

monographs) of this particular project are to:

< Provide improve d inform ation ba ses for strateg ic planning and decision-

making in the business/commercial sector. This involv ed initially partne rship

with Maclea n Hunter P ublishing Ltd. (now part of Rogers Media) for the

production of a more extensive, and inclusive, geo-referenced shopping centre

data-base for Canada including, for the first time, a power centre data base for

the country (RM 2001). These data-bases are utilised particularly in the

private sector by those involved with development and asset management, and

for analyses of commercial growth and change at the national (Simmons and

Kamikiha ra 2001 ) and regio nal (Yeate s 2000) levels.

< Develop a nation ally geo-referenced supply-side data-base (up-dated annu-

ally) for all chain and fra nchise outlets (containin g four or mo re outlets).

This data-base, along with the shopping and power centre data-bases , facili-

tates some of the first national analyses of the location strategies of commer-

cial formats and the impact of foreign ownership. It can be merge d with

demand-side data for studies involving site screening and selection, market

mapping, rationalisation following mergers and a cquisitions, and so forth

(Yeates 1999; S immons an d Kam ikihara 199 9; Herna ndez and Biasiotto

2001).

< Ascertain ways in which geomatics is being, and ca n be, integ rated into

management practice. A numbe r of case studie s, and sector analyses, have

documented ways in which various aspects of geomatics have been incorpo-

rated within the business community (Hernandez et al 1999; Jones et al 1999;

Pearce and Jones 1999; He rnandez 2000; Hernandez et al 2001a).

< Undertake a limited number of case studies of the consequences of change

and innova tion in the commercial sector. This has involved case studies of the

impact of commercial innovation and market change within Canada (Yeates

and Montgomery 1999; Jones and Doucet 2000, 2001; Wang et al 2000), and

in those international situations in which opportunities may exist for Canadian

business (Yeates 1998; Wang and Jones 20 01, 2002).

< Develop innovative ways of business geomatics information dissemination via

the Internet. This has invo lved the estab lishment of a we b-site which includes

BUSINESS/RETAIL GEOMATICS: A DEVELOPING FIELD 381

summaries of each of the monthly industry-related research re ports printed at

CSCA; and, studies of the ways in which consumer service industries are

utilising the Internet (e.g. Jones and Biasiotto 1999; Dawe and Evans 2000;

Michalak 2001; Hernandez et al 2001 b).

The papers p resented in this special issue of the Canadian Journal of Regional

Science essentially address two of these decision-support ob jectives. The first four

papers relate to obj ective 3. Herna ndez an d Biasio tto report the results of an

extensive survey of Ca nadian reta ilers designed to assess the wa ys in which busi-

ness/commercial geomatics ( formal meth ods), partic ularly GIS, are u tilised with

respect to location decisions in p ortfolio man agement. The authors conclude that

while formal methods are being increasingly incorporated in location decision-

making, informal methods (‘experienc e’ and ‘retrosp ection’) rem ain central inputs

to the proc ess.

MacD onald , now employed in a GIS-relate d strategic pla nning capa city in a

major Canadian bank , addresses a matter of major pub lic concern. He show s,

through carefully constructed simulation techniques, how GIS could be used more

effectively in analysing the consequences of possible bank mergers in the context

of federal competition laws. The paper is also useful bec ause it demo nstrates ways

in which GIS may be used more generally in store location, market evaluation and

rationalisation, especially with respect to chains and franchises.

Boisvert shows how GIS may be used to analyse the impact of the integration

of an enclosed surface and underground pedestrian and transp ort network , associ-

ated with a new development project (QIM -- Quartier international de Montréal),

with the existing multi-level central city circulatory pattern, collectively referred

to as ‘la ville intérieure’ (the ‘indoor’ city). G eneral ped estrian acces s to the

downtown service structure (such as hotels, restaurants, retail facilities, entertain-

ment and financial se rvices) is being enhanced . This is, in effect, an exam ple of the

ways in which good planning and design may achieve certain social goals (such as

the promotion of pedestrian and public transport, and strengthening the role of the

downtown), and gener ate additional positive externality economy benefits within

a central bus iness area.

The notion of externality generation is addressed specifically in the paper by

Yeates, Charles and Jones. Utilising a data se t related to eigh teen regiona l malls

provided by a development company, the authors estimate the impact on store

sales of closure o f a large dep artment store anchor (the T. Eato n Co. Ltd.) in

October, 1999. The neg ative externality effect that is demo nstrated has im mediate

implications with respect to mall management as presumed positive benefits are

recognised by owners in lower lease rates (per square foo t) for major a nchors. M all

management companies are now faced with re-assessing the anchor issue, and the

more favourable lease terms with which major positive externality generators are

generally recognised.

Finally, analyses related to objective 4, concerned with studies of the conse-

quences of change and innovation in the commercial sector, are presented at two

geographic scales. At the na tional level, Michalak addresses the importan t issue

382 YEATES

of the impact of the transition, after 1989, from centralised state planning and

control in eastern Europe to a market driven, competitive, environment. He focuses

on the specific experience of privatisation and the rap id increase in foreign direct

investment (FDI), in the consumer service sector, on the transition in the Polish

econom y, which resulted in an influx of mall developments and hypermarkets

owned and operated primarily by west European investors. The precipitous nature

of the transition, especially as it impacts on domestically-owned retailing, and

traditional urban form and structure, is explored. It should be noted that this study

is, in some ways , prefatory to on-going GIS based analyses of the changing com-

mercial structure of Lodz and Warsaw being undertaken by the same author.

At the local level, Storie, Oakley and Muncaster examine the impact of big-

box retail development on the rapidly growing community of Cambridge (popula-

tion circa 100,000), which lies in the heart of southern Ontario’s technology

triangle (Guelph , Cambrid ge, Kitchener/ W aterloo). B ig-boxes -- large retail

formats (usually greater than 50,000 sq. ft), originally occupying free-standing

locations in suburban locations but now increasingly sharing common parking

facilities within power centres, often U.S. owned and operated -- increased rap idly

in number during the 19 90s. Given their size, and growing market dominance, they

are having a dramatic affect on commercial structure of Cambridge, and, in conse-

quence, the fabric of the entire urban area. Th e study is useful because the impacts

that the authors document are being replicated in similar size urban areas across

the country.

Postscript

A second phase of the GEOIDE network’s NCE grant has been renewed for the

period 2002/5. During this phase, the general thrust is to encourage greater use of

geomatics in decision-making and information-dissemination (diffusion), while at

the same time supporting basic research in acquisition, transforma tion and da ta

management technologies and promoting new application fields (especially in the

service sector). These objectives of intensifying activities at the end of the geo-

matics information life course (Figure 3), and placing greater emphasis on new

fields within the industry, are aimed at stren gthening the ro le of the industry in the

Canadia n econom y.

With in this context, a jo int Ryerson/L aval proje ct will attempt to inte grate

cognitive models re lating to enviro nmenta l perceptio n with socio-economic spatial

decision-making models in the business/comm ercial sector. Specifically, the

project will:

BUSINESS/RETAIL GEOMATICS: A DEVELOPING FIELD 383

FIGURE 3 Conceptualization of Ideal, Targeted (by GEOIDE), and Current Levels ofGeomatics Use at Different Stages in the Geoamatics Information Life Course

< extend market estima tion mode ls to include various aspects of consumer

behaviou r (Jones an d Herna ndez 20 02).

< enrich demand-side models (relating to flow patterns within malls) by includ-

ing more dynamic representations of consumer behaviour (Reginster and

Edward s 2001; M oulin et al 200 0).

< examine the use of geographically weighted regression (GWR) mod els (incor-

porating housing, community and environmental perception variables) for

commercial and residential property valuation (Fotheringham et al 2000).

< strengthen decision support tools by bringing the informal knowledge of

decision-makers into formal locational modeling through the means of ‘com-

posite and cognitive mapping’(Clarke et al 2000).

Future research in commercial/business geomatics within GEOIDE will thus focus

even more clearly on activities at the end of the geomatics information life course,

and extend the purview of the developing discipline.

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384 YEATES

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