| Development History | |
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The idea for a Regional Analysis and Planning System (RAPS) was first outlined by the author within IIASA's European Rural Development (ERD) Project. The system was initially designed to combine statistical data for a wide range of development dimensions in Europe's rural areas - including economic, demographic, socio-cultural, environmental indicators, as well as data on infrastructure and natural resources. |
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The development of the RAPS-China tool for the province level started in 2003 and includes the following steps: |
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Preparation:
Formulation of the basic idea and main components of a Regional Analysis
and Planning System; data acquisition, selection and initial preparation
(4 months). Completed: March 2003 |
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Prototype: Version 0.1: Specification of the main modules; basic design of the
database structure; programming of database retrieval module; basic form
of interactive data interface module (data display in tables). Completed: April 2003 |
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Prototype: Version 0.2: Programming of the database module (load data, modify
data, save data); improvement of database interface design.
Completed: April 2003 |
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Prototype: Version 0.3: Basic design of the module for sorting and filtering
indicators according to various criteria (dimension, data type,
geographic reference, etc.). Completed: May 2003 |
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Prototype: Version 0.4: Final design of the module for sorting and filtering
indicators according to various criteria (dimension, data type,
geographic reference, etc.); basic design of module for selecting
indicators and combining them into indices. Completed: June 2003 |
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Prototype: Version 0.5: Design and programming of the output table, in which up
to 6 indices (and one "Composite Index") can be filtered (according to
special regions) and sorted (according to index rank); implementation of
the copy & paste feature. Completed: July 2003 |
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Prototype: 0.6: Design and programming of the visualization module; in
a first step a feature was implemented, which allows thematic mapping
of the index results; digitizing of a base map for China (province
boundaries); implementation of the mechanism to automatically
produce thematic maps.
Completed: September 2003 |
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Prototype: 0.7:
Construction of five default development indices for China (these
include: a regional "Human Development Index." a "Natural Resources
Index." an "Economic Development Index." an "Infrastructure Availability
Index." and an "Environment Protection Index"); these default
indices will be easily available to the users of the RAPS-China tool; of
course, the users can construct their own indices with the
RAPS-China tool but they may use the default indices as a model.
First systematic internal testing of the application; elimination
of programming "bugs." preparation of "Help" and "About" files;
programming of an installation (and de-installation) routine;
preparation of 15 CD-ROMs with Version 0.7, which was the first fully
functional prototype version of the RAPS-China tool; presented to and
discussed with Chinese, Japanese and other collaborators in Hangzhou,
Beijing, Tokyo and Vienna. Evaluation copies of Prototype Version 0.7
were submitted to IIASA's Japanese and Chinese National Member
Organization (NMO). Completed: November 10, 2003 |
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Prototype: Version 0.8:
Programming of print-functions and map options; elimination of further
bugs found by collaborators during external testing of the
application; suggestions for substantive improvement were
considered and, if possible, implemented; further improvement of the
interface; load and save options implemented; preparation of 20 CD-ROMs
with Version 0.8 and presentation of RAPS-China at a Workshop in Nanjing,
convened by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Completed and released to (Chinese) collaborators: December 10, 2003 |
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Prototype: Version 0.9:
Further optimization of interface (plausibility, ease-of-use); second
internal testing of the application (concerning technical aspects, such
as memory leakages, stability on various computers, compatibility with
different versions of MS-Windows, screen resolutions, color depth, and
language setups); a new type of charts ("radar charts") will be
included; a first version of the "Analyses" module will be included in
this version (the "Analyses" module includes the author's discussion of
the five default indices, which will be included in
the final version of RAPS-China; preparation of 30 CD-ROMs with Version
0.9. Completed: March 14, 2004 |
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Version 1.0:
Publication of the first regular version 1.0. Addition of the scatter
plot module in which relationships between variables and indicators can
be analyzed. Addition of three tutorials, which explain the RAPS-China
tool to the user in a step-by-step procedure. Elimination of software
bugs found in prototype 0.9 during testing. The first official release of the RAPS-China tool: October 8, 2004 (during an international workshop on the "Strategies of Regional Development in China" jointly organized by the IIASA Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) research activity and the Institute for East-Asian Studies, Department of Chinese Studies at Vienna University). |
| Please note that the development of the RAPS-China tool for the province-level (with 31 regional units) only the first step of a much larger project that was proposed to potential Chinese collaborators - namely the development of a RAPS-China tool at the county-level (which would include statistical data for more than 2700 regional units). This province-level system will, hopefully, demonstrate the usefulness and feasibility of the approach. | |
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| Heilig, G.K. (2004): RAPS-China. A Regional Analysis and Planning System. Laxenburg, Austria | |
