Old News Items:

The CHGIS Project Obtains Additional Funding

The China Historical GIS Project, Harvard-Yenching Institute, with which ACASIAN is associated, was originally funded by the Henry Luce Foundation for 2001-2004. It has recently obtained additional funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue historical research on China's administrative system at Fudan University, Shanghai.

The Australian Consortium for The Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network (ACASIAN)

At the end of 2003, as part of an on-going reorganisation of Griffith University's Research Centres, the Australian Consortium for the Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network (ACASIAN) resumed the role of the Australian Centre of the Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network. The latter had temporarily during 2002 and 2003 been organised as the Asia Pacific Spatial Data Project as part of the Griffith Asia Pacific Research Institute (GAPRI). A/Prof. Lawrence W. Crissman continued his old role as Director of ACASIAN, which continues to create and distribute, for academic and commercial purposes, Geographical Information Systems datasets for Asia, China in particular, as well as the former Soviet Union`.

Changes to LUMC Copyright

Negotiations were successfully concluded with the Institute of Geography and the Science Press, Chinese Academy of Sciences, that resulted in the signing of a VARIATION OF AGREEMENT that allows the Land Use Map of China Spatial Data Bases to be used for cooperative research with collaborators outside of Australia and China and allows their use for commercial and government purposes anywhere in the world.

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Notice

This page has not been regularly updated in the past few years. New and updated datasets, and information pertaining to them, have regularly been posted on the Prices Page, and that will continue to be the place where the most up-to-date information can be found. However, it is intended to update this page more regularly in the future.

New and Revised Data Sets - 2009

CHINA

PRC Administrative System Spatio-Temporal Database

The PRC ADM3 (and ADM3.1) administrative units are in a continual state of flux, with perhaps an average of 1% to 2%, or even more, having boundary changes, name changes, status changes, or Guobiao Administrative Code changes each year. Changes at the ADM2 level are far less frequent, but boundary changes even at the ADM1 level are not unknown. If changes involve name or status changes, they are documented in the yearly editions of Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xingzhengqu Huajiance , and the very small scale provincial maps they contain sometimes indicate to a sharp eye that boundary changes have been made. However, until very recently, unless found on the Chinese language internet, one had to wait for the new editions of GB/T 2260, Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xingzhengqu Huadaima ('Codes for the administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China') to discover what Guobiao code changes had been made. New editions of that publication used to be published every two or three years, but the one that came out in 2002 was not followed by another one until 2007. However, the 2009 edition of the Xingzhenqu Huajiance lists the Guobiao Admin Codes, and this can be expected to continue as other such additions have in the past.

Because of the continual changes, it was decided while updating the ACASIAN PRC administrative system data from 1999 to the 2000 census date and the next Guobiao code date in 2002, to construct a spatio-temporal (space-time construct) database that could be regionalised to produce 'slices in time' for the relevant dates, and that has now been extended for the 2007 edition of GB/T 2260. The coded dates are: 1999-07-01; 2000-11-01 (the census date); 2002-10-01; and 2008-02-01. In addition, a generalised 2005 'time slice' was constructed so that the administrative units shown on the maps in Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xingzheng Quhua Tuji could also be regionalised, although they are not much different to those for 2008.

Any of the above 'slices in time' are available separately, or the entire spatio-temporal database can be licenced, which includes the underlying polygons that have documentation of when particular changes occured, in so far as they can be documented, and other relevant notes.

China Transport Datasets

The ACASIAN China transport system data (railroads and airports included) underwent a further major upgrade and revision in late 2008 and early 2009, using new road atlas sources dating to early 2007. Further work is scheduled for the remainder of 2009 using more recent sources presently enroute from Beijing.

CHINA UPDATES, 2005 and prior

China Transport Datasets

A major 2004 update of the China Road Transport data involved a new dataset containing all four-lane (or more) divided expressways in PR China and the Taiwan Region. All of the National Main Routes in the PRC are included and identified, and when possible the names of expressways are included in pinyin and hanzi. For each province, eight sources of information were used to code each expressway section in terms of whether it was shown as completed, under construction, or proposed. As the sources rarely agreed completely, a judgement was made about the status of each expressway segment as of late 2003, the latest date of any of the sources employed. Nodes along the arcs have been created for all indicated interchanges, service centers, and toll gates, and where possible are identified with pinyin and hanzi names. The expressways that were included in the China Road Transport dataset have been removed, and the National Highway data have been improved and will be coded with route numbers in the near future.

Point Locations for all Township Seats and Urban 'Streets' Matching the 2000 Census

This work was actually completed in 2005. The dataset contains a total of 50,769 points, of which the 44,867 for township seats (xiang and zhen) are accurately georeferenced. Due to the lack of maps displaying the locations of the urban 'street' offices (Jiedao), they could only be located arbitrarily in clusters around the administrative offices of their urban district (Qu). Nonetheless, this dataset allows the entire 2000 population of PR China to be georeferenced at the ADM4 level in terms of the locations of adminstrative seats and offices.

Point Locations for PR China Urban Postcode Zones

ACASIAN has datasets for various collections of points coded with their postcodes, including all cities, county seats, and urban district centers (approximately 3,000 points), plus all 10,000 or so larger towns (zhen) included in the 1990 census volumes. Work is underway to code the additional 35,000 or so township level points (xiang, zhen, and jiedao) included in the township-level 2000 census data available from the China Data Center, University of Michigan. (See 'PR China 2000 Census Township Points', below.) In order to have a point dataset that will include all of the postcodes contained in the latest (1997) edition of the Atlas of Cinese Postal Codes, center points will be created for all urban postcode zones in that publication, estimated to be around 1000.

Major 2002 Up-Date to China Administrative Dataset

The ACASIAN administrative dataset for China is up-dated on a yearly basis whenever a new edition of the 'Administrative Handbook of the PRC' (Zhongguo Renmin Gongheguo Xingjengqu Huajiance) becomes available. A major up-date is made whenever a new edition of GB/T 2260 'Codes for the administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China' is published. The latest, GB/T 2260 - 2002, published on 2002-05-08 contains Administrative Guobiao Codes current to 2002-10-01 and is the basis for the current major up-date expected to be completed by mid-2004. The up-dated China Administrative Dataset will include at least approximate urban district (shixiaqu) boundaries for all 275 ADM2 'major municipalities' (dijishi).

PR China 2000 Census Township Points Dataset

The 2000 PRC census data available from the China Data Center, University of Michigan, includes figures for nearly 45,000 township-level units (jiedao, zhen, xiang, and their variants). Points representing all of those places are now being geo-referenced by ACASIAN, which will allow the entire population of the PRC (apart from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions) to be distributed and analysed at township level. Clients who first obtain the township census data from the CDC may obtain the township points from ACASIAN with those data joined. These point data can also be supplied with their postcodes.

PR China High-Resolution Administrative Dataset for CDC 2000 Census Data

The ACASIAN high-resolution spatial data for the PRC administrative system has now been updated and coded to match the administrative codes published in Yanji Ji Yishanqu Haomingcheng Daimayu so that 2000 census data can be incorporated into high-resolution spatial data. ACASIAN can join the University of Michigan China Data Center census data to this dataset if supplied with the CD-ROM data purchased from the CDC.

Land Use Map of China Spatial Data Bases

Although available since 1994 and 1995 for research and government use in China and Australia, as a result of the VARIATION OF AGREEMENT signed in Beijing in early February, 1999, the following data sets are now availalbe for academic research and government and commercial use anywhere in the world:

Land-use Polygons covering all of China

Approximately 165,000 in ten major categories with a total of 55 sub-categories. Coastlines and international boundaries not DCW compatible. Partial coverages are available.

Dense hydrography for all China

With vectors aligned to stream flow where possible, coded by sub-basins and feature type. Not DCW compatible, but far, far more detailed. Partial coverages are available.

INDONESIA

Badan Pusat Statistik Administrative Spatial Data for all of Indonesia

ACASIAN is no longer licenced to redistribute Badan Pusat Statistik GIS data for Indonesia.

Emerging Developments:

India Data

A cooperative agreement with a commercial producer of spatial data for India is being negotiated, and ACASIAN should soon be able to supply high quality administrative boundaries, cities, towns, and villages, and transport system data for all of the Indian states for commerical use.

Cambodia

Following the successful agreement with BPS in Indonesia, it is possible that a similar agreement will be reached with the Cambodian Government to distribute their administrative and settlement data.

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