Geographic Information System in Experimental version

ENTER

Properties

The Web GIS - Companies and local units of Emilia Romagna is a prototype experimental web application developed as an advanced Google Maps Mesh Up, compliant with the most recent web 2.0 opensource techniques.

It allows you to search and browse the local units (firms) and economic and productive clusters in the territory of Emilia Romagna Region - Italy (ISTAT - Italian National Statistical Institute - data source - 2005).

The database (as a subset of the original ISTAT's) consists of about 105.000 records and is composed of units having a number of employees greater than or equal to 3, geo-located with acceptable accuracy by address toponymic (Google Maps geocoder).

The web application is based on Google Maps search and navigation functionalities (zoom, pan, streets and address geo-research). Upon them specific functionalities on firms’ and clusters’ search and analysis are implemented and integrated.

Two functional modules, that might be used in parallel, are available from the Tools Menu:

1. •Companies & Firms Module
   

2. •Employees by Sector Module
   

COMPANIES & FIRMS MODULE

The research tools are provided by the relevant right panel. To start the search it is necessary to set the overall parameters of the query (described below) and press the "Update Map". Diversified and incremental searches can be run, keeping on googlemap previous results, by clicking the same button in succession. On the googlemap appear the overall local units found (the size of each marker is directly proportional to the number of employees associated with the local unit), while the ones of the last query are shown in the bottom right list. Results are sorted by number of employees in individual local units.

To get the details of each local unit, you can click on the marker map data or any particular item of the last query list.

Through the button "Clear Map", you can cancel the results of previous research and clean the map.

Search Parameters

1. •Kind of activity: you can choose the ISTAT subsection activity code of local units to be searched, according to the encoding Ateco 2002 (available through the link "Istat activity codes")
   

2. •Number of employees in local units: you can set the number of employees in the local units to search for.
   

3. •Productive chains: you can can analyze the distribution of firms related to specific sectors and sub sectors of production.
   

4. •Max results for each query: the max number of local units to be returned for each query (default is 500). The number of results for each query increases the load time data on the map. The total number of markers loaded on the map decreases the fluidity of the application in its entirety. You should not exceed 1500 for each query, and 3000 as the overall results.
   

5. •Search for firm name and activity kind: you can use keywords to search the name and type of activities of local units.
   

6. •Search for Istat Ateco 2002 activity code: you can browse the local units associated with specific codes Ateco 2002, up to 5 digits.
   

7. •Search location and boundaries: you can run the query on the entire territory of Emilia Romagna region or on the extents of the displayed map bounds. This second option allows a very detailed analysis of local distribution of local units, allowing you to just focus here all the search results. You can also focus your search on a specific province in the region.
   

EMPLOYEES BY SECTOR MODULE

This module allows searching and viewing aggregated data on employees’ clusters in the territory by different economic and productive sectors (ISTAT 2002). Every marker symbolizes the overall sum of the employees belonging to the all local units (firms) located in the specific area.

To start the search it is necessary to set the overall parameters of the query (described below) and press the "Update Map".

Clusters are dinamically thematized depending on map zoom level: higher the zoom level, more detailed clusters are represented on the map.

A specific legend is generated for each search outcome: its intervals of values are calibrated for each economic sector, and change when the map zoom changes. This optimize the clustering representation at high zoom levels.

Every new search delete the previous one results. Through the button "Clear Map", it is possible to run the same task.

Search Parameters

1. •Kind of activity: you can choose the ISTAT subsection activity code of local units to be searched.
   

2. •Number of employees in local units: you can set the number of employees in the local units to search for.
   

3. •Max results for each query: the max number of local units to be returned for each query.
   

4. •Search for Istat Ateco 2002 activity code: you can browse the local units associated with specific codes Ateco 2002, up to 5 digits.
   

5. •Search location and boundaries: you can run the query on the entire territory of Emilia Romagna region or on the extents of the displayed map bounds. This second option allows a very detailed analysis of local distribution of local units, allowing you to just focus here all the search results. You can also focus your search on a specific province in the region.
   

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

For a fast & fluid application usage on the web, it is sufficient any operating system (Win, Mac, Linux), an (at least) Adsl internet connection and any web browser in recent versions, with javascript enabled (necessary condition). For a better and smoother experience we strongly recommend browsers such as Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, & Google Chrome.