Geographic information systems for transportation in perspective

The late 1980s saw the first widespread use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in transportation research and management. Due to the specific requirements of transportation applications and of the rather late adoption of this information technology in transportation, research has been directed toward enhancing: existing GIS approaches to enable the full range of capabilities needed in transportation research and management. This paper places the concept of transportation GIS in the broader perspective of research in GIS and Geographic Information Science. The emphasis is placed on the requirements specific of the transportation domain of application of this emerging information technology as well as on core research challenges. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.