![International Journal of Research in Computer Science
eISSN 2249-8265 Volume 2 Issue 3 (2012) pp. 57-60
© White Globe Publications
www.ijorcs.org
CLOUD GIS FOR CRIME MAPPING
Harpinder Singh1, Rajneesh Kumar2, Amardeep Singh3, P.K. Litoria4
*Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, P.A.U. Campus, Ludhiana
1
Email: harpinder13@rediffmail.com
Abstract: In developing countries, the lack of presented in a map format allow a better perception,
infrastructure like GPS (Global positioning system) visualization of spatial patterns and their relationship
and GIS (Geographic Information system) have with the neighboring areas. A sophisticated GIS can
hindered the growth of the police department. This give answers to the queries related to the location,
paper proposes a simple, useful and cost effective conditions, trends, patterns, routing and modeling.
solution for crime mapping. Google cloud resources
like satellite data, application and GIS software have Today with the advancements in the web GIS
been used to develop this application. The developer realm, people can access high resolution satellite
requires only a simple computer connected to the imagery and vector data using Wikimapia, Google
internet. The source of crime data is the RSS (Really earth and other mapping websites. Customized maps
Simple Syndication) feeds from various news websites. and applications can also be created using various
API’s and websites like Google maps and ESRI online,
Keywords: Cloud GIS, Crime Mapping, Google free of cost. A fusion of cloud and GIS can be done to
Fusion Table create effective applications which have advantages of
both.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. RELATED WORK
Cloud computing is a style of computing where IT
related capabilities (software, infrastructure, platform) Various applied research studies in the domain of
are provided as a service through the internet. The archaeology, health, tourism, environment and even
important features of the cloud are its low cost, vehicle routing have utilized satellite imagery and
flexibility, fast deployment and scalability. Now day’s spatial vector data available on Google earth and
people can leverage the cloud facilities like getting Google maps to find solutions to their problems, below
storage, access to application software and also is a description of such studies. [1] has developed a
processing power online at no cost. One of the best web-based SOLAP (Spatial online analytical
examples of cloud is the Google documents where you processing) tool, which relies on the integration of a
can create, manage and store your documents, standard Geobrowser (Google Earth) with Mondarin
spreadsheets and presentations online without any which is an OLAP engine to extract useful information
charges. from large repositories of data. Archaeological studies
like [2] and [3] have also used the satellite images
Geographic information system (GIS) is used to from Google Earth to mine useful information. [4] and
digitally represent and analyze the geographic features [5] have used Google earth for the development of
present on the earth’s surface and the events that take recommendation system for tourist attractions and for
place on it. In the light of the fact that seventy percent critical analysis. Health related studies like mapping of
of the data we use in our daily life has a geographical strategic health authorities [6] and creation of a dengue
reference as its denominator, it becomes imperative to surveillance system [7] have also used Google earth
underline the importance of a system which can and maps. [8] had used these resources for creating a
represent the given data geographically. It helps to web spatial decision support system for vehicle routing
bring information collected from diverse sources onto while [9] used them to map the deep-water horizon oil
a common platform and subsequently generate spill. All these studies show that valuable information
meaningful information by integrating non-spatial data and applications have been created using this online
with the spatial maps, using geography as the common satellite imagery, maps and spatial analysis tools
feature so that it can be used for making effective which are free of cost.
decisions for various problems. The collective spatial
and non-spatial information can be very useful for In most developing countries, the police are not
natural resource management, infrastructure equipped with infrastructure like GPS and GIS for
development and various projects as information when mapping of crime. This infrastructure is costly, its
www.ijorcs.org](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vol2issue310-120504054153-phpapp01/85/Cloud-GIS-for-Crime-Mapping-1-320.jpg)
![setup is time consuming and requires trained manpower to operate and manage it. But, the
advantages of viewing data in the form of a map are geographic co-ordinates but most of the news websites
massive as compared to grasping tabular data of crime in developing countries do not provide it.
incidents. A crime map gives a comprehensive view of
the controlled area and it is easy to identify spatial III. OBJECTIVE
patterns and incident clusters which can be used as a The main objective of this applied research is to
decision support system to control the crime. develop a cost effective decision support system which
According to [10] crime mappers can unlock the will help the police department to map and analyze
spatial patterns and strive for a better theoretical crime. This system combines the spatial and non-
understanding of the role of geography and spatial data to derive meaningful information.
opportunity, as well as enabling practical crime Google’s cloud and GIS technology has been used for
prevention solutions that are tailored to specific places. this study. The crime information (non-spatial data)
[11] and [12] also emphasizes the use of geo-spatial source is the RSS feeds from various newspapers and
information and communication technology tools for news channels websites. The spatial data is in the
spatial and 3D analysis in crime related studies. form of the satellite imagery on Google maps, no GPS
Input data for such a system is collected through a is required for this study.
GPS and satellite imagery. A GPS enabled device is
IV. METHODOLOGY
used to collect crime location points and the satellite
imagery can be used as a base layer or create base The Methodology of the study is as follows:
vector layers representing roads, settlements, utility
1) Crime related news is collected using RSS
network, rivers, canals etc. Input data for this study is
feeds. The news is collected daily in Google docs
collected from the RSS (Really Simple Syndicate)
spreadsheet using the ImportFeed() function. A
feeds from various news websites. RSS is a
spreadsheet is assigned to each RSS feed as shown in
syndication method for delivering content to users.
Figure 1. The crime related news is extracted
[13] has customized the RSS aggregator software to
manually from the collection of news and formatted
collect content based on both time and location so that
in a desired format with attributes like location, type
the RSS protocol can work for location based services.
of crime, details, link to the news web page etc in a
There are various websites which provide GeoRSS
final spreadsheet.
feeds which can be mapped easily as they contain the
Figure 1 - RSS feed news data in Google spreadsheet
2) A new table is created in Google documents using addition to other attributes is converted to a fusion
the import from Google spreadsheet option. The final table as shown in Figure 2.
spreadsheet which contains the location attribute in
www.ijorcs.org](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vol2issue310-120504054153-phpapp01/85/Cloud-GIS-for-Crime-Mapping-2-320.jpg)
![Cloud GIS for Crime Mapping 59
Figure 2 – Data in Google Fusion Table
3) Using the option (visualize as a map) available in police infrastructure, fire brigade, hospitals, and
the Google fusion tables the table is visualized as a telecommunication network setups, entry/exit points of
map as shown in Figure 3. One point location is the city and other main landmarks of the study area
generated automatically for each row in the table. The using Google imagery. This collective information can
geocoding is done based on the location attribute in the be useful for emergency planning, preparedness,
table. Geocoding is the process to convert the address warning, relief and mitigation. Google API’s will be
in text format to point location in the GIS. The location used to automate the tasks. Data mining techniques
of all the geocoded points is checked. Further, the [14] will be used to automatically extract the crime
export to KML (Keyhole Markup Language) option is related news from the collected news data and arrange
used to save the generated points on your system. it in the desired format.
4) This point layer is generated daily to map the crime An efficient and cost effective decision support
in the area of interest. system will be created for the administrators. To
develop this system no satellite data, application and
GIS software is required on the developer’s computer
only an internet connection is required. The same
methodology can be used to map accidents and other
events.
The only limitation of this study is that the location
of the crime specified in the news is generalized
therefore the generated point location is not very
accurate and comparable to the point location taken by
a GPS.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] S. Di Martino, et al., "Spatial OnLine Analytical
Processing of Geographic Data through the Google
Figure 3 – Google Fusion Table data visualized as a map
Earth Interface Geocomputation, Sustainability and
Environmental Planning." vol. 348, B. Murgante, et al.,
V. RESULTS Eds., ed: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2011, pp. 163-
It is proposed to build a blog which will have daily, 182.
weekly and monthly crime maps which will help to [2] [2] D. Kaimaris, et al., "Comparative analysis on the
identify crime patterns and clusters. The crime will be archaeological content of imagery from Google Earth,"
categorized into theft, murder, snatching and other Journal of Cultural Heritage, vol. 12, pp. 263-269,
2011.
classes. The main objective of these maps is to
identify crime prone areas. It is also proposed to map [3] D. Kennedy and M. C. Bishop, "Google earth and the
archaeology of Saudi Arabia. A case study from the
ancillary information like location of police stations,
www.ijorcs.org](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vol2issue310-120504054153-phpapp01/85/Cloud-GIS-for-Crime-Mapping-3-320.jpg)
![60 Harpinder Singh, Rajneesh Kumar, Amardeep Singh, P.K. Litoria
Jeddah area," Journal of Archaeological Science, vol.
38, pp. 1284-1293, 2011.
[4] F.-M. Hsu, et al., "Design and implementation of an
intelligent recommendation system for tourist
attractions: The integration of EBM model, Bayesian
network and Google Maps," Expert Systems with
Applications, vol. 39, pp. 3257-3264, 2012.
[5] P. Lisa, "Digging into Google Earth: An analysis of
“Crisis in Darfur”," Geoforum, vol. 40, pp. 535-545,
2009.
[6] M. Boulos, "Web GIS in practice III: creating a simple
interactive map of England's Strategic Health
Authorities using Google Maps API, Google Earth
KML, and MSN Virtual Earth Map Control,"
International Journal of Health Geographics, vol. 4, pp.
1-8, 2005.
[7] A. Chang, et al., "Combining Google Earth and GIS
mapping technologies in a dengue surveillance system
for developing countries," International Journal of
Health Geographics, vol. 8, pp. 1-11, 2009.
[8] L. Santos, et al., "A web spatial decision support
system for vehicle routing using Google Maps,"
Decision Support Systems, vol. 51, pp. 1-9, 2011.
[9] E. Bradley, et al., "Google Earth and Google Fusion
Tables in support of time-critical collaboration:
Mapping the deepwater horizon oil spill with the
AVIRIS airborne spectrometer," Earth Science
Informatics, vol. 4, pp. 169-179, 2011.
[10] J. Ratcliffe, "Crime Mapping: Spatial and Temporal
Challenges Handbook of Quantitative Criminology,"
A. R. Piquero and D. Weisburd, Eds., ed: Springer
New York, 2010, pp. 5-24.
[11] J. G. J. Schaaik and J. J. Kemp, "Real Crimes on
Virtual Maps: The Application of Geography and GIS
in Criminology Geospatial Technology and the Role of
Location in Science." vol. 96, H. J. Scholten, et al.,
Eds., ed: Springer Netherlands, 2009, pp. 217-237.
[12] M. Wolff and H. Asche, "Geospatial Crime Scene
Investigation – From Hotspot Analysis to Interactive
3D Visualization Computational Science and Its
Applications – ICCSA 2009." vol. 5592, O. Gervasi, et
al., Eds., ed: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2009, pp.
285-299.
[13] R. Cammack, "Open Content Web Mapping Service: A
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Approach Location
Based Services and TeleCartography," G. Gartner, et
al., Eds., ed: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2007, pp.
417-431.
[14] B. Berendt, "Text Mining for News and Blogs
Analysis Encyclopedia of Machine Learning," C.
Sammut and G. I. Webb, Eds., ed: Springer US, 2010,
pp. 968-972.
www.ijorcs.org](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vol2issue310-120504054153-phpapp01/85/Cloud-GIS-for-Crime-Mapping-4-320.jpg)
Cloud GIS for Crime Mapping
- 1. International Journal of Research in Computer Science eISSN 2249-8265 Volume 2 Issue 3 (2012) pp. 57-60 © White Globe Publications www.ijorcs.org CLOUD GIS FOR CRIME MAPPING Harpinder Singh1, Rajneesh Kumar2, Amardeep Singh3, P.K. Litoria4 *Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, P.A.U. Campus, Ludhiana 1 Email: [email protected] Abstract: In developing countries, the lack of presented in a map format allow a better perception, infrastructure like GPS (Global positioning system) visualization of spatial patterns and their relationship and GIS (Geographic Information system) have with the neighboring areas. A sophisticated GIS can hindered the growth of the police department. This give answers to the queries related to the location, paper proposes a simple, useful and cost effective conditions, trends, patterns, routing and modeling. solution for crime mapping. Google cloud resources like satellite data, application and GIS software have Today with the advancements in the web GIS been used to develop this application. The developer realm, people can access high resolution satellite requires only a simple computer connected to the imagery and vector data using Wikimapia, Google internet. The source of crime data is the RSS (Really earth and other mapping websites. Customized maps Simple Syndication) feeds from various news websites. and applications can also be created using various API’s and websites like Google maps and ESRI online, Keywords: Cloud GIS, Crime Mapping, Google free of cost. A fusion of cloud and GIS can be done to Fusion Table create effective applications which have advantages of both. I. INTRODUCTION II. RELATED WORK Cloud computing is a style of computing where IT related capabilities (software, infrastructure, platform) Various applied research studies in the domain of are provided as a service through the internet. The archaeology, health, tourism, environment and even important features of the cloud are its low cost, vehicle routing have utilized satellite imagery and flexibility, fast deployment and scalability. Now day’s spatial vector data available on Google earth and people can leverage the cloud facilities like getting Google maps to find solutions to their problems, below storage, access to application software and also is a description of such studies. [1] has developed a processing power online at no cost. One of the best web-based SOLAP (Spatial online analytical examples of cloud is the Google documents where you processing) tool, which relies on the integration of a can create, manage and store your documents, standard Geobrowser (Google Earth) with Mondarin spreadsheets and presentations online without any which is an OLAP engine to extract useful information charges. from large repositories of data. Archaeological studies like [2] and [3] have also used the satellite images Geographic information system (GIS) is used to from Google Earth to mine useful information. [4] and digitally represent and analyze the geographic features [5] have used Google earth for the development of present on the earth’s surface and the events that take recommendation system for tourist attractions and for place on it. In the light of the fact that seventy percent critical analysis. Health related studies like mapping of of the data we use in our daily life has a geographical strategic health authorities [6] and creation of a dengue reference as its denominator, it becomes imperative to surveillance system [7] have also used Google earth underline the importance of a system which can and maps. [8] had used these resources for creating a represent the given data geographically. It helps to web spatial decision support system for vehicle routing bring information collected from diverse sources onto while [9] used them to map the deep-water horizon oil a common platform and subsequently generate spill. All these studies show that valuable information meaningful information by integrating non-spatial data and applications have been created using this online with the spatial maps, using geography as the common satellite imagery, maps and spatial analysis tools feature so that it can be used for making effective which are free of cost. decisions for various problems. The collective spatial and non-spatial information can be very useful for In most developing countries, the police are not natural resource management, infrastructure equipped with infrastructure like GPS and GIS for development and various projects as information when mapping of crime. This infrastructure is costly, its www.ijorcs.org
- 2. setup is time consuming and requires trained manpower to operate and manage it. But, the advantages of viewing data in the form of a map are geographic co-ordinates but most of the news websites massive as compared to grasping tabular data of crime in developing countries do not provide it. incidents. A crime map gives a comprehensive view of the controlled area and it is easy to identify spatial III. OBJECTIVE patterns and incident clusters which can be used as a The main objective of this applied research is to decision support system to control the crime. develop a cost effective decision support system which According to [10] crime mappers can unlock the will help the police department to map and analyze spatial patterns and strive for a better theoretical crime. This system combines the spatial and non- understanding of the role of geography and spatial data to derive meaningful information. opportunity, as well as enabling practical crime Google’s cloud and GIS technology has been used for prevention solutions that are tailored to specific places. this study. The crime information (non-spatial data) [11] and [12] also emphasizes the use of geo-spatial source is the RSS feeds from various newspapers and information and communication technology tools for news channels websites. The spatial data is in the spatial and 3D analysis in crime related studies. form of the satellite imagery on Google maps, no GPS Input data for such a system is collected through a is required for this study. GPS and satellite imagery. A GPS enabled device is IV. METHODOLOGY used to collect crime location points and the satellite imagery can be used as a base layer or create base The Methodology of the study is as follows: vector layers representing roads, settlements, utility 1) Crime related news is collected using RSS network, rivers, canals etc. Input data for this study is feeds. The news is collected daily in Google docs collected from the RSS (Really Simple Syndicate) spreadsheet using the ImportFeed() function. A feeds from various news websites. RSS is a spreadsheet is assigned to each RSS feed as shown in syndication method for delivering content to users. Figure 1. The crime related news is extracted [13] has customized the RSS aggregator software to manually from the collection of news and formatted collect content based on both time and location so that in a desired format with attributes like location, type the RSS protocol can work for location based services. of crime, details, link to the news web page etc in a There are various websites which provide GeoRSS final spreadsheet. feeds which can be mapped easily as they contain the Figure 1 - RSS feed news data in Google spreadsheet 2) A new table is created in Google documents using addition to other attributes is converted to a fusion the import from Google spreadsheet option. The final table as shown in Figure 2. spreadsheet which contains the location attribute in www.ijorcs.org
- 3. Cloud GIS for Crime Mapping 59 Figure 2 – Data in Google Fusion Table 3) Using the option (visualize as a map) available in police infrastructure, fire brigade, hospitals, and the Google fusion tables the table is visualized as a telecommunication network setups, entry/exit points of map as shown in Figure 3. One point location is the city and other main landmarks of the study area generated automatically for each row in the table. The using Google imagery. This collective information can geocoding is done based on the location attribute in the be useful for emergency planning, preparedness, table. Geocoding is the process to convert the address warning, relief and mitigation. Google API’s will be in text format to point location in the GIS. The location used to automate the tasks. Data mining techniques of all the geocoded points is checked. Further, the [14] will be used to automatically extract the crime export to KML (Keyhole Markup Language) option is related news from the collected news data and arrange used to save the generated points on your system. it in the desired format. 4) This point layer is generated daily to map the crime An efficient and cost effective decision support in the area of interest. system will be created for the administrators. To develop this system no satellite data, application and GIS software is required on the developer’s computer only an internet connection is required. The same methodology can be used to map accidents and other events. The only limitation of this study is that the location of the crime specified in the news is generalized therefore the generated point location is not very accurate and comparable to the point location taken by a GPS. VI. REFERENCES [1] S. Di Martino, et al., "Spatial OnLine Analytical Processing of Geographic Data through the Google Figure 3 – Google Fusion Table data visualized as a map Earth Interface Geocomputation, Sustainability and Environmental Planning." vol. 348, B. Murgante, et al., V. RESULTS Eds., ed: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2011, pp. 163- It is proposed to build a blog which will have daily, 182. weekly and monthly crime maps which will help to [2] [2] D. Kaimaris, et al., "Comparative analysis on the identify crime patterns and clusters. The crime will be archaeological content of imagery from Google Earth," categorized into theft, murder, snatching and other Journal of Cultural Heritage, vol. 12, pp. 263-269, 2011. classes. The main objective of these maps is to identify crime prone areas. It is also proposed to map [3] D. Kennedy and M. C. Bishop, "Google earth and the archaeology of Saudi Arabia. A case study from the ancillary information like location of police stations, www.ijorcs.org
- 4. 60 Harpinder Singh, Rajneesh Kumar, Amardeep Singh, P.K. Litoria Jeddah area," Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 38, pp. 1284-1293, 2011. [4] F.-M. Hsu, et al., "Design and implementation of an intelligent recommendation system for tourist attractions: The integration of EBM model, Bayesian network and Google Maps," Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 39, pp. 3257-3264, 2012. [5] P. Lisa, "Digging into Google Earth: An analysis of “Crisis in Darfur”," Geoforum, vol. 40, pp. 535-545, 2009. [6] M. Boulos, "Web GIS in practice III: creating a simple interactive map of England's Strategic Health Authorities using Google Maps API, Google Earth KML, and MSN Virtual Earth Map Control," International Journal of Health Geographics, vol. 4, pp. 1-8, 2005. [7] A. Chang, et al., "Combining Google Earth and GIS mapping technologies in a dengue surveillance system for developing countries," International Journal of Health Geographics, vol. 8, pp. 1-11, 2009. [8] L. Santos, et al., "A web spatial decision support system for vehicle routing using Google Maps," Decision Support Systems, vol. 51, pp. 1-9, 2011. [9] E. Bradley, et al., "Google Earth and Google Fusion Tables in support of time-critical collaboration: Mapping the deepwater horizon oil spill with the AVIRIS airborne spectrometer," Earth Science Informatics, vol. 4, pp. 169-179, 2011. [10] J. Ratcliffe, "Crime Mapping: Spatial and Temporal Challenges Handbook of Quantitative Criminology," A. R. Piquero and D. Weisburd, Eds., ed: Springer New York, 2010, pp. 5-24. [11] J. G. J. Schaaik and J. J. Kemp, "Real Crimes on Virtual Maps: The Application of Geography and GIS in Criminology Geospatial Technology and the Role of Location in Science." vol. 96, H. J. Scholten, et al., Eds., ed: Springer Netherlands, 2009, pp. 217-237. [12] M. Wolff and H. Asche, "Geospatial Crime Scene Investigation – From Hotspot Analysis to Interactive 3D Visualization Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2009." vol. 5592, O. Gervasi, et al., Eds., ed: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2009, pp. 285-299. [13] R. Cammack, "Open Content Web Mapping Service: A Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Approach Location Based Services and TeleCartography," G. Gartner, et al., Eds., ed: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2007, pp. 417-431. [14] B. Berendt, "Text Mining for News and Blogs Analysis Encyclopedia of Machine Learning," C. Sammut and G. I. Webb, Eds., ed: Springer US, 2010, pp. 968-972. www.ijorcs.org