Advisor: Dr. Fuad Malkawi

Abstract:
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing feature events on earth. It functions as a decision support system to solve spatially related problems. GIS is highly utilized in many fields i.e. geography, geology, agriculture, sociology, etc. However, its use in urban design and planning is still limited, despite the fact that those fields deal extensively with spatial data. If properly utilized, GIS can prove to be very beneficial to urban planners and designers.

This study presents six applications that illustrate how GIS can be utilized in urban planning and design:
1. The use of GIS in managing urban sprawl and urban growth, land use planning, zoning and land value estimation.
2. The use of GIS in urban and downtown revitalization.
3. The use of GIS in urban morphology.
4. The use of GIS in the urban planning process. In this case, the study illustrates how GIS can be used in enhancing the performance and display of data through processes such as visualization, simulation, virtual reality and Internet GIS.
5. The use of GIS in site allocation (site selection).

The study gives a special attention to this last application - GIS applications in site allocation. Site allocation is an important task that should be carried out while taking into consideration issues like the users' convenience, services' efficiency, and impartiality. GIS plays a major role in it as a decision support system. A number of applications are illustrated here showing how GIS can be useful in choosing the optimum location for a facility. Allocating health care facilities is treated as a case study to illustrate GIS potentialities. The decision to build a hospital is an extremely important one. It has implications for patients, physicians, professionals, and other health care centers in the area. Site selection for a health care facility is a critical activity that should be taken early on, in the planning process. There are several factors that affect allocating a health facility. Those factors are defined in the study. A rational process in which one factor cancels another was set before the model of this process was built. The model identifies the database and the criteria that GIS utilizes in allocating a health care facility.