Setting up a GIS-lab: The ''human body GIS lab model''

In this paper it is argued that accessibility to a GIS-lab is one of the necessities in the context of GIS education. On the one hand, there does not exist a guide on how such a lab should be set up. On the other hand, there are a whole range of successful and less successful examples of GIS labs ail over the world. This paper presents some ideas on the steps that should be taken when setting up a GIS lab. Each lab will be and perhaps should be different, because each lab reflects a specific set of conditions that it is expected to meet. These conditions will differ from lab to lab, but the range of considerations that should be made are the same. These considerations are presented in this paper and it is argued that a GIS-lab will only work out to be successful if all considerations will be taken into account and will thus contribute to a well balanced decision making process. Considerations that should be considered are human and financial resources, hardware and software, data and applications. But among all considerations, two elements are of utmost importance: support by the management and the motivation of the users. The considerations that are part of the decision making process are all vital in their own way and can, in that respect, be compared with the parts of the human body. The human and financial resources can best be compared with the legs, being the 'fundamentals' of the body. The chest is represented by hardware and software and the arms by data and applications. The head is symbolic to the need to communicate and the heart symbolizes the users.