1. Business Ecology: A spatial interpretation of India´s business
habitats
Eric Vaz, Daniel Galati, Kevin Worthington
eric vaz, phd, phdc
Ryerson University, Department of Geography
Toronto, ON, Canada

2. A Business as a living organism parented by Mankind
hab·i·tat /ˈhabiˈtat
/
Noun
The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism. A
particular type of environment regarded as a home for organisms.
Synonyms: residence - home – dwelling
A business is an organism; a contiguous living system capable of response to
stimulus, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of
homeostasis as a stable whole.
The business organism, as any other organism, depends on its ecosystem
surroundings, which are reflected by its geographical surroundings

3. India – A country of challenges and opportunities
>> The opportunities
India is the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of GDP after
purchasing power parity, after US, China and Japan
Economic reforms are recent albeit all this significant growth (1991)
Very attractive destination given the huge manpower (1.2 billion people),
and availability of resources
Goldman Sachs predicts India as the second largest economy in the world
(followed by China)
Consistent economic growth of 8-9% in almost a decade

4. India – A country of challenges and opportunities
>> The challenges
Education and population increase must be fostered by policies
responding to 1.2 billion people
According to 2010 data from the United Nations Development
Programme, an estimated 37.2% of Indians live below the country's
national poverty line
A huge asymetry exists between rich and poor, urban areas and
peripheral regions
India´s urban growth is leading to excessive pressure on fragile
wetlands, ecosystems and is affecting directly biodiversity
Transportation and communication systems are very poor at national
level

5. The GIS dimension
“GIS are becoming places to think, act, and respond“
Eric Vaz, ERSA 2012, Timisoara, Romania

6. Computer Assisted Drawing
Databases
Geographic Information Systems

7. Crossdisciplinar: Synergies of knowledge
Digital Mapping Surveying
Photogrammetry
CAD
Remote Databases
Sensing
Geographic Information Systems

8. All our work was developed with open
soure technologies at hand
Advantages:
1. Existence of a panel of programming
and IT experts useful for Geographers
10. Works on Windows, Linux and Mac
2. Support by a large and growing
development community 11. Thousands of available specialized
tools for every field of research or
3. Bugs and fixes available for any users application
4. Free learning materials available 12. Larger capabilities of importing GIS
data (shapefiles are obviously included)
5. Low implementation and startup costs
13. Absolutely for free, save money on
6. Continuous optimization and software, and give someone a job
improvement of software

9. The Geocoding Challenge
6675 Company entries including 20+ attribute variables
Addresses are provided but format is not consistent across all entries.
Specific:
Broad:
Problem: How could one acquire an accurate spatial reference for all
corresponding companies in a time efficient manner?

10. The Geocoding Challenge
Solution: Python Scripting using Google Geocoding API
Combining Python and Google allows the programmer to completely automate
the acquisition of spatial references based on provided address data.
Google Geocoding API accepts addresses in specific or
broad formats.
Google Geocoding API uses its wide library of spatial
information to provide the most accurate spatial reference
possible.

11. The Geocoding Challenge
Result: Fully automated spatial reference acquisition of all 6625 company
addresses.
99% acquisition success rate.
Poorly formatted or invalid addresses are left blank.

12. Patenting the results: A new application was born
1. A Business API of automatic geocoding based on an
Excel spreadseet
2. Integration of geocoded materials as shapefiles
(points) in an ArcGIS environment
3. Automatic projection of shapefiles onto Google
Earth for local visualization

13. Always look on
The GIS dimension
the bright side
of life
Opportunities Spatial Analysis
Increase Create a
investors WebGIS
Challenges
Support Understand
planning environmental
change
Monitor
growth

14. The WebGIS landscape:
Indian dimension
“Information is about having, knowledge is about sharing“,
Geocoding
Eric Vaz, European Space Agency, Krakow, 2011
6675 Company entries including 20+ attribute variables
Addresses are provided but format is not consistent across all entries.
Specific:
Broad:
Problem: How could one acquire an accurate spatial reference for all
corresponding companies in a time efficient manner?
Solution: Python Scripting using Google Geocoding API
Combining Python and Google allows the programmer to completely automate
the acquisition of spatial references based on provided address data.
Google Geocoding API accepts addresses in specific or
broad formats.
Google Geocoding API uses its wide library of spatial
information to provide the most accurate spatial reference
possible.

15. http://cycleoflife.co/

16. What the WebGIS brings
1. A geocoded system of location of over 6000 registered Indian
businesses buy business activity
2. Spatial analysis of business clusters from an investor perspective.
3. Temporal analysis of location of businesses since 1850 with
geovisualization capabilities-
4. A spatio-temporal understanding of India‘s business morphology
5. Understanding India‘s business dimension as an independent
ecosystem from a general user perspective
6. Defining the intricate relations of the business organisms.

17. The Spatial analysis landscape:
Indian dimension
“Information is about having, knowledge is about sharing“,
Geocoding
Eric Vaz, European Space Agency, Krakow, 2011

18. The Spatial analysis landscape:
Indian dimension
“Information is about having, knowledge is about sharing“,
Geocoding
Eric Vaz, European Space Agency, Krakow, 2011

19. The Spatial analysis landscape:
Indian dimension
“Information is about having, knowledge is about sharing“,
Geocoding
Eric Vaz, European Space Agency, Krakow, 2011

20. What the Spatial Analysis brought
1. Understanding of two very independent and autonomous business
clusters in India
2. Evolution of India‘s business landscape has developed from West to
East, resulting from the influence of original business locations in the
19th century
3. The indian business landscape may jeopardize fragile ecosystems
such as Mumbai`s (former Bombay) wetland system.
4. Business location is intrinsically linked to urban infrastructures – buy
managing urban and regional spatial interactions, we have found that
the business organism interacts in space and time

21. The Research Team
Principal Investigator: Eric Vaz is Assistant Professor at Ryerson University.
With over fifty publications in the field of Geosciences, Eric’s interest is linked
in understanding the changes in the spatial morphology of business
landscapes, and the interactions of urban and rural environments.
Research Scientist: Daniel Galati is fourth year Geographic Analysis student at
Ryerson University. Pursuing his Masters of Spatial Analysis in 2013/2014, Daniel
is primarily interested in developing new manipulation tools to address the
growing popularity of raster images in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Research Scientist: Kevin Worthington is Ryerson University Graduate with a
degree in Information Technology Management, where he majored in
Application Development. His passion for presenting media using web-based
map technology has driven the development of multiple webGIS applications.
Co-Investigator: Shailendra Rai is Assistant Professor at the Management and
Development Institute in Delhi and interested in the integration of Management
in a context of Indian business.

22. obrigado