Course : Geo 2105 Geographic Information System

Lecturer : Prof. Hui Lin

Tutor : Mr. Joshua Hui

Date of Submission: 25 Apr 2001

Member :

Fan Shuk Man 99776749

Kwok Pui Yee 99521284

Leung Chuk Kwan 98518901,

Lai Man Ying 99596737

　

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Title: Potential Sites for New Cinemas in Shatin.

　

Introduction:

There are only 3 cinemas to serve Shatin, which is an area of 4.2768 km2, and it is believed that the cinemas are insufficient to serve the whole area. Therefore, it is needed to use GIS system to decide where should be the best site for the construction of the new cinema.

　

Rationales:

There are only 3 cinemas in Shatin recently. They are located in New Town Plaza, Hilton Center and City One Shatin. For the large area like Shatin accounts for 4.2768 km2 area, the proportion for the cinema to the population is not enough. Apart from this, film production is a growing industry and is potentially earning a lot of money, but the location of the cinema would significantly affect the transaction volume.

　

Significance:

Cinema actually could have a good-enough revenue, despite the effect from the economic recession in the past few years. Film industry has gained attention from the government, which treat it as a sign for economic recovery, especially when a number of local artists and producers awarded in the Oscar. Administrator Tung has said that he is thinking of a promotion of Hong Kong's film industry.

Apart from the promotion from the government, films with famous stars actually attract a lot of fans. It creates a ground of supporters to the cinema that is beyond the threshold and would generate a large volume of monetary return.

However, the monetary return depends on the number of audience, which in turns depends on where it locates. Area with a large population flow is said to be more promising to the revenue. Whether it would gain advantage from the nearby and associated economic activities, would also be an important point in decision making.

Therefore, the GIS system is useful in helping to make decision, and the significance of the project is set on the monetary return.

　

　

Criteria and assumptions:

It is believed that accessibility is the major point in determining where to construct a cinema. Therefore transportation and the flow of potential customers is the first criteria in site selection process.

Secondary, geomorphology is also important because the cinema would properly occupy for 50 km2. It requires a relatively plain area for the extension of the cinema.

Thirdly, the nearby and associated economic activities like shopping centers would generate a clustering effect.

Based on the above three assumptions, we have created three criteria for the site selection as below:

  1. 100m from main roads like Tai Chung Kui Road, Yuen Wo Road, Shatin Road,
  2. Height below 50m.
  3. Locate near or in the plaza, including Hilton Center, New Town Plaza, Shatin Center, Shatin Plaza, Lucky Plaza... ...

　

Methodology:

The data we need includes a base map of Shatin in digitize form and the contour map of the selected area, they can be downloaded from the Internet. After data collection, we need to identify the location of the main roads, shopping centers and plazas.

It is going to introduce the methodology of the project.

  1. Convert the contour into grids, and reclassify into 2 groups, below and above 50m.
  2. Create a buffer along the main roads in terms of distance, reclassify into 2 groups, within and exceed 100m from the main roads.
  3. Create buffer zone that is 500m from plaza and shopping centers.
  4. Perform analysis and map query, to create the area, which suits into the criteria, below 50m height, 100m from the main road.
  5. Union the plaza buffer zone and the query result.

　

Limitation and difficulties:

Although the objective for the project is determined in terms of monetary return, we haven't considered the factor of land cost. It is because of the difficulty in determining whether to choose a costly area with high accessibility or less costly area with lower accessibility.

Secondary, we can only locate the potential area, but we don't know whether they are for rent. In fact, it seems too compact for a new cinema in the potential area.

Thirdly, there are some missing data from the contour map, which may affect our determination.

Fourthly, we haven't considered the new planned Ma On Shan Railway, which lies along the potential area. We believed that a construction of shopping centers on the cover area of a rail station is possible. The New Era Plaza on the cover of Mong Kok station and the New Town Plaza on the cover of Shatin station are successful examples.

　

Conclusion:

To conclude, though with some limitations, we have hit our target, to locate the potential area for a new cinema in Shatin. There are a number of discussions on whether the potential site is suitable for a new cinema, because of the competition from the nearby cinemas. In the concept of economic geography, industrial agglomeration would be advantageous to the industry. Therefore we believed that our project result is still possible.

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