Roaming National Parks Through the Cloud Operations and Management at a Glance

Article/ Shih-Ju Huang

Interviewee(s) Hui-Chen Peng, Chief of Planning and Management Section, Yushan National Park Headquarters Hsiu-Ping Cheng, Chief of Planning Management Section, Taijiang National Park Headquarters Chih-Chen Chen, Chief of Planning and Management Section, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters

In the 1970s, personal computers and email emerged; in the 1980s, the Internet burst onto the scene; and since 2000, search engines, social media, and the Cloud have all become the new favorites. Over the past 50 years, people’s attitude toward the Internet has gone from unfamiliar and skeptical, to experimenting and embracing the technology, just as smartphone – once a remarkable novelty – is now an indispensable partner in the workplace.With information exchange and resource sharing becoming possible, the National Parks are also riding this wave to digitize the operation and management processes. In addition to digitizing traditional paper-based operations, a variety of systems have been built to assist in land management; geographic information systems (GIS) are being employed to share hiking and other recreation information; and a variety of multimedia resources are being integrated to enable the public to virtually roam national parks from home.

Yushan 3D Map Platform: Traveling From Your Living Room

Yushan, also called Mt. Jade – its lofty peaks and unusual ridgelines towering high call to many hearts. However, not everyone has the opportunity to actually visit the site and experience its magnificence in person. With new advancements in technology, Yushan National Park Headquarters (YNPH) has integrated geographic information systems (GIS) into a 3D map platform, electronic publishing, and audiovisual media. This enables more people to see and hear Yushan, in hopes that they can one day set foot there in person.

The updated Yushan 3D Map Platform, launched in 2022, displays geographic information about Yushan National Park using 3D terrain. With a Chinese language interface, the Platform is crossbrowser compatible, and requires no installation of additional components. The Platform includes ecology search, location search, and live video feed functions. The location search function allows searching in six different categories: landmarks, mountains, facilities, coordinates, cadaster, and signage. And it’s all accessible with just a touch of the finger. The 12 categories presented on the left side of the interface allow selecting more than a hundred kinds of data overlays. Select any type of information, and the information is instantly displayed on the 3D map.

land management was all paper-based. We had support from GIS technology, but it was mostly just Google Maps. There was no platform that really catered to YNPH’s purposes. That’s why we wanted to integrate the GIS graphs we had long accumulated to build a digital map platform.”

Open the map platform and what first greets the eye are the green forests of Yushan. Scroll your mouse, and the mountains, streams, valleys, vegetation, and cabins gradually appear. Most of these images have been collected over the years by YNPH using high-resolution aerial photography and lidar scanning. “We started,” notes Peng, “by collecting the images of Yushan Peaks Trail, which is the trail that visitors use most often. Theresults were nice, so we’ve added photography for about 100 to 120 square kilometers every year since.

The map platform is also interconnected with the information shared by organizations such as the Ministry of the Interior’s National Land Surveying and Mapping Center and Department of Land Administration, and the Aerial Survey and Remote Sensing Branch within the Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestr y and Nature Conser vation Agency. Such data on spatial distribution is analyzed with software to create 3D images, which are then integrated into the map platform to create detailed, realistic 3D terrain. Color orthophoto images and digital terrain models are finally added, making the terrain’s actual undulations come to life.

Making Good Use of Data to Create a Safe and Convenient Journeys

If you’re planning a Yushan hike, Hui-Chen Peng suggests starting with the Hiking Routes overlay: “The National Park Trail Classification System included in this overlay specifies information such as the location of trails at every difficulty level, a trail grade ranking table, and more. This way, you can assess your own physical fitness and choose routes that are best suited to you.”

The Hiking Routes overlay also provides information on six trails: the Mabolasi Crossing Trail; the Batongguan Traversing Trail; the Yushan Peaks Trail; the Xinkang Crossing Trail; the Southern Section Two Trail; and the Southern Cross-Island Highway 3 Mountains and Guan Mountain Hiking Route. Click on each trail and you are given an introduction and flyover view of the trail, as well as a guide map for hiking. Peng explains, “The route section plan of the suggested day trip also helps you to learn the differences in trail elevation. We recommend that you try the Flyover View function for a virtual trip experience to Yushan before actual hiking.”

For those who want to tour Yushan from home, the Recreational Information overlay may be useful. It includes different kinds of multimedia such as virtual tours and mobile guides. For example, by clicking on Dongpu Tribal Village in Xinyi Township, located in the northwest of the park, you will be led to the interpretive displays in the Dongpu Information Center. “Many of the images were taken by our colleagues and volunteers, during park patrols and facility maintenance. Adding to their tiring hikes, they carried cumbersome imaging equipment with them – all to share the scenic mountain views and the way the facilities look with the world.”

Hikers Have Questions; the 3D Map Platform Has Answers

Hikers ask the employees at YNPH all sorts of questions, and the employees need to be ready to answer all of them. “A hiker once asked us if Paiyun Lodge can be seen from Mt. Jade South Peak, and how far away it is,” Hui-Chen Peng said with a laugh. “It may seem like a simple question. But if we haven’t been there before, or if we have but the weather was bad and we weren’t looking that direction, we might not have the answer.” And that’s when the 3D Map Platform comes in handy!

In the toolbar on the right side of the map platform, click on “Measurement Tools”, then “Visibility Analysis”, and select both Mt. Jade South Peak and Paiyun Lodge. You will then see a line between these two spots; green indicates what’s visible, and red shows what’s not visible. This shows that if you’re at Mt. Jade South Peak, your view of Paiyun Lodge will be blocked by the mountainous terrain around the Yuan Peak. In other words, Paiyun Lodge is not visible from Mt. Jade South Peak

A Handy Helper for Land Management and Park Patrols

In addition to providing needed hiking information to the public, the 3D Map Platform is a powerful tool for YNPH operations. For example, during the comprehensive five-year reviews for national parks, adjustments to land use zoning will also affect park admission applications – yet such geographic location details can hardly be explained using a two-dimensional map. That’s when the map platform comes into play, because it can show the entire scope of zoning adjustments at a single glance.

“For example,” says Peng, “the Jiaxin area was re-classified from an Ecological Protection Area to a Historical Preservation Area in Yushan National Park’s 4th Overall Review. As a result, the scope of the Ecological Protection Area where applications are required for park admission will also be revised. Now the application is only required for the area about 7 kilometers away from the Walami Trail.”

Peng also notes that in the past, most government agencies’ systems had separate public and internal purposes, which also increased the costs for the maintenance of such systems. She says, “YNPH hopes to integrate our business needs in terms of digital operations and management, while also providing the public with a convenient 3D experience.” Therefore, in the early phase of building the platform, YNPH integrated overlays to create an internal, independent web-based platform for park patrols. “Yushan National Park Headquarters is the first government agency to extend 3D Map Platform applications to the park patrolling system.”

In the past, the park patrol system was unable to record actual patrol routes, and could only present a single point. Now, when park rangers upload and import GPX files and photos, the map platform will automatically capture their geographical coordinates and present the complete patrol route. This approach makes it easier for personnel to report on trail and facility maintenance status, and to investigate incidents of illegality. And all this makes resource conservation and management easier, too

The first-generation 3D Map Platform was completed in 2016. “But first-time users had to first download the GIS software to use the platform,” explains Peng, “and it could only be used with the Internet Explorer browser. That made it rather inconvenient to use.” The revamped 3D Map Platform not only has improved technologies, faster loading speeds, and better interface design, “but it’s also a great breakthrough in the application of information to operations and management.”

GIS for Park Navigation

Unlike Yushan National Park’s 3D Map Platform, which provides a wealth of hiking information, Taijiang National Park’s Geographic Information Systems instead have the focuses unique to a wetland-type national park.

As part of this GIS project, Taijiang National Park Headquarters (TNPH) has created four subsystems: the Geographic Information System for Park Navigation; Virtual Reality Tour System; the Land Use Zoning Inquiry System; and the Public Offline Map Mobile Browsing System. These systems were built to assist in land management operations and to facilitate public understanding of the geography and attractions of the park. Since 2017, all these systems have been folded into the Geographic Information Systems page to provide a more user-friendly interface.

Hsiu-Ping Cheng, Chief of TNPH’s Planning Management Section,explained that the Geographic Information System for Park Navigation makes it clear how irregular the distribution of Taijiang National Park land areas are, with som segments even completely isolated from the rest. “This is because the area of Taijiang National Park was not delineated using natural boundaries, but often with public lands,” explains Cheng. “This made the geographical boundaries perhaps less obvious to the naked eye.”

As a result, when members of the public have entered the park for leisure and recreation, they have sometimes found it hard to be sure where they were. While patrolling the park, even park employees have occasionally been unable to determine whether they were within official park boundaries or not. “In the past, in order to know the location, our colleagues had to compare the topography and landmarks using paper maps or Google Maps,” explains Cheng. “But they couldn’t necessarily be sure.” Now, it only takes entering an address or coordinates. The Geographic Information System for Park Navigation makes it easy for visitors to determine if they are within the park area and see exactly where they are.

Easy Online Application for Land Use Zoning Certificates

Of TNPH’s Geographic Information Systems, the Land Use Zoning Inquiry System has also been widely used by the public. Hsiu-Ping Cheng shares that, before the application process for Land Use Zoning Certificates went digital, the public had to apply for cadastral map transcription and land registration transcripts in advance, then fill in the application form on the spot. Miss a document and you might have to go back and forth to find it and submit it. And then it took a final trip back to collect the approved certificate.

“The previous Land Use Zoning Inquiry System was for TNPH internal use only. Later, we realized that the system should integrate a way for people wanting to apply for a Land Use Zoning Certificate to pre-check whether their land falls within the park area, or which zoning area it belongs to. So we did that.”

Now, members of the public can make prechecks via the system; but even more, it’s possible through inter-agency information connection to apply online without needing any transcripts. This has greatly simplified the application process.

“The process from application submission to headquarters handling is now done entirely online. It takes only 3 days to complete, where it used to take at least a week with the old paperbased process. The current process cuts the time required in half or better, and reduces paper consumption.”

A Multi-Pronged Approach to Touring Taijiang

Cheng has other ideas on what the Geographic Information Systems can do to provide recreational services with greater public convenience. “Taijiang National Park is large in physical area but irregular in terms of land distribution. In addition to visiting the park, people want to learn about other attractions nearby. Especially now, our travel and tour design emphasizes ‘Food, Accommodation, Travel, Shopping, and Transportation’. Through this, we hope to eventually provide more diverse recreational information as a reference for the public.”

A s Taijiang National Park is located within Southwest Coast National Scenic Area, Cheng holds the view that the Park’s tourism information should perhaps be combined with that of the Southwest Coast National Scenic Area and other government agencies such as Tainan City Government: “TNPH’s information should be exchanged with other organizations, so the public can access tourism information through multiple channels and so we can provide them with more convenient service.”

In addition, in response to the challenges of climate change, national parks should also consider safety measures for the long term. “For example,” mentions Cheng, “there are things like basic information on areas near Taijiang National Park that are prone to flooding or where water levels may rise. Things like emergency response measures for evacuation. We have all this basic information already, so hopefully we can incorporate it into the system one day to inform the public.”

Real-time Reporting and Comprehensive Review

For use in its land-management duties, TNPH has also created a Geographic Information Display System for internal use. This incorporates information on past overall reviews, cadastral maps, public land data, and major scenic spots, projects, and conservation studies. “For example, survey data such as popular locations for seeing black-faced spoonbills are constantly being incorporated into the system,” explained Cheng. “When we’re doing future overall reviews and related planning, that will allow a better understanding of resource distribution, ecological hotspots, and regulatory violation hotspots in the entire park. It will all help us make judgments and deal with operations and management.”

For patrol and maintenance purposes, TNPH has also created an internal Park Patrol and Reporting System, which allows park employees to know precisely where they are at any time. “When they see a suspected violation,” explains Cheng, “they can immediately refer to land use zoning and control regulations, and confirm whether there’s been a related application. They can determine instantly if it counts as a violation.” When a patrol and maintenance check is done, incident data, photos, and coordinates are registered directly on the system. This data is accumulated in a patrol and maintenance check database, which allows further analysis and statistics to facilitate followup

In the past, the data of Park Patrol and Reporting System need to be installed on mobile phones and tablets and used in an offline version in the past. However, with the improvement of communication facilities in the park, says Cheng, “since last year the system can be operated via the Internet. It doesn’t require installing map data on the device. That not only saves space on phones, but also greatly improves the technology and convenience.”

Geographic Information System for Land Management

Yangmingshan National Park is a metropolitan national park that has convenient transportation and is widely used by the public. Therefore, how to strike a balance between park conservation and human activities has always been a core issue for Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters (YNPH); and land management is a key concern within this.

Chih-Chen Chen, Chief of YNPH’s Planning and Management Section, mentions that as early as around 1991, YNPH had set up a standalone version of the Yangmingshan National Park Boundary and Cadastral Database. This system allowed the public to check and apply for Land Use Zoning Certificates. “At that time,” says Chen, “the Internet and HTML technology were not as common as they are today. The database still worked on a DOS system!”

As GIS technology has gradually matured, YNPH has also revamped the land management system into the Geographic Information System for Land Management. YNPH has also gradually expanded the system to include a variety of convenient functions for the public. The system also has a sub-function that allows online applications. At present, people who wish to settle inheritance, purchase/sale of land, and land use & development can access 3 different application services – Land Use Zoning Certificates, Agricultural Land Certificates, and Menghuan Pond Critical Wetland – through the Yangmingshan National Park Land Use Certificate Application and Inquiry System.

GIS cadastral maps, topographic maps, aerial maps, maps of environmentally-sensitive areas, river basin maps, etc. allow viewing land use, building distribution, and land status within the park . Such information includes flora and fauna involved in conservation studies; distribution of environmentally sensitive areas; special geographic environments and geological landscapes; special species; and more.

“This GIS spatial data helps us understand the overall development situation, and changes over large time scales,” says Chih-Chen Chen. “By analyzing this kind of data, we get information on areas requiring additional conser vation works, areas with potential for development, and areas with important conservation resources that must be strictly limited to development, or even prohibited to tourists. This is important information for YNPH, both in terms of planning land use, and for ecological protection area over the long term.”

Encrypted Data and Authentication

“In the early days,” says Chen, “to issue a Land Use Certificate, our colleagues had to dig out a large atlas containing cadastral maps printed in cyanotype, and then check the land lots one by one.” But now, with inter-agency information connection, online application services greatly simplify the process. Advanced data encryption technology also helps to combat data forgery and enhance verification

“In the past, we’d issue paper certificates,” says Chen. “But in 2016, that changed to it has been changed to encrypted e-certificates; we can respond directly to applicants via email. We’re also considering text message alerts as an additional reminder option for future applicants.” Chen mentions that the latest land registration data is directly retrieved by YNPH, with encrypted e-certificates valid for 8 months. “This ensures that the certificates won’t be tampered with or forged; and it means that the public can print their own copies within the validity period, and they don’t have to keep applying.”“If a member of the public wants to buy or sell land, the buyer can check the validity of the Land Use Zoning Certificate by scanning the QR code on the document,” explains Chen. “That gets linked to the verification system on the YNPH website, where the e-certificate can be downloaded, and the authenticity can be checked by comparing it with the paper certificate provided by the buyer.”

YNPH receives thousands of applications for Land Use Zoning Certificates and Agricultural Land Certificates every year. For that reason, and to make the system easier for the public to use, online payments have been added in recent years. “After an online application is submitted,” says Chen, “the YNPH system connects with the bank, and the bank sends a virtual account number to which the applicant can do the online transfer. Once the transferred amount is confirmed and received, the application will then be created.”

Chen also shares that more diversified payment methods are expected to be included in the future. Considering the number of applications for Land Zoning Use Certificates received by YNPH, “perhaps a unified multi-payment service system can be established by the National Park Service. That would not only reduce costs, but also make it easier for people to use.”

From Paper to Digital: Advancing Operations and Management

In response to violations of the National Park Law, YNPH has also set up an Administrative Fines Management System. “Especially since 2002,” Chen explains, “the promulgation of the Administrative Execution Act has made the regulations and procedures related to compulsory execution and transfer of Certificates of the Obligatory Claim more robust. Since then, disciplinary cases, payment reminder followups, report output, etc. have all been handled by the system. The system’s functions are also improved every year, in accordance with regulatory adjustments.”

The system was revamped in 2014,withadministrative procedures incorporated. “The process starts by notifying the violator to state their opinion,” explains Chen, “and then to issuing the disciplinary citation, imposing a fine, and giving a payment reminder. If the person notified is not satisfied with the results, they can file administrative litigation. Bad debts are handled through administrative procedures via the seizure of property. All of it is managed by the system; and the administrative disciplinary citation documents are managed and filed using the automatic image recognition function.”

It takes a complex design thinking process to create the simplest and most convenient systems for the public. Information security maintenance – currently a topic of great concern to the public – is also a concern that YNPH is actively dealing with.“The Administrative Fines Management System contains a variety of personal information,” says Chen. “We are very cautious in using it, and frequently update the settings of the information security program. The internal system is also clearly differentiated from the external system. That may mean sacrificing a little convenience, but it’s something that has to be done.”

Chih-Chen Chen started working for the YNPH in 2007, and has since then witnessed the park’s operation and management moving to become more and more digital. Chen happily notes, “Once you’ve learned how to use a GIS system and its overlays, you’ll find it really comes in handy. To actually experience it in a 3D space feels totally different from reading a text-only description. And it also makes a difference in how we handle our duties and judge things. If we can explain a plan idea to the public using a clearly overlaid spatial map, that will help them to better understand why the national parks are doing this kind of planning.”