Satellite-based positioning system such as global positioning system(GPS) has played a major role in data capture technology for constructing GIS database. Recent advances in satellite-based positioning technology have made the task of precisely locat...
Satellite-based positioning system such as global positioning system(GPS) has played a major role in data capture technology for constructing GIS database. Recent advances in satellite-based positioning technology have made the task of precisely locating features fast, easy, and inexpensive, and determined their current latitude and longitude. However, there are still situations where satellite-based positioning service will not provide users with desired precision such as in urban environments, that is, the only severe handicap still hampering satellite-based positioning is the well-known problem of restricted satellite visibilities. As the majority of the creation and updating of road and street network are carried out in urban environments, the obstruction problem considerably impedes the wider application of satellite-based positioning. This paper presents the current GPS-based positioning environment for GIS data acquisition in urban areas. A field experiment with measurement vehicle has been performed under varying operational conditions and areas where shading of satellite signal is encountered due to buildings and overpasses with measurement vehicle in order to evaluate the availability of existing GPS-based positioning. We found that the current GPS-base positioning system we used in the study was insufficient for a precise GIS data acquisition. this research would make a contribution for the development of base data to supplementary technology, which can complement the existing GPS-based positioning.