Identifying Potential Zones of Crime Commitment against Tourists in a Park: Conceptual and Logical Spatial Data Modeling

Abstract

Location is considered as an important element in studying tourism security. Therefore, mapping crime hotspots has recently been an interesting research topic in tourism development. In order to identify crime patterns and hotspots, it is essential to create a database containing the required spatial data. It should also be integrated with additional qualitative/quantitative attributes affecting criminal actions. Designing a geographic information system (GIS) can be considered as the most efficient way to deal with this problem considering the complex nature of tourism security. This paper presents the theoretical scheme of spatial data modeling with the purpose of indentifying potential crime zones within a developed park. From the spatial point of view, the factors and the constraints, which make a location vulnerable, are defined. The entities are identified by their attributes and characterized by their relationships. Finally, the conceptual and the logical models to create the crime suitability maps are generated. The models provided in this paper are designed in an explicit way; therefore, they can be easily modified or generalized for any specific case study. The presented data modeling procedure can be applied to generate essential databases for crime mapping via any GIS software.