StudMap 3.0 : an interoperable web-based platform for geospatial data offers in academic life

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesGeographic Information Systems has now entered the realm of web and yields for feasible solutions to balance the technology offers with the users’ needs to share, access and explore the massive amounts of geodata available. Challenges occur when moving forward from old 2D platforms towards innovative and integrated webGIS systems that align functionality with the necessity to grant a complete understanding of the surrounding reality. 3D space responds to this but, however, stands only at the beginning of its era and cannot yet reach the development of 2D web integration. Research is now aiming at possible webGIS solutions to adapt to the special structure imposed by 3D data. In this context, this thesis focuses on designing an architecture for 2D and 3D geospatial data integration on a student-oriented web platform. This concept was further delivered and validated through a real case scenario – Studmap 3.0, a webGIS platform to serve the students of the University of Muenster in their academical life. The portal currently grants availability of geospatial data and web services of regional interest in a smart GIS environment that allows access and comparison of official services with own data. The implementation of Studmap 3.0 aided in the continuous improvement of the proposed architecture model and developed under a design science research cycle that reached its end once the final approval of its users was attained via a usability evaluation. Final strengths and drawbacks of the proposed architecture were ultimately identified together with an expert usability evaluation and a lab-based usability test of the resulting portal interface suitability for academic use. The results fall under the acceptable range with an 83.75 score for the System Usability Scale standardized questions when addressed to experts and a score of 83.87 when addressed to students. For the open-ended questions, the interface received an overall positive critique. A summary of future participants’ opinion on the benefits, drawbacks and proposed improvements was also delivered. Peers interested in similar concepts can use both this model and its final remarks as a reference for their work

Design of the shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) and development of a web-based GIS interface

Chapter 5The Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) is a collaborative initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) aimed to establish an integrated and shared EU-wide environmental information system together with the Member States. SEIS presents the European vision on environmental information interoperability. It is a set of high-level principles & workflow-processes that organize the collection, exchange, and use of environmental data & information aimed to: • Modernise the way in which information required by environmental legislation is made available to member states or EC instruments; • Streamline reporting processes and repeal overlaps or obsolete reporting obligations; • Stimulate similar developments at international conventions; • Standardise according to INSPIRE when possible; and • Introduce the SDI (spatial database infrastructure) principle EU-wide. SEIS is a system and workflow of operations that offers technical capabilities geared to meet concept expectations. In that respect, SEIS shows the way and sets up the workflow effectively in a standardise way (e.g, INSPIRE) to: • Collect Data from Spatial Databases, in situ sensors, statistical databases, earth observation readings (e.g., EOS, GMES), marine observation using standard data transfer protocols (ODBC, SOS, ft p, etc). • Harmonise collected data (including data check/data integrity) according to best practices proven to perform well, according to the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC (1) Annexes I: II: III: plus INSPIRE Implementation Rules for data not specified in above mentioned Annexes. • Harmonise collected data according to WISE (Water Information System from Europe) or Ozone-web. • Process, aggregate harmonise data so to extract information in a format understandable by wider audiences (e.g., Eurostat, enviro-indicators). • Document information to fulfi l national reporting obligations towards EU bodies (e.g., the JRC, EEA, DGENV, Eurostat) • Store and publish information for authorised end-users (e.g., citizens, institutions). This paper presents the development and integration of the SEIS-Malta Geoportal. The first section outlines EU Regulations on INSPIRE and Aarhus Directives. The second covers the architecture and the implementation of SEIS-Malta Geoportal. The third discusses the results and successful implementation of the Geoportal.peer-reviewe

Global-Scale Resource Survey and Performance Monitoring of Public OGC Web Map Services

One of the most widely-implemented service standards provided by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to the user community is the Web Map Service (WMS). WMS is widely employed globally, but there is limited knowledge of the global distribution, adoption status or the service quality of these online WMS resources. To fill this void, we investigated global WMSs resources and performed distributed performance monitoring of these services. This paper explicates a distributed monitoring framework that was used to monitor 46,296 WMSs continuously for over one year and a crawling method to discover these WMSs. We analyzed server locations, provider types, themes, the spatiotemporal coverage of map layers and the service versions for 41,703 valid WMSs. Furthermore, we appraised the stability and performance of basic operations for 1210 selected WMSs (i.e., GetCapabilities and GetMap). We discuss the major reasons for request errors and performance issues, as well as the relationship between service response times and the spatiotemporal distribution of client monitoring sites. This paper will help service providers, end users and developers of standards to grasp the status of global WMS resources, as well as to understand the adoption status of OGC standards. The conclusions drawn in this paper can benefit geospatial resource discovery, service performance evaluation and guide service performance improvements.Comment: 24 pages; 15 figure

Developing efficient web-based GIS applications

There is an increase in the number of web-based GIS applications over the recent years. This paper describes different mapping technologies, database standards, and web application development standards that are relevant to the development of web-based GIS applications. Different mapping technologies for displaying geo-referenced data are available and can be used in different situations. This paper also explains why Oracle is the system of choice for geospatial applications that need to handle large amounts of data. Wireframing and design patterns have been shown to be useful in making GIS web applications efficient, scalable and usable, and should be an important part of every web-based GIS application. A range of different development technologies are available, and their use in different operating environments has been discussed here in some detail

Geoenabling A Rural Community Through Web GIS: A Case Study Of The City Of Hays, Ellis County Kansas

The objective of this study was to describe the internet GIS implementation in the City of Hays and Ellis County, Kansas, then compare it to examples of implementation from other similar communities. Geospatial resources were consolidated from both agencies and used to develop two web mapping applications for employee and public access. Both mapping applications were developed on the ArcGIS Server platform using the .NET Web Application Developer Framework. In addition, a HTML website was developed to accommodate common data requests and an online map repository. The implementation approach of the City of Hays and Ellis County is similar to the reviewed community case studies, though additional Python and JavaScript programming was required to accommodate the needs of both agencies. Follow-up interviews indicate that the implementation of the online web mapping application has yielded a savings in office labor, time and revenue for city/county staff members, and provides easy data access for the staff and citizens of the City of Hays and Ellis County

COTS GIS Integration and its Soap-Based Web Services

In the modern geographic information systems, COTS software has been playing a major role. However, deploying heterogeneous GIS software has the tendency to form fragmented data sets and to cause inconsistency. To accomplish data consolidation, we must achieve interoperability between different GIS tools. In my thesis project, I developed Vector and Raster Data Adapters to implement the spatial data consolidation. I deployed ArcIMS to publish the spatial data and metadata onto Internet. Furthermore, the SOAP-Based GIS Web services are implemented to achieve the enterprise information system integration. The contribution of ours in this project is we have streamlined the COTS GIS server, the J2EE coordinator server, the web service provider components, and the COTS web publishing tools into a hybrid web service architecture, in which the enterprise information system integration, the web publishing, and the business-to business online services are uniformed

Publish GIS Maps on the Web - The Implementation of ArcGIS Server

It is well known that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have come to be an indispensable tool for analyzing and managing spatial data. The synergies between GIS and Web technologies, the Web-based GIS, are also demonstrating their usefulness. With web services GIS, geospatial information is readily available to all who need it. Whether it be administrators, finance, researchers, or constituents. All authorized users can securely access necessary geospatial information and integrate it into their daily workflow. This greatly reduces fragmented and compartmentalized workflows and communication, and increase efficiencies. ArcGIS Server, a ESRI GIS software, is a complete and integrated server-based geographic information system (GIS) which is mainly used to share GIS resources across an organization and across the web. ArcGIS Server gives organizations the ability to centralize GIS software on application servers and deliver GIS capabilities to large numbers of users over networks. This report describes in detail all the procedures needed to install and to put into operation ArcGIS server at the ¿Sensors, Radar Technologies and Cyber-security¿ Unit of the Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizens. Finally, every component is working correctly and each qualified user has the possibility to create and to publish their GIS maps. ArcGIS Server is a fundamental instrument used also to develop the ECI GIS project (the GIS of the European Critical Infrastructures). The ECI GIS project will realize prototypes that could be used also in support of the Directive COM(2006) 787 on the identification and designation of European Critical Infrastructure and the assessment of the need to improve their protection, helping the Commission to organize the transmission procedures foreseen in the Directive in a rational and efficient manner, by using ArcGIS Server tools.JRC.G.6-Sensors, radar technologies and cybersecurit

COTS GIS Integration and its Soap-Based Web Services

In the modern geographic information systems, COTS software has been playing a major role. However, deploying heterogeneous GIS software has the tendency to form fragmented data sets and to cause inconsistency. To accomplish data consolidation, we must achieve interoperability between different GIS tools. In my thesis project, I developed Vector and Raster Data Adapters to implement the spatial data consolidation. I deployed ArcIMS to publish the spatial data and metadata onto Internet. Furthermore, the SOAP-Based GIS Web services are implemented to achieve the enterprise information system integration. The contribution of ours in this project is we have streamlined the COTS GIS server, the J2EE coordinator server, the web service provider components, and the COTS web publishing tools into a hybrid web service architecture, in which the enterprise information system integration, the web publishing, and the business-to business online services are uniformed

Information System for Environmental Technologies

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) play an important role in environmental management solutions, and they are being used with increasing frequency in environmental studies. The use of GIS technology in environmental studies provides a better way to manage, analyze, display and share the information. In this thesis, I automated a process for constructing GIS maps of odor complaints and inspections that have been used to study odor complaints in the vicinity of three landfills in Jefferson Parish. I provided an application that integrates daily environmental observation and monitoring data into a GIS and publishes the resulting maps through the Internet. The user\u27s interaction with the web-based maps does not require any GIS expertise. A Webapplication was also implemented for managing the list of the constructed maps. The maps are deleted or updated through the manager application, a friendly interface application that does not require users to have any GIS technology knowledge

Modeling Television & Radio Broadcasting System Infrastructure within a Prototype Enterprise Geospatial Information System

Since the beginning of the modern American Intelligence Community apparatus, the need to understand how people communicate via their media has been important. The need to locate television and radio infrastructure and the extent of effects have been required in government to learn about the understandings, feelings, and values of other cultures to support clear and thoughtful communication with other nations. The Open Source Center (OSC) within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has monitored global media sources for almost seventy years, and recently has begun to locate and analyze the geographic extent and effects of these sources. This report describes the creation of a prototype geographic information system which models the television and radio broadcast system infrastructure and broadcast areas of OSC sources. The project reviewed the social and interactive processes of media to learn about the spatial relationships between objects such as stations, towers, broadcast transmitters, and owners within the broadcasting system. The project prototyped a GIS which modeled these features and relationships in a ESRI-based geodatabase. The prototype utilized the ArcGIS suite of tools from ESRI to perform database management, analysis, and to implement Web-based Open Source Consortium Web services. The resulting prototype GIS provided OSC a platform which it could learn from and later implement