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Since large amount of geospatial data are produced by various sources and stored in incompatible formats, geospatial data integration is difficult because of the shortage of semantics. Despite standardised data format and data access protocols, such as Web Feature Service (WFS), can enable end-users with access to heterogeneous data stored in different formats from various sources, it is still time-consuming and ineffective due to the lack of semantics. To solve this problem, a prototype to implement the geospatial data integration is proposed by addressing the following four problems, i.e., geospatial data retrieving, modeling, linking and integrating. First, we provide a uniform integration paradigm for users to retrieve geospatial data. Then, we align the retrieved geospatial data in the modeling process to eliminate heterogeneity with the help of Karma. Our main contribution focuses on addressing the third problem. Previous work has been done by defining a set of semantic rules for performing the linking process. However, the geospatial data has some specific geospatial relationships, which is significant for linking but cannot be solved by the Semantic Web techniques directly. We take advantage of such unique features about geospatial data to implement the linking process. In addition, the previous work will meet a complicated problem when the geospatial data sources are in different languages. In contrast, our proposed linking algorithms are endowed with translation function, which can save the translating cost among all the geospatial sources with different languages. Finally, the geospatial data is integrated by eliminating data redundancy and combining the complementary properties from the linked records. We mainly adopt four kinds of geospatial data sources, namely, OpenStreetMap(OSM), Wikmapia, USGS and EPA, to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed linking method can get high performance in generating the matched candidate record pairs in terms of Reduction Ratio(RR), Pairs Completeness(PC), Pairs Quality(PQ) and F-score. The integrating results denote that each data source can get much Complementary Completeness(CC) and Increased Completeness(IC).

Recently, the utilization of geospatial open platforms has been constantly increased and the interest in 3D geospatial data such as terrain, building and shopping mall has been increased significantly. In particular, rather than simplified 3D geospatial data, interest in high-precision 3D geospatial data which similarly represents the real world objects has increased significantly. In order to satisfy the demand for such the high-precision 3D geospatial data, various kinds of 3D geospatial open platforms has been developed and has provided services on the web. However, most of the 3D geospatial open platforms have been used plug-in module in order to ensure a fast 3D rendering performance on the web, despite the many problems such as difficulty of the installation, no supporting of cross browser/operating system and security issues. In addition, recently, the existing 3D geospatial open platforms based on plug-in module are facing a serious problem, by declaring the NPAPI service interruption in Chrome and Firefox browsers. In this study, we presents the design and implementation of a new 3D geospatial open platform based on HTML5/WebGL technology without the use of plug-ins. Such the new 3D geospatial open platform based on HTML5/WebGL may support cross browsers such as IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and cross OS platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac and mobile OS platforms.

With the increasing abundance of technologies and smart devices, equipped with a multitude of sensors for sensing the environment around them, information creation and consumption has now become effortless. This, in particular, is the case for photographs with vast amounts being created and shared every day. For example, at the time of this writing, Instagram users upload 70 million photographs a day. Nevertheless, it still remains a challenge to discover the “right” information for the appropriate purpose. This paper describes an approach to create semantic geospatial metadata for photographs, which can facilitate photograph search and discovery. To achieve this we have developed and implemented a semantic geospatial data model by which a photograph can be enrich with geospatial metadata extracted from several geospatial data sources based on the raw low-level geo-metadata from a smartphone photograph. We present the details of our method and implementation for searching and querying the semantic geospatial metadata repository to enable a user or third party system to find the information they are looking for.

As a growing number of disciplines adopt geospatial technologies in their research, the need for access to geospatial data, in a variety of formats, has grown dramatically. For librarians to meet this demand, we also need to provide preservation, curation, metadata, and discovery services. GeoHydra, our open source toolkit and set of practices, provides these services for Stanford's libraries. We incorporate a variety of geospatial content types from raster imagery to scientific vector data to georeferenced scanned maps, and provide a data model for repositories. We demonstrate the potential of a new architecture and practice for librarianship for geospatial data using the Hydra framework. The digitization and georeferencing of historic map collections, streamlining the acquisition and cataloging of vendor-supplied data, shared cataloging of geographic resources, and citation of geospatial research data are all examples of use cases that GeoHydra serves. Our metadata creation and management strategies imp...

This paper presents the development of an “all-in-one” software tool, called “gittok” [pronounced: jee-tock, ʤiːtɒk] that assists both higher education students and industry professionals in learni...

The Geography Markup Language (GML) -- the existing standard for encoding geospatial data -- has no mechanism for annotating such data with uncertainty. To address this issue while supporting the geospatial community's existing data and service standards, the authors extend GML to enable uncertainty markup. They demonstrate this extension's use with some common geospatial data types and Web services. The result is a robust capability to share error information while maintaining compatibility with existing geospatial data clients.

Recent advances in sensor and platform technologies, such as satellite systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), manned aerial platforms, and ground-based sensor networks have resulted in massive volumes of data being produced and collected about the earth. Processing, managing, and analyzing these data is one of the main challenges in 3D synthetic representation used in modeling and simulation (M&S) of the natural environment. M&S devices, such as flight simulators, traditionally require a variety of different databases to provide a synthetic representation of the world. M&S often requires integration of data from a variety of sources stored in different formats. Thus, for simulation of a complex synthetic environment, such as a 3D terrain model, tackling interoperability among its components (geospatial data, natural and man-made objects, dynamic and static models) is a critical challenge. Conventional approaches used local proprietary data models and formats. These approaches often lacked interoperability and created silos of content within the simulation community. Therefore, open geospatial standards are increasingly perceived as a means to promote interoperability and reusability for 3D M&S. In this paper, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) CDB Standard is introduced. “CDB” originally referred to Common DataBase, which is currently considered as a name with no abbreviation in the OGC community. The OGC CDB is an international standard for structuring, modeling, and storing geospatial information required in high-performance modeling and simulation applications. CDB defines the core conceptual models, use cases, requirements, and specifications for employing geospatial data in 3D M&S. The main features of the OGC CDB Standard are described as the run-time performance, full plug-and-play interoperable geospatial data store, usefulness in 3D and dynamic simulation environment, ability to integrate proprietary and open-source data formats. Furthermore, compatibility with the OGC standards baseline reduces the complexity of discovering, transforming, and streaming geospatial data into the synthetic environment and makes them more widely acceptable to major geospatial data/software producers. This paper includes an overview of OGC CDB version 1.0, which defines a conceptual model and file structure for the storage, access, and modification of a multi-resolution 3D synthetic environment data store. Finally, this paper presents a perspective of future versions of the OGC CDB and what the steps are for humanizing the OGC CDB standard with the other OGC/ISO standards baseline.

With the rise in the number of applications using geospatial data and the number of GIS applications, the number of people who come into contact with geospatial data is increasing, too. Despite many attempts to introduce standardized formats in this area, they are often ignored by software developers as well as the users themselves for various reasons. When creating or exporting geographical data, users choose the format with regard to the software they use, or for which the data are intended. Users then have to deal with conversion of data formats, and considering its use also the issue of their transformation to the appropriate spatial reference system. This work presents findings related to this issue, obtained from several years of operation of an online service for the conversion and transformation of geographical data which is heavily used by users from all over the world. It presents statistics of individual formats use and spatial reference systems of geospatial data use from the point of view of both input and output data. The results, besides other things, are shown in the form of a pie chart map in which various needs of users from a variety of countries can be seen. The results of this work can be used especially by developers of applications which use geospatial data; it will allow them to quickly understand current user needs.

Web 2.0 technologies have offered interactive map services on the Internet. Google Maps is a map service that makes available its API (application programming interface) for developing Web-based geospatial applications. In such applications, layers are used to organise spatial data. Using layers, users can abstract from data that are irrelevant to their interest. However, Google Maps API has no direct support to the development of custom layers management. Developers have to design and implement such support in every application they develop. It makes the development processes less efficient and error prone. This paper proposes a software framework to facilitate the development of geospatial applications with custom layers based on Google Maps. Using this framework, developers can produce higher quality applications in shorter time.

The Cropland Data Layer (CDL) product provides categorized land-cover information encompassing the whole contiguous United States. Using the latest Web and geospatial interoperability technologies, CropScape was built to visualize, query, disseminate, and analyze historical and current CDL data interactively and intuitively over the Internet. CropScape can be utilized as a useful online mapping educational tool and an important source of free geospatial data and geospatial Web services in GIS education. This article introduces the CDL product and functions of CropScape, and presents several specific examples of cropland exploring, thematic map creation, natural disaster assessment, crop planting patterns discovery, geospatial data mashup, and geospatial Web application development to demonstrate CropScape’s capabilities.

Purpose – Improvements and portability of technologies and smart devices have enabled a rapid growth in the amount of user-generated media such as photographs and videos. Whilst various media generation and management systems exist, it still remains a challenge to discover the right information, for the right purpose. This paper aims to propose an approach to reverse geocoding by cross-referencing multiple geospatial data sources to enable the enrichment of media and therefore enable better organisation and searching of the media to create an overall picture about places. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a system architecture that incorporates the proposed approach to aggregate several geospatial databases to enrich geo-tagged media with human readable information, which will further enable the goal of creating an overall picture about places. The approach enables the semantic information relating to point of interest. Findings – Implementation of the proposed approach shows that a single geospatial data source does not contain enough information to accurately describe the high-level geospatial information for geocoded multimedia. However, fusing several geospatial data sources together enables richer, more accurate high-level geospatial information to be tagged to the geocoded multimedia. Originality/value – The contribution in this paper shows that high-level geospatial information can be retrieved from many data sources and fused together to enrich geocoded multimedia which can facilitate better searching and retrieval of the multimedia.

The complexities of the intricate geospatial resources and formats make preservation and distribution of GIS data difficult even among experts. The proliferation of, for instance, KML, Internet map services, etc, reflects the need for sharing geodata but a comprehensive solution when having to deal with data and metadata of a certain complexity is not currently provided. Original geospatial data is usually divided into several parts to record its different aspects (spatial and thematic features, etc), plus additional files containing, metadata, symbolization specifications and tables, etc; these parts are encoded in different formats, both standard and proprietary. To simplify data access, software providers encourage the use of an additional element that we call generically "map project", and this contains links to other parts (local or remote). Consequently, in order to distribute the data and metadata refereed by the map in a complete way, or to apply the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) standard to preserve it for the future, we need to face the multipart problem. This paper proposes a package allowing the distribution of real (comprehensive although diverse and complex) GIS data over the Internet and for data preservation. This proposal, complemented with the right tools, hides but keeps the multipart structure, so providing a simpler but professional user experience. Several packaging strategies are reviewed in the paper, and a solution based on ISO 29500-2 standard is chosen. The solution also considers the adoption of the recent Open Geospatial Consortium Web Services common standard (OGC OWS) context document as map part, and as a way for also combining data files with geospatial services. Finally, and by using adequate strategies, different GIS implementations can use several parts of the package and ignore the rest: a philosophy that has proven useful (e.g. in TIFF). Geospatial Preservation is solved by implementing the OAIS information package.The ISO 29500-2 standard is adapted to the multipart geospatial storages.OPC adds compression to OGC OWS context standard.

The importance of geospatial information delivery, across Internet, is increasing more and more. But if, some years ago, visualizing 2D geographic information inside Internet browsers, extracted by HTTP servers supported by map servers (WebGIS applications) was satisfying, today users would acquire 3D information especially in some case or sectors as urban planning, environmental control, real estate management, cadastral applications, civil protection, and security. In these cases, availability of 3D information could be very valuable. Meanwhile, other needs came out such as the possibility to extract information with all Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, in a transparent way for users, independently from the data format server-side, acquiring data from standardized 2D web services, made available by WebGIS servers; all this in the respect of principles of interoperability that is at the basis of the constructions of SDIs and one of the goals of Inspire European Directive. But behind this need, there exist many important aspects that today are only partially resolved as methods to save 3D information in geospatial database, the definition of topology relationships able to satisfy requirement of 3D GIS applications, the definition of 3D geospatial web services, … All these aspects are interconnected and are also dependent from some other aspects (i.e., the standardization of 3D geographic data models). The experimentation, here illustrated, deals with these issues, trying to define a 3D web service in order to visualize and query, by Internet Browsers, a 3D model of the built environment. Today, there exist few 3D data models (such as CityGML) whose standard definition process is also evolving. Often, these models are built with the main goal of 3D visualization even if at different level of detail. But some sectors require a better use of geographic 3D information such as querying it at different levels of detail (such as at a level regarding the different building parts defined through their attributes) and 3D processing. These are the environmental control, location-based services, cadastre, civil protection, security, archaeology, etc. For these reasons, it is strategic to study and propose new approaches and methods for structuring 3D geospatial information and for sharing 3D geospatial information on Internet granting an open access to it, also respecting interoperability issues. Based on a project named “Interoperability and cooperative management of geographic, dynamic, multidimensional and distributed data with Free and Open Source GIS: Management and use of distributed 3D data by open source WebGIS software” funded by Italian Ministry of Instruction, University and Research as Program of Relevant National Interest (2007), a part of the research process is here illustrated. The research deals with the design of 3D Web Feature Service and the development of a system mainly based on Java applications both client (Java applet) and server-side (Java servlet) and 3D geospatial database with topological structure compliant to a conceptual geospatial data model of an urban environment. The server-side system is capable to deploy a 3D Web Feature Service, which allows the extraction of GML 3D and the graphical browsing of urban model in 3D through the Java applet.

The existing Spatial Data Infrastructure applications or virtual globes allow users to experiment with these tools for sharing and exploration of geospatial data. A typical application is the recently launched MapWorld, an interactive geospatial data browser developed based on GeoGlobe. Geospatial Service Web goes further by providing a geospatial infrastructure that integrates various geospatial-related resources through the Web and service technologies. The development of the Geospatial Service Web will be the establishment of a platform where data, information, and knowledge can be shared and exchanged in an interoperable and interworkable way. The fulfilment of this platform requires the integration of geospatial data acquisition system, data transformation system, distributed spatial data collection, high-capability server system, and large volume storage system etc., and exploration and extraction of useful information and knowledge from oceans of data. These are together known as Web-based Geospatial Intelligence (i.e. Web GeoIntelligence), which is an important content of the Geospatial Service Web.

The need for more cost-effective, accurate and efficient methods of using geospatial information has been around a long time. However, development of GIS software solutions and information technologies enabled the distribution, access and manipulation of geospatial data over the Web. In this paper is represented a new access to geospatial data and the possibility of integrating geospatial data with other business intelligent systems in standard and modern, Web-oriented, GIS applications. The paper reveals the motivation to show how geospatial data can be integrated into the Web environment platform and make it available to a large number of users. This paper represents the new method called GeoREST which is based on the principles of Services Oriented Architecture (SOA), or widespread Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture for geospatial data. The proposed method called GeoREST defines new principles for manipulation with geospatial data, which will provide new ways of integration and distribution of geospatial data. This method provides an easy and open access to all types of geospatial resources through a uniform interface. GeoREST method opens new possibilities in the use of geospatial resources, both in standard desktop or Web applications, as well as business information systems. Geospatial service GeoREST API is developed and based on GeoREST method, and it defines the required application interface for simple and open access, manipulation and analysis of geospatial data. The practical implementation of services is made within the project georest.org.

With the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW), the way people publish, retrieve and synthesise information has totally changed. The Web is a hypertext system consisting of a huge amount of information which has very different forms. The concept of geospatial Web content emphasises the geospatial context of online information. Due to the continued explosive increase in the volume and complexity of geospatial Web content, it is necessary to have some mechanisms through which content can be systematically organised depending on their geospatial characteristics, and can be efficiently accessed and interrelated. This paper presents the design and development of Geo-coded Spatial Navigation System (G-SNS), a geo-referencing and browsing system that aims to provide an integrated user interface for navigation and browsing of geospatial Web content. Three case studies based on the G-SNS architecture in different application domains are developed and described: 1) Local News Reader categorises online news stories based on their geospatial context, 2) Web Sites Finder enables users to find Web sites that are close to users' current locations, and 3) Property List Map provides users with a map-based interface for searching and reviewing of real estate properties.

There is an increasing demand of 3D geospatial models on the Web, representing geospatial data that consists of terrain elevation, buildings, vegetation, roads, and other spatial features. This paper presents an approach to support and improve the united effort of Web interoperability and 3D geospatial portrayal. Specifically, we focus on the method to generate 3D models using X3D encodings of both terrain and building geospatial data and how to efficiently and effectively visualize those 3D geospatial models together on a Web platform. In addition, we examine the advantages and disadvantages of various X3D encodings of geospatial data by conducting a performance evaluation using our functional Web 3D service. From the results of this evaluation, we distill guidelines for the generation of 3D geospatial models for Web 3D services. Through two case scenarios, we demonstrate how our Web 3D service can be integrated with other services; we show the integration of geo-referenced inventory data, geocoding and reverse geocoding information, and text-based or image-based annotations in ourWeb 3D service.

While free and open source software becomes increasingly important in geospatial research and industry, open science perspectives are generally less reflected in universities’ educational programs. We present an example of how free and open source software can be incorporated into geospatial education to promote open and reproducible science. Since 2008 graduate students at North Carolina State University have the opportunity to take a course on geospatial modeling and analysis that is taught with both proprietary and free and open source software. In this course, students perform geospatial tasks simultaneously in the proprietary package ArcGIS and the free and open source package GRASS GIS. By ensuring that students learn to distinguish between geospatial concepts and software specifics, students become more flexible and stronger spatial thinkers when choosing solutions for their independent work in the future. We also discuss ways to continually update and improve our publicly available teaching materials for reuse by teachers, self-learners and other members of the GIS community. Only when free and open source software is fully integrated into geospatial education, we will be able to encourage a culture of openness and, thus, enable greater reproducibility in research and development applications.

The emerging geospatial technologies in earth and space science informatics have led to the advancement in developing international standards for geospatial interoperability. In the last few years, two main trends are making disruptions in geospatial applications; mobile and context sharing. Geospatial data format used in mobile GIS to support advance mobile application is challenged. This is due to the lack of interoperability, open-standard, cross platform and standard APIs for access and management. For instance, most mobile GIS developments are application-dependent, contains redundant geospatial data, consume large storage capacity, and require custom applications for data translation. Based on these issues, new OGC file format named GeoPackage will enable greater geospatial data sharing on mobile and web platform. This data format is an open standard, non-proprietary, platform-independent, container for distribution, and direct use of all kinds of geospatial data will increase cross-platform interoperability, geospatial applications and web services. This presents a comprehensive review of mobile GIS hence, the concept of GeoPackage as a modern geospatial tool was discussed, while its relevance in contemporary geospatial technology are highlighted.

Spatial database servers allow for the storage and access of 3D geospatial data using open geospatial consortium standards. The Geospatial Database Online Visualization Environment (GeoDOVE) is a prototype 3D Web-based geographic information system that demonstrates how Java3D can reduce bandwidth and allow direct connectivity to spatially enabled database systems. We've developed GeoDOVE, a Java3D-based prototype system that retrieves geospatial data from conventional spatial database servers, allows modification of the visualization during runtime, and lets users remotely modify attributes using the structured query language (SQL)

This study reviews existing plans and proposes a development process for geospatially enabled oil spill protection strategies in the Western Lake Erie basin. Geospatially enabled protection strategies take advantage of existing data and the capabilities of a GIS to develop variations of protection strategies to allow for strategic changes to plans as a result of seasonal or meteorological conditions. It also allows the analysis, display and distribution of geospatial data in a manner that meet the different needs of planners, responders and incident managers. Data distribution options are discussed, including multiple paper and electronic publication options including, but not limited to Adobe Acrobat, GEOPDF, ArcReader, Google Earth and ArcIMS to make data available in the appropriate format to all personnel who require it.

Modern field science, including archaeology, utilizes a massive amount of digital data captured by state-of-the-art measurement instruments. Large archaeological data sets may include images, geospatial data, analytical data, and metadata. Geospatial information plays a central role in the life cycle of those data; information is collected, organized, and published for analyses and visualization as final output using geospatial data as an index. The web is an ideal place to publish scientific data and promote diverse collaboration, and thus we need a system to publish digital archaeological data efficiently so that it is also integrated in our data management workflow. In order to realize this goal, we designed and implemented a web-based application named ArcheoSTOR Map, which visualizes and publishes raw archaeological data onto a map.

Geospatial metadata is very important for describing, managing, querying, retrieving, exchanging and transmitting geospatial data and information resource. As the number, size and complexity of the geospatial metadata standards grow, the task of facilitating greater interoperability between different metadata standards becomes more difficult and important. Crosswalk is the key point to reach interoperability over geospatial metadata standards. Our goal is to provide the automatic creation of crosswalk for heterogeneous geospatial metadata standard interoperability. We introduce a brief but comprehensive overview of the various geospatial metadata standards and describe the related work of geospatial metadata crosswalks. Next, we design a series of formal definitions for geospatial metadata standard mapping. Then, we discuss the multiple attributes similarity of geospatial metadata standard. Next, we introduce the method of automatic creation of crosswalk and mapping based on multiple attribute similarity. Finally we demonstrate our approach and its accuracy using an established crosswalk (CSDGM and ISO 19115).

Accessibility features in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) help facilitate access to electronic information for people with disabilities. This workshop explores how to create accessible PDF documents, from within Adobe Acrobat and other applications; how to use the Adobe Acrobat PDF accessibility checker and repair workflow; best practices for accessibility; and how accessibility has been built into forthcoming ISO standards (PDF/UA, PDF 32000-2).

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Geospatial Program is scanning published USGS 1:250,000-scale and larger topographic maps printed between 1884, the inception of the topographic mapping program, and 2006. The goal of this scanning, which started in 2011, is to provide a digital repository of USGS topographic maps, available to the public at no cost. For more than 125 years, the USGS topographic maps have accurately portrayed the complex geography of the Nation. The USGS is the Nation’s largest producer of printed topographic maps, and, prior to 2006, USGS topographic maps were created using traditional cartographic methods and printed using a lithographic process. As the USGS continues release of a new generation of topographic maps (US Topo) in electronic form, the topographic map remains an indispensable tool for government, science, industry, land management planning, and leisure. When physical and cultural features change over time, maps are updated, revised, and new editions printed. Although they are technically out of date, these historic maps are often useful to scientists, historians, environmentalists, genealogists, and others researching a particular geographic location or area. A series of maps of the same area published over a period of time can show how some areas looked as early as 1884, before current development, and provide a detailed view of changes over time. Because historical maps are stored in a limited number of collections and are not readily available, the USGS National Geospatial Program is converting these historical printed topographic quadrangles to an electronic format (GeoTIFF and GeoPDF). This serves the dual purpose of creating a master catalog and digital archive copies of the irreplaceable collection of topographic maps in the USGS Reston Map Library, as well as making the maps available for viewing and downloading from the USGS Store and The National Map Viewer.

Technological advances are leading us towards a vision where mobile devices will be utilized to access geospatial information for various decision making purposes. Web Services have enabled pervasive accessibility of geospatial information in the mobile devices and overcome the physical location constraints of conventional computing. This technology is the perfect candidate, since a strong interoperable capability is the key requirement for sharing and integration of geospatial data. The geospatial data can be useful for decision making but the required information may not be always available only through the geospatial data services. The geospatial data essentially are required to turn into value added information. Thus, need of a geospatial data processing service is required which will be able to process geospatial data on-the-fly to resolve users' queries. In this paper a framework has been proposed to provide value added geospatial information in mobile devices through service chaining.

Large amounts of valuable geosciences data have been collected due to the advances in digital earth technology. How to provide an efficient way through which researchers can easily retrieve desired data to facilitate data analysis and system modeling poses great challenges to the geosciences community. This paper presents a Geo-web services based system aimed to enhance geospatial data searching and visualization. The system provides an interoperable way of searching and accessing high quality geospatial data from multi-source and multi-discipline geographic data repositories through the use of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web services. It is in conformity with OGC Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) specification to play a "directory" role that permits the registry, discovery and access of geospatial information resources distributing on the Internet. Moreover, by leveraging the Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) technologies, the system enables to seamlessly assemble multiple heterogeneous data from different sources into one single user interface for visualization. Two investigations were made to demonstrate how this system has been used to improve the efficiency of searching and collecting geospatial data for a particular research.

One cannot deny that space and time are important to us. We perceive our world with respect to where and when we do things. We advocate geoblogging as a tool to capture such experiences by means of collecting and organizing notes, images, and in relation to space and time as well as to link them to other geospatial datasets. This demo showcases a Web application that allows for (i) a simple upload of content, geocoding, and map-based authoring of geoblogs as well (ii) querying and linking other geospatial datasets in relation to the geoblog entry.

Geospatial data extraction, which extracts geometric information and attributes information from the graphical data file, attributes database to binary point, line, surface storage format to form an intermediate file. According to the software demand the middle point of the document line elements are separated and stored in accordance, then the elements are placed in corresponding layers. In essence, geospatial data extraction is actually the inverse process for geospatial data symbolization. In the digital map production, it both meet the needs of hard-copy map (such as map printing, plotter output etc.), but also meet the geospatial geographic data warehousing, data format conversion and other demands. The realization of geospatial data extraction in MicroStation is analyzed and the implement methods are given in this paper.

Geospatial data are important to understand the Earth — ecosystem dynamics, land cover changes, resource management, and human interactions with the Earth to name a few. One of the biggest difficulties users face is to discover, access, and assemble distributed, large volume, heterogeneous geospatial data to conduct geo-analysis. Traditional methods of geospatial data discovery, visualization, and delivery lack the capabilities of resource sharing and automation across systems or organizational boundaries. They require users to download the data “as-is” in their original file format, projection, and extent. Also, discovering data served by traditional methods requires prior knowledge of data location, and processing requires specialized expertise. These drawbacks of traditional methods create additional burden to users, introduce too much overhead to research, and also reduce the potential usage of the data. At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), researchers working on NASA-sponsored projects: Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) and Modeling and Synthesis Thematic Data Center (MAST-DC) have tapped into the benefits of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to overcome the drawbacks of traditional methods of geospatial data discovery, visualization, and delivery. The OGC standards-based approach facilitates data sharing and interoperability across network, organizational, and geopolitical boundaries. Tools and services based on OGC standards deliver the data in many user defined formats and allow users to visualize the data prior to download. This paper introduces an approach taken to visualize and deliver ORNL DAAC, MAST-DC, and other relevant geospatial data through OGC standards-based Web Services, including Web Map Service (WMS), Web Coverage Service (WCS), and Web Feature Service (WFS). It also introduces a WebGIS system built on top of OGC services that helps users discover, visualize, and access geospatial data.

Enabling the integration of information provided by OGC Web Processing Services into geospatial mass-market applications is promising, as it increases the availability of information for most ordinary users. This information will be most likely based on the latest available data (e.g. collected by sensors) and can thereby support the user in time-constrained decisions. This paper presents an approach to actually configure and integrate such processes into geospatial mass-market applications. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated by a risk management scenario. The software presented has been developed within the Geoprocessing Community of the 52°North initiative and is available through an Open Source license.

Geospatial metadata, data, and services have been widely collected, developed and deployed in recent years. This flourishing of geospatial resources also added to the problem of geospatial heterogeneity. Interoperability research and implementation are needed for advancement in potential solutions to integrate and interoperate these widely dispersed geospatial resources. We design and implement Wuhan Geospatial Information Sharing Platform based on existing WMS. This platform consists of three components: Web Client, Metadata Catalog, and Data Services. Data Services provide WMS. All spatial information from different sources has been published as WMS. These WMS have been described by geospatial metadata compatible with geospatial metadata standard. These geospatial metadata has been stored in Metadata Catalog. Web Client provides functionalities to access and process WMS described by geospatial metadata in Metadata Catalog.

Along with the development of earth observation technology, large amounts of geospatial information are accessible. There are also a lot of geospatial data and services which ar e shared on the Internet. Howe ver they vary in formats and are stored at various organizations leading to problems of data discovery, data interoperability and usability. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has developed standard service called catalogue in order to overcome this problem. The goal of a geospatial catalogue is to support a wide range of users in discovering relevant geographic data and services from heterogeneous and distributed repositories. But in most of geospatial catalogue services, the search functionality is limited to the direct match of keywords from metadata, the OGC catalogues may not return useful results as the used keywords often do not match with the meta-information stored in the catalogues. In this paper, we propose a geospatial semantic catalogue services that aims at overcoming this limitation. Keywords: catalogue service, semantic, ontology, inte roperability, geospatial data and service

Sharing and integrating geospatial resources (geo-data and geo-processing) in opening Web environment is a challenge for GISystem. This paper discusses a geospatial information processing concept model complied interoperable system framework and an implementation approach for accessing geospatial information openly by chaining individual service module to assemble complex geospatial processing and executing the processing model to deliver information to the users under service oriented architecture (SOA) and open GIS consortium (OGC) standard. Processing concept model provides a mechanism to unify the representation of geospatial data, information and knowledge. OGC Web processing service (WPS) is employed and extended for processing raster data (remote sensing images). Implementation of processing model and OGC complied geospatial information services shows that the framework supports: standard-based geospatial data and services discovery and access; geospatial web services chaining, binding, and executing based on workflow.

Geospatial (geographical) software systems (GIS) are used for creating, viewing, managing, analysing and utilising geospatial data. Geospatial data can include socioeconomic, environmental, geophysical, and technical data about the Earth and societal infrastructure and it is pivotal in environmental modelling and management (EMM). Desktop, web-based, and embedded geospatial systems have become an essential part of EMM, providing pre- or post-processing of geospatial data, analysis and visualisation of results or a graphical user interface (GUI). Many local, regional, national, and international efforts are underway to create geospatial data infrastructures and tools for viewing and using geospatial data. When environmental attribute data is linked to these infrastructures, powerful tools for environmental management are instantly created. The growing culture of free/libre and open source software (FOSS) provides an alternative approach to software development for the field of GIS (FOSS4G). To provide an overview of FOSS4G for EMM, we analyse platforms, software stacks, and EMM workflows. In the FOSS world the barriers to interoperability are low and thus the software stack tends to be thicker than in the proprietary platform. The FOSS4G world thrives on the evolution of software stacks and platforms. We provide examples of software stacks built from current FOSS4G that support EMM workflows and highlight the advantages of FOSS4G solutions including opportunities to redistribute resulting modelling tools freely to end-users and to support general goals of openness and transparency with respect to modelling tools.

This paper addresses the significant leverage, collaboration, and performance that can be obtained with Open-Source Software for Geospatial Data Management and Information Systems. Open-source software provides the building blocks for advanced geospatial archiving, processing, and distribution. Recently, robust open-source software solutions have proliferated in remote sensing, geographical information systems, spatial data engines, and relational databases. Additionally, advanced supercomputing capabilities with clusters of commodity personal computers can be applied to the management and processing of extremely large data sets. These advances have been integrated into highly-leveraged systems that can be applied to a wide array of remote sensing and geospatial activities. The authors describe the various technologies currently available and how these technologies have been integrated into an online Data Management System. Examples of the application of this system to multiple application areas are described. Examples include custom processing and organization of satellite, aerial, raster map, and vector data sets.

This paper presents the result of recent work on the use of geospatial repositories to store the conceptual content of object oriented application database schemas and dictionaries aligned with international standards in geographic information (ISO/TC 211 and OGC). According to software engineering and database concepts, a geospatial repository can be defined as a collection of (meta) data structured in a manner to provide information about the semantics, geometry, temporality, and the integrity constraint of data stored in a geospatial database. For the last 6 years, ISO/TC 211 and OGC have been developing standards about geographic information to enable access and interoperability of geographic information; parts of these standards impact directly on geospatial repositories. Our work demonstrates that it is possible to develop a geospatial repository aligned with these standards and to implement it in a UML-based visual modelling tool.

Digitally capturing and maintaining geospatial data is expensive. The consequence is that there is a need for the integration of geoprocessing software into mainstream computer technology and a demand to share geospatial data. This demand includes consequently the sharing of specific graphic views on it. In this paper an implementable framework is presented for defining graphic views on geospatial data. This is based on an existing geospatial data definition language and a transfer format, called INTERLIS.

High energy physics is replete with multi-dimensional information which is often poorly represented by the two dimensions of presentation slides and print media. Past efforts to disseminate such information to a wider audience have failed for a number of reasons, including a lack of standards which are easy to implement and have broad support. Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) has in recent years become the de facto standard for secure, dependable electronic information exchange. It has done so by creating an open format, providing support for multiple platforms and being reliable and extensible. By providing support for the ECMA standard Universal 3D (U3D) file format in its free Adobe Reader software, Adobe has made it easy to distribute and interact with 3D content. By providing support for scripting and animation, temporal data can also be easily distributed to a wide audience. In this talk, we present examples of HEP applications which take advantage of this functionality. We demonstrate how 3D detector elements can be documented, using either CAD drawings or other sources such as GEANT visualizations as input. Using this technique, higher dimensional data, such as LEGO plots or time-dependent information can be included in PDF files. In principle, a complete event display, with full interactivity, can be incorporated into a PDF file. This would allow the end user not only to customize the view and representation of the data, but to access the underlying data itself.

Data semantics play an extremely significant role in spatial data infrastructures by providing semantic specifications to geospatial data and enabling in this way data sharing and interoperability. By applying, on the fly, composite geospatial processes on the above data it is possible to produce valuable geoinformation over the web directly available and applicable to a wide range of geo-activities of significant importance for the research and industry community. Cloud computing may enable geospatial processing since it refers to, among other things, efficient computing resources providing on demand processing services. In this context, we attempt to provide a design and architectural framework for web applications based on open geospatial standards. Our approach includes, in addition to geospatial processing, data acquisition services that are essential especially when dealing with satellite images and applications in the area of remote sensing and similar fields. As a result, by putting in a common framework all data and geoprocesses available in the Cloud, it is possible to combine the appropriate services in order to produce a solution for a specific need. Geospatial services in the Cloud for both spatial data acquisition and processing.Interaction UML diagram representing requests for and responses from OGC services.Multi-tier architecture with open source software and OGC standards implementations.Challenge: to specify potential geospatial processes for future WPS implementations.From desktop and proprietary web applications to open GIS systems in the Cloud.

Technically the spatial non-interoperability problem associated with current geospatial processing systems can be categorized as data and access non-interoperability. In GIS community, Open GIS Consortium (OGC) geospatial Web services have been introduced to overcome spatial noninteroperability problem associated with most geospatial processing systems. At the same time, in Information Technology (IT) world, the best solution for providing interoperability among heterogeneous systems is Web services technologies. Geospatial Web services and Web services technologies differ in the way that latter are composed of particular set of technologies and protocols but the former are comprised of defined set of interface implementation specifications which can be implemented with diverse technologies. This research describes and discusses that geospatial Web services which are developed using Web services technologies can provide access interoperability among various geospatial and non-geospatial processing systems. In addition to access interoperability, making use of open and platform independent data standards like Geography Markup Language (GML), data interoperability can be achieved. Meanwhile, proper management of geospatial data necessitates use of efficient and optimized data management systems. In this respect, the study also illustrates the practical evaluation of existing solution for storing and publishing geospatial data as GML. Based on the practical evaluation of this research, coupling native-XML database systems with Web services technologies proved to be an open, interoperable and efficient solution for developing geospatial Web services.