Building a Web-based GIS Portal

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Building a Web-based GIS Portal For the Great
Lakes Observing System (GLOS)
Pete Giencke Program Specialist Data and
Information Management
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Introduction
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GLOS GIS Portal
The Great Lakes Observation System GIS portal
intends to allow users of all levels visualize
and discover geospatial data for the region at
large. The GLOS GIS Portal was written to
address critical communication and information
gaps among the various entities involved in Great
Lakes research, management, policymaking and use
at the local, regional, and international levels.
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GLOS GIS Portal
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Building Upon RDX 2004

• Develop and implement advanced informational
  tools to promote science, education and informed
  decision making.
• Adopt and implement standards for data
  collection, management, access, exchange and tool
  development.
• Improve communication between the Great Lakes
  data and information management and user
  communities.

http//rdx.glc.org/conf04.html
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Background
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About the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)

• A global ocean observing system was first
  suggested by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic
  Commission in 1990.
• Ocean.US Office established in 2000 planning
  began for development of a sustained and
  integrated ocean observing system for the U.S.
• The societal goals of IOOS focus on
• detecting and predicting oceanic components of
  climate variability
• facilitating safe and efficient marine operations
• ensuring national security
• managing resources for sustainable use
• preserving and restoring healthy marine
  ecosystems
• mitigating natural hazards
• ensuring public health

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IOOS Vision
Will consist of subsystems for observations, data
management and communications (DMAC), data
analysis and modeling, and education
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IOOS Regional Associations
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Examples
GoMOOS.org
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Examples
OpenIOOS.org
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Examples
http//www.sco.wisc.edu/wisclinc/
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Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS)

• A Business Plan and governance structure have
  been established by 30-member regional steering
  committee, led by the Great Lakes Commission
• Inaugural Board of Directors for the GLOS
  Regional Association will be elected in April
  2006
• Membership in GLOS is being sought from all
  sectors and potential user communities maritime,
  environmental and industry interests, scientists,
  educators
• Web site www.glos.us

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Design
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Application Infrastructure

• PostGIS ArcSDE Backend
• Store access data
• CRON/bash/perl
• Web Service Scraping
• Mapserver
• Heavy lifting map generation
• Ka-Map
• Customized, lightweight caching frontend

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Design Factors (the ...abilities)

• Interoperability/Scalability
• Extensibility
• Sustainability
• Accessibility/Usability

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Interoperability

• Adherence to known, open standards
• XML (SOAP), OGC (GML, WFS, WMS),
• Utilize open source software throughout
• Mapserver, Postgres, ka-map
• Ensure cross-browser, cross-platform support
• Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari
• Apple, Linux, Windows
• Screen resolutions, bandwidth?

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Extensibility Scalability

• Support disparate functionality with disparate
  datasets in disparate formats
• Mapserver, GDAL backbone
• Web Services, geospatial, and ancillary data
  aggregation, visualization, and dissemination.
• Bi-directional temporal navigation
• Retain historical data?
• Incorporate model output?

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Accessibility/Usability

• Provide users with a familiar Google-like
  browsing experience
• Provide different levels of access based on
  rule-based authorization
• KISS Keep it Simple .
• Caching nature retaining unstable services?

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Operation
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Operations

• Aggregation
• Ingest existing/legacy assets (orthoimagery,
  project-related GIS data, etc) in multiple
  formats (shapefile, SQL, etc).
• Input distributed (WFS/WMS/XML) geospatial
  information
• Visualization
• Discovery

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Demo
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Application Highlights

• Visualizing disparate data
• Querying data
• Incorporating real-time, or near real-time data
• Incorporating Web Services
• Linking to data
• Data Discovery

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Visualizing Disparate Data
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Querying data
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Incorporating Real-Time Data
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Incorporating Web Services
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Data Discovery
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Demonstration
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Live Demonstration
http//mds.glc.org/glosMap/htdocs
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Conclusions
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Conclusions

• Challenges
• Acquiring Data
• Integration with IOOS Assets
• Standards
• Roadmap
• GLOS
• GLOS GIS Portal

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Conclusions
Questions? Pete Giencke pgiencke_at_glc.org