Developing an Open Web Mapping Application

Jill Bernhard

GEOG 596A

Advisor: Ian Turton, Ph.D.

Project Proposal

• Background

• Goals and Objectives

• Proposed Methodology

• Project Timeline

• Anticipated Results

Background:Santa Clara Valley Water District

• Santa Clara County: fourth largest population in the state (Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange).

• What does the District do?– Clean, reliable drinking water.– Flood protection.– Healthy creeks and ecosystems.

Background:Current Data Distribution Interface

http://www.valleywater.org/services/GIS.aspx

Background:Web-Based Application

GIS Database Map Server Client

Background:ESRI Software Solutions

• A large investment has been made in ESRI software, including ArcIMS and ArcGIS Server.

• Technical issues with the new technology (ArcGIS Server) have prevented putting applications into production.

• Shrinking budgets may soon force a reduction in the amount we spend of software licenses.

Background:Commercial Services

• Examples: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps.

• Familiar to most people.

• Easy-to-use.

• Free (under certain conditions).

• Little warning about changes.

Background:Open Standards and Software Defined

• Open Standards (Bruce Perens)– Availability– Maximize End-User Choice– No Royalty– No Discrimination– Extension or Subset– Predatory Practices

• Open Software– Source code available.

Background:Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Standards

• Geography Markup Language (GML)

• Keyhole Markup Language (KML)

• Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD)

• Web Map Service (WMS)

• Web Feature Service (WFS)

Background:Open Standards and Software Advantages

• Many free options available.

• Often easy to implement.

• Slow to change.

Background:Open Standards and Software Disadvantages

• Negative perception.

• “No such thing as a free lunch.”

• “You get what you pay for.”

Background:Application Created For GEOG 585

Goals and Objectives

• Data Standardization

• Geo-Web: "a distributed network of interconnected geographic information sources and processing services" (Lake, Burggraf, Trninic, & Rae, 2004).

• Review the viability of Open Standards and Software

Proposed Methodology:Database

• PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org)

• PostGIS (http://postgis.refractions.net)

Proposed Methodology:Server

• GeoServer (http://geoserver.org)– Java Development Kit (http://java.sun.com)– Apache Tomcat (http://tomcat.apache.org)

Proposed Methodology:Services

• Web Map Service (WMS)

• Web Feature Service (WFS)

Proposed Methodology:Clients

• OpenLayers (http://openlayers.org)

• uDig (http://udig.refractions.net)

Project Timeline

• Weeks 1-2: Install and Troubleshoot Software

• Weeks 3-4: Load Data into Database

• Weeks 5-6: Enable WFS functionality

• Weeks 7-8: Troubleshoot Application

• Weeks 9-10: Install on Production Server

Anticipated Results

• Data Availability and Accessibility

• Data Viewer using Open Software and Standards

• Better Understanding of the Viability of Open Software

Questions

References

• Lake, R., Burggraf, D., Trninic, M., & Rae, L. (2004). Geography Mark-Up Language: Foundation for the Geo-Web. London: Wiley.

• Perens, Bruce. Open Standards: Principles and Practice. Retrieved on April 23, 2010 from http://perens.com/OpenStandards/Definition.html.

• Turton, Ian. (2008). GEOG 585 – Open Web Mapping. Retrieved on April 23, 2010 from https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog585.