Benefits of Open Access
Approaches to Geospatial
Visualization
Presentation to Seminar on Geospatial Best Practices for Architects, USDepartment of Transportation, Washington D.C., April 11, 2007.
By: Mark Austin, Natasha Shmunis, Michael Ball, University of Maryland,College Park, MD 20742. E-mail: [austin,kosnat]@isr.umd.edu;
Table of Contents
! Open Access: What does it mean?
! Old approach to data access
! Advantages of Open Access
! Using free GIS
! Open Access Visualization
! Development Challenges
Open Access: What does it mean?
! Geospatial data should be available for free
for public use
! It means this data could be shared with
different government agencies, private and
public sectors, and other countries.
! It means there will be more and more data
available for users. And more and more tools
to support it
Old Approach to Data Access
! Centralized processing of data into meta-data.
! Often, data and data processing tools are proprietary…
Advantages of Open Access
! Free of cost and free to re-use without any
restriction
! Open data lowers the cost of research and
development
! Promotes independent research
! Facilitates the use and development of open
standards and open source technologies
Free GIS resources on the web
! Almost every state in theUS provides web accessto geospatial data
! Many universitiescollaborate with stategovernments to providemore data and more tools
! Map Window GIS is freeand open source
Affiliates include: IdohoState University, UtahState University,andNational Oceanic&AtmosphericAdministration…
http://www.mapwindow.org/
Using Free GIS
! Data Storage:Florida WetlandsWebGIS at theUniversity ofFlorida
! http://srvgis.ifas.ufl.edu/website/wbl2002/viewer.htm
! Data Format:Online InteractiveMap
Using Free GIS
! Data Storage: HarvardGeospatial Library --catalogand web based mappingenvironment
! Data Format: Shapefileformat that can be openwith free ESRI ARCViewerand other formats
http://peters.hul.harvard.edu:8080/HGL/jsp/HGL.jsp
Amtrak stations
Using Free GIS
! Data Storage:Cheasapeak Bay & MidAtlantic from SpaceProject at TownsonUniversityhttp://chesapeake.towson.edu/
! Data Format: Shapefileformat that can be openwith free ESRIARCViewer
Open Access Visualization
Open Access Architecture for AIXM Visualization
How can you get involved?
! We expect to have a web site up-and-running
by mid-2007.
! Software prototypes will be available for
download.
! Contact us: Mark Austin
([email protected]), Natasha Shmunis
([email protected]), Michael Ball