1. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION GDI LIGHT Open Standards and Open Source WebGIS enabling spatial data access for everyone Barend Köbben http://www.itc.nl/ ©2006 ITC Dept. of GeoInformation Processing

2. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 2 CONTENTS From GIS to WebGIS The concept of GDI LIGHT Projects and research based on GDI LIGHT :  RIMapper: online Risk Indicator Maps using data- driven SVG visualisation  Wireless Campus LBS: building campus-wide location-based services using WiFi positioning  Cartography Aware Database Objects for adaptive mapping of dynamic phenomena  Interactive Museum of Melka Kunture

3. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 3 From GIS to WebGIS Internet has become a very important medium to disseminate geodata and maps Open Standards (OGC):  data & application interoperationality  independence from suppliers or software Open Source, freely available software  ‘democratisation’ of spatial data availability

4. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 4 WebGIS – Fundamentals WebGIS is a special GIS tool that uses the Internet as a means to access and transmit remote data, conduct analysis, and present GIS results. Many terms, that are often synonymously… Internet GIS Online GIS Web GIS Networked GIS Distributed GIS

5. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 5 WebGIS – advantages World-wide access of spatial information Standard interface: Web browsers  familiar user environment  low-cost user investment Information accessed at the source  cost-efficient maintenance at source  no duplicates of information

6. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 6 Database Data Metadata Application Software Database Data Metadata Application Software System ASystem B … transfer metadata seamlessly … transfer data seamlessly … access functions seamlessly Two information systems can be called interoperable, if they are able to: Interoperability of Information Systems

7. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 7 Interoperability of functionality Infrastructure of interoperable services:  Service: a distinct part of an overall functionality, accessible via interfaces  Interface: public methods that a software component implements and its calling conventions  Communicating services only have to know each others interface specification  Service interoperability is achieved by standardizing interfaces

8. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 8 Geo-WebServices Webservices with spatial definitions (GI- functionality) Standardisation by the Open GeoSpatial Consortium (OGC) & ISO TC/211  last 5 years: Open Web Services (OWS)  only a few OWS-specifications are officially accepted, but: lots of “draft specifications” the accepted OWS specs are basis of many running and high-profile projects (INSPIRE, GDI-NRW, Top10NL…)

9. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 9 OGC WebService specifications to access spatial data:  Web Coverage Service (WCS) interface to raster geo-data focussed on (satellite) imagery  Web Feature Service (WFS) interface to vector geo-data WFS output is GML standardised “query language” (filter encoding specification)

10. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 10 OGC WebService specifications for visualisation:  Web Map Service (WMS) interface to creation of cartographic visualisation of geographic information offers, in combination with WFS, SLD & WMCD, a user- defined visualisation of geodata SLD = styled layer description specification (styling of WMS layers) WMCD = Web Map Context Description (styling/setup of combinations) the most-implemented OWS specificatie open source (eg. MapServer) & commercial solutions (eg. ArcIMS WMS connector)

11. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 11 GDI LIGHT Lightweight Geo-Data Infrastructure based on open standards/open source software testbed/playing ground at ITC  for teaching: WebGIS practicals  for research: PhD & MSc work, projects server-side focus on MySQL/PostGIS, Java, open source OWS services client-side focus on SVG  first project was “RIMapper”

12. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 12 The RIMapper test bed

13. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 13 serverside setup using RIMapper MySQL/PostGIS DB with OGC SFS support stores all features as objects with OGC geometry

14. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 14 serverside setup using RIMapper simple XML map configuration files to define map layout and interactivity

15. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 15 serverside setup using RIMapper Java servlets to deliver SVG output (=application) XML2SVG makeSVG parseXML

16. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 16 simplest XML configuration...

17. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 17..adding data-driven colours

18. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 18...adding interactivity

19. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 19 Wireless campus of UTwente Europe’s largest uniform hotspot 140 ha campus, covered in- and outdoors 650 individual access points every-day “working LAN” based on WiFi testbed for wireless and mobile applications

20. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 20 Wireless Campus Location Based Services  informal co-operation between ITC & UTwente  Using GDI LIGHT principles infrastructure  set up infrastructure necessary for LBS  combines input from several research projects with practical application of techniques to serve as a testbed forto benefit from  Wireless Campus LBS is intended to serve as a testbed for research as well as to benefit from research outcomes working services  to provide useful working services for the UT campus population

21. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 21 location manage client n location manage client … location manage client2 location manager client 1 MySQL geoDB (APs, geodata) fixed infrastructure FLAVOUR prototype: architecture Friendly Location-aware conference Assistant with priVacy Observant architectURe  Location Managers Jini based (Java network- centric services) provides client with location registers with:  Jini Lookup Services: ‘pull’ (find others, locate resources) ‘push’ (communicate with others, conference messages)  Client application Jini Lookup service register/lookup client RSS acquisition user interface WiFi network

22. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 22 FLAVOUR prototype Friendly Location-aware conference Assistant with priVacy Observant architectURe  client-side mapping using SVG

23. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 23 Cartography aware database objects Digital Landscape Models can nowadays be set up using spatial DB’s Digital Cartographic Models are still little ‘automated’  GIS proprietary ‘legend files’  OGC Styled Layer Descriptors and Web Map Context Documents spatial database objects cartographically aware why not have spatial database objects that represent spatial phenomena and that are cartographically aware…?

24. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 24 Cartography aware database objects cartographic awareness:  extension of context awareness of DB objects  on an object level (not on a per layer basis)  subject to all kinds of (DB) rules and triggers  cartographic (and other) characteristics influenced by other database objects and their context

25. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 25 Cartography aware database objects Application areas / related subjects:  (task/user) adaptive mapping  mapping of dynamic/moving phenomena  (database) agent technology Work started on:  theoretical background  a ‘proof of concept’ application based on Wireless Campus LBS

26. Workshop on Information Systems for Science, Cultural Heritage Management & e-Government in Afghanistan, 17 Feb 2006 26 Interactive Museum of Melka Kunture proposal  EU “Culture 2000” project proposal, with: National Museum of Addis Abeba University of Siena University of Rome “La Sapienza” University of Bordeaux ITC  Building an Interactive Museum for the Archaeological Park of the Early Palaeolithic site of Melka Kunture (Ethiopia)

27. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION Thank you for your attention! Barend Köbben