Spatial Information Integration Services (SIIS) ISO/TC211 Workshop on Standards in Action Adelaide, South Australia October 2001 Mr. Neil Sandercock, SA Spatial Information Committee Mr. Rob Crompton, Aspect Computing Pty Ltd A South Australian implementation of ISO 19115

Agenda The SA Govt’s Spatial Initiative SIIS Overview –the vision, design objectives, business models Data Discovery –technology & standards –using an object model for metadata –Real World Views and Information Community Views Lessons learned

The “Spatial Initiative” The SA Govt’s Spatial Initiative was conceived in 1992 Enjoys highest level of support Its objectives are to: –build a sustainable, export-focused spatial industry in SA –gain operational efficiencies by process reform within government –empower the community and industry with ready access to government information

The SIIS Vision “to develop and implement the technology for a spatial information infrastructure for the SA government and the broader community that will enable spatial information from any number of disparate data sources to be accessed by users and business systems anywhere across the State”

Design Objectives generic, best-of-breed components, open, scalable, distributable support existing standards, reactive to new and evolving standards support legacy systems (preserve existing agency investments) vendor independent provide clear separation of responsibilities (custodian, deliverer, client) able to be commercialised

The Spatial Business Model Policy and Standards High Level State Needs economic, community, environment Govt Business Needs asset management, emergency response, environmental protection, land administration, resource development Spatial Applications Spatial Information Integration Services Spatial Datasets

Spatial Information Integration Services SIIS Services Model Web Interface Dataset Interfaces Directory Services Service Manager Security Services Accounting and Commerce Services Query and Response Services Integration Services Datasets Access Services API Spatial BrowserAgency Applications Client Service Deliverer Data Custodian Application Interfaces

Spatial Information Integration Services Data Discovery presented by Mr Rob Crompton Aspect Computing Pty Ltd

The SIIS Project Technology –Built around strategic commercial-off-the- shelf technologies –scalable, open architecture –browser-based (of course) –designed to handle medium to high data volume spatial queries from multiple data sets –multi-thread capable

The SIIS Project Standards used –ISO 19110: providing a framework for classifying real world phenomena in a set of geographic data –ISO 19115: providing a structure for describing digital geographic data in metadata –ISO 23950: providing a standard for communicating between library/information based systems

The SIIS Project Specific themes & features for creating the Real World View from: –AS 2482 & AS 4270: feature coding for spatial data interchange –FGDC: US Federal Geographic Data Committee –DIGEST: Digital Geographic Information Exchange Standard –TSSDS: US Tri Service Spatial Data Standard

Data Discovery Two stages of discovery: –select an “area of interest” via a polygon on a map via a gazetteer –search through metadata via a theme search using a pre-defined Information Community View via field searches

Data Discovery Spatial metadata is: –structured according to ISO ISO CD1 is to Draft ISO as HTML is to XML structure specified by UML which we translated to a relational database structure DTD specified as part of ISO –organised into categories via Real World Views & Information Community Views

Views The Real World View (RWV) is an ISO defined structure for the naming of geographic entities Information Community Views (ICV): –map to the RWV –use the terminology of a particular user community to make searching easier –a catalogue for a particular community

Views The RWVs and ICVs have hierarchical structures For example, an ICV for “Environmental Management” –themes (hydrography) feature types (aquifer recharge area) –attributes (flow rate, salinity, discharge, pH etc)

Views

Lessons Learned Converting existing metadata into the new structure requires a significant effort - plan for it –scripts & parsing to leverage any structure existing in the original metadata Maintain the principles of good user- interface design for metadata maintenance whilst grappling with the complexity of the standards and how to implement them

Lessons Learned In general, the standards are abstract, specifying structure but little on content or specific examples –ill-defined metadata elements / fields –difficult to determine the intent of the Committee There is no single source of information on which to develop a RWV - we consolidated our RWV from a large number of standards & guidelines

Lessons Learned working with an evolving standard requires a strong link to the standards body: we were able to provide valuable feedback on improvements Obtaining copies of draft Standards by “early implementers” requires a process –straightforward & cost free

Lessons Learned provides a significant opportunity to upgrade Government spatial data to leverage the open approach (eg Gazetteer) Implementation technologies are immature & rapidly improving –choice of Java (J2EE) was the correct strategic choice –XML will open up the exchange of spatial information between governments and private sector users

Questions