Geographic information systems (GIS), as a way to manage, map, and analyze geographic information, and the World Wide Web, as a way to make this information accessible to as many people as possible, are natural allies. Therefore, the term “Web GIS” has been around for years as a category for products and services. For example, the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), used to give an annual Best-Web GIS award “intended to increase awareness of Internet/Intranet mapping services that enable publishing and sharing of geographic information internally within an organization or externally with the public.”
Recently, the concept of Web GIS has been getting yet additional attention, because most of the latest technological advances in GIS have been in the area of on-line services and because access to spatial data as well as advanced mapping and spatial analysis over the Internet are becoming more common. In his opening remarks at the annual ESRI International User Conference in San Diego in early August, attended by 14,500 people, the company’s president, Jack Dangermond, referred repeatedly to “Web GIS”, which was also the subject of several very popular technical sessions in the following days.
Web GIS refers to more complex and sophisticated geographic data analysis activities than the more common term “Web mapping” (which includes the Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Earth platforms). It also points to the future of GIS, which, after a long predominance of desktop applications, is now transitioning back to a client-server architecture — whether the client be on a desktop or a mobile application.
This transition is a result of two things. First, what economists would call “supply push:” the availability of larger, faster, and more reliable servers and networks. Second, what they would call “demand pull,” consisting of several elements:
- Increased demand for access to a myriad data services — such as satellite imagery, aerial digital orthophotos, real-time tracking, etc.,
- Increasing need for off-site storage of huge datasets — including high-resolution imagery and LiDAR 3D point clouds — downloaded from data services or collected in-house, and
- End-users’ increased expectations for access to their data anytime and anywhere.
The only thing that is slowing down this transition is lingering security concerns about storing expensive and often mission-critical data on other companies’ machines.
Web GIS/mapping products and services include:
- ALOV Map — a free, portable Java application for on-line publishing of vector and raster maps and interactive viewing on Web browsers; it supports complex rendering architecture and allows users to work with multiple layers, thematic maps, hyperlinked features, and attribute data.
- AspMap — enables users to embed spatial data access, display and analysis capabilities in Web applications and services.
- AutoDesk’s MapGuide 6.3 — a Web mapping client/server technology with Java client/applet that helps users develop, manage, and distribute GIS and design applications on-line, offers point-of-activity access to interactive maps, designs, and data, and allows users to serve spatial and attribute data from GIS, CAD, and other spatial databases.
- Blue Marble Geographics — offers a suite of GIS components and development tools, including an Internet mapping solution that enables users to publish customized map layers and databases on their Web sites.
- Caris’s Spatial Fusion — a development platform that enables users to add mapping technology to their Web sites and can read multiple data sources in their native format.
Links to products from the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI):
- ArcExplorer — a lightweight, stand-alone, downloadable GIS data viewer written in Java that is used to perform basic GIS functions (e.g., view, navigate, and query); it is heavily used in the education world and runs on Windows, Apple Macintosh, UNIX, and Linux computers.
- ArcGIS Explorer — a lightweight desktop client for ArcGIS Server that allows users to connect via the Web to ESRI-hosted servers that offer access to ArcGIS Online Services, to combine these services with local data and other Web services, and to perform simple GIS analysis tasks.
- ArcIMS (Internet Map Server) — enables users to distribute high-end on-line GIS and mapping services and to display, query, integrate, and analyze local and remote data sources in a browser.
- ArcWeb Services — enable users to include GIS content and capabilities in their applications without hosting the data or developing the necessary tools and to deliver these application to ArcGIS or to custom Web applications.
- The Geography Network, an ArcIMS-based portal that enables users to view and access spatial data from a variety of commercial and public domain sources.
- MapShop for Homeland Security — an ArcWeb Services solution for crisis management and situational awareness.
- MapShop for Media — a Web application for creating customized maps.
- RouteMap IMS — a stand-alone Web-based site locator application that generates driving directions
Products from Galdos Systems Inc.
- Cartalinea — a scalable Web-services application that complies with W3C and OGC standards, including Web Feature Service, Web Coverage Service, and Sensor Collection Service
- FreeStyler — an open-standards solution for Web mapping of GML data that provides the ability to design interactive maps, edit and manage symbols, manage map styles, and create Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) or image-based maps.
- INdicio Geographic Registry — an e-business registry for geographic information and geospatial services that enables the discovery of Web-based geographic services or data.
- GeoServ.org, developed by the Terrain Sciences Division of the Geological Survey of Canada, allows users to explore geoscience data via dynamic maps and associated databases.
- GeoTools — an open source (LGPL) Java code library that provides standards-compliant methods for the manipulation of geospatial data, for example to implement GIS; it implements Open Geospatial Consortium[www.opengis.org] (OGC) specifications as they are developed, in close collaboration with theGeoAPI project.
- Google Earth — a desktop virtual globe application that combines satellite imagery, geographic data, and Google’s search capabilities — and Google Maps — a fast and easy way to access maps and to geographically enable Web sites.
- iMapper, a free and user-friendly ArcView extension that allows users to display their maps and data to people over the Web without having to have a map server.
- Ionic Software’s RedSpiderWeb — offers an out-of-the-box, configurable portfolio of Web services that can be used to create an OGC/ISO-compliant server infrastructure.
- KIDS (Key Indicator Database Systems) — a software framework that provides the ability to implement thematic information systems that collect, reference, visualize, exchange and disseminate statistical, survey and indicator data; visualization is possible through tables, mapping, raster images and graphs; basic GIS overlay and legend editing functions are available for non-GIS users.
- MapInfo’s MapXtreme Java — a Java-based Internet mapping server
- MapIt! — a server-side Web application for raster maps, that allows easy configuration of navigation and points of interests.
- MapServer — an Open Source [www.opensource.org] development environment for building spatially-enabled Web applications.
- Map-TV, a map server that displays files in ESRI’s shapefile format and includes a Web server.
- mapzoom — can be used to put clickable, zoomable, maps on the Web.
- ObjectFX’s SpatialFX — a Java-based platform that enables the dynamic integration of location and business data.
- The U.S. Geological Survey’s GEO-DATA Explorer (GEODE), which allows users to access, view, and download information from geo-spatial databases containing a broad spectrum of data produced by the USGS and other government agencies.
- VDS Tech’s AspMap — a Web mapping component for embedding spatial data access, display and analysis capabilities in Web applications and services.
- Web Mapper, a Web site devoted to Web GIS, providing live online software samples.
- WebView, an ArcView extension that enables users to present views on the Web or on CD ROM, without requiring any programming knowledge.
Submitted by Matteo Luccio, President, Pale Blue Dot Research, Writing, and Editing, LLC
- For the MetaCarta Blog
I am presently working with aspmap 3.0.
I want to know what kind of and how can we edit map using map interface only.
This feature is not available in aspmap 3.0.
I want to know what software can provide this feature and also if any Open Source Projects are available?
My requirement is i want to edit the two way road to one way by using mouse on the GUI so that the changes gets saved in the .dbf and other map supported formats.