IGN/CNIG CORPORATIVE CARTOGRAPHIC VISUALIZER AS WEB CLIENT OF OGC GEOSPATIAL WEB SERVICES

C. Romera, A. del Campo, P. Abad-Power, J.A. Alonso-Jimenez, A.F. Rodriguez

National Geographic Institute, Spain

smas@fomento.es

The IGN/CNIG corporative cartographic visualizer and its application of configuration is presented here.

The visualizer shows, in an interactive manner, topographic and qualitative thematic mapping, digital terrain models, ortophotos and ortoimages, and it also allows to consult the associated alphanumeric databases and multimedia resources. The visualization can be made simultaneously in three windows (flat, perspective and simulation of flight).

For the corporative user, the information shown by the visualizer can reside either in its local machine, several servers of the organizational network or being provided through Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web services: Web Map Service (WMS), Web Coverage Service (WCS), and Gazetteer Service Profile of WFS (Gaz).

For the user of an Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), the information will only be provided through any WMS or WCS, using in the perspective view and simulation of flight the information of a digital terrain model (DTM) by means of a WCS. The visualizer has an option of “exploration” of WMS and WCS available in any SDI node, so that the user can look for and select the information of these services that wishes to visualize jointly.

It is available a transformation in real time between different geodetic reference systems and map projections to make possible joint visualization of information.

The application allows the access, at least, to profile of the service of gazetteer (Gaz) implemented in the geoportal of the Spanish SDI (in Spanish, IDEE).

The visualizer allows to ask, by means of the GetFeatureInfo function of the WMS specification, for the attributes associated to geographic information.

The client application of the visualizer is a “plug-in”, for each Web navigator supported, that the user will be able to unload from the IDEE geoportal (www.idee.es). Also, a new version of “plug-in” that has been registered in the IDEE geoportal is automatically, previous consent, unloaded and installed. Most of the calculations associated to the existing functionalities are made by the server, those derived from the use of the DTM are emphasized, allowing to calculate in real time new layers such as contours, shaded relief, etc.

IGN is considering to implement this visualizer as a client of OGC Web Feature Services and to set up the OGC Web Map Context specification to keep the configuration from the interrupted session.

The configuration application allows to set up customized visualizers by means of the modification of four variables: layers of spatial information, alphanumeric databases and multimedia resources, functionalities and graphic design.