ATLAS OF ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES OF QUEBEC (CANADA): AN INTERACTIVE WEB-ATLAS DEPLOYED WITH SCALE VECTOR GRAPHICS, C# AND ASP.NET

P. Apparicio, C. Levesque

INRS-UCS, University of Quebec, Canada

philippe.apparicio@ucs.inrs.ca

In Canada, access and adequate use of data on aboriginal communities is an important issue. In this context, Atlas of aboriginal communities of Quebec (Canada) was developed by DIALOG cluster — Le réseau québécois d’échange sur les questions autochtones — and Spatial Analysis and Regional Economics Laboratory to provide information for communities members, social policy makers and researchers. This atlas which contains 120 web-maps is based on customized compilation of data from Statistics Canada and from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Recent developments in interactive and dynamic cartography and development of Internet technologies are largely contributed to increase the number of interactive atlases on Internet. With client/server technologies and vector formats for Internet, it’s now possible to deploy rapidly interactive web-atlases. For example, with Scalable Vector graphics (SVG) —an XML-based graphics standard to generate graphics and graphics interactions on the Web—, it’s possible to quickly develop interactive and dynamic mapping functions and thus high quality and interactive web maps. Moreover, advantages of Web-Atlas are today well known: “cost efficiency, flexibility and timeless, opportunities for active learning and World-wide connectivity” (Togorson and Blinnikov).

The aim of this paper is to describe a simple and effective approach based on C#, ASP.Net and SVG to product interactive atlases on Internet such as Atlas of aboriginal communities of Quebec. This approach is very useful for two reasons: the cartographic production is very simple and fast, and the development of interactive and dynamic mapping functions is facilitated, almost unlimited, and can be adapted according to needs and knowledge of the user.