10.

Web GIS
Internet and GIS
Internet is a global network of computers connected through communication devices to one another for information
sharing. The use of internet for information dissemination and resource sharing has undergone a rapid growth over the
last few years. This is attributed to its capability to integrate information from various sources in a seamless manner.
The web environment facilitates sharing of data and cooperation among users across the globe. The computers on the
internet communicate with each other via Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol and use client-server
architecture. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a system of Internet servers and is most used aspect of the internet. It
supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the
client-server protocol that takes request from the client and transmits the request to web server, which then sends back
its response. HTTP is used to communicate queries and response across the Internet.

The recent developments in IT sector have resulted in development of computing architectures that has helped GIS on desktop
to come and become functional over the internet. The GIS functionality is made available through a web browser and a viewer
with a simple, user-friendly interface. During 1960s-1970s, for a GIS to work, hardware, software and data were needed to be
present at one place on one computer. The LAN (local area network) based desktop GIS follows the client-server model
where the GIS programs on computers (clients) communicate with the server. In this case the GIS programs are installed on
the computers and one has to access these computers to use the GIS. With the advent of distributed GIS, users do not need to
purchase and install expensive GIS software in order to access and work with maps and databases. Distributed GIS makes use
of internet and wireless network for data processing and communication. The users can access GIS tools and data from
internet or wireless data services. Thus web based GIS offers advantages such as worldwide access, a standard interface and a
cost effective maintenance over a stand-alone GIS system.
WebGIS can perform all GIS functions such as capturing, storing, editing, analysis and visualization. Given below is a
brief about its strengths:
1. Visualization and Querying: GIS data and results are mostly represented as maps. Every feature on map has
certain information associated with it. On querying one may come to know the location of a particular feature and the
properties associated with it.
2. Collection of Geographical Information: Various organisations collect spatial information on web. One way of
doing this is by developing an application which is opened to public where public is asked for feeding in the spatial
information. The Wikimapia website which has more than 18 million places marked by the registered as well as
anonymous internet users is an example of such kind. Use of mobile GIS where field crew collects information, validate
it and post the updated information to the server and database kept in the office is another way of collecting
geographical information.

3. Dissemination of geospatial information: A lot of geospatial information is distributed through the WebGIS
platform. For example, India-WRIS is a web based platform through which one can visualize as well as download the
geospatial data related to water resources of India. In a similar manner various organisations have been disseminating
the data through such geospatial portals.

The WebGIS is an integrated client-server network system similar to the client-server architecture of the web,
where web browser application provides Internet users to access and send requests to the GIS applications
residing at server end. The server processes the requests and returns the results to the client, the client then
manipulates the data and/or results and presents to the user.

In general, the whole process makes use of both the client and the server but in specific, there are two
approaches to deploy GIS on the internet: server side and client side applications.

Server side application

An Internet GIS server usually combines a standard Web server, a GIS application server and the GIS
databases server. The server side applications have softwares and databases on the server side that link with
the Web server through a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script. The request through web browser is
directed towards the web server which then passes it on to the GIS application server. The GIS application
server generates a map graphic in response to the request which finally takes the form of an image wrapped in
HTML and is sent back to the web server. The web server returns this response to the client in the form of a
standard web page.

Advantages:

On a high performance server, users can access large files that are difficult to be transferred across the
internet and which cant be processed locally on the client

One can insure the use of data in a correct manner and can restrict the user to perform limited functions.

Disadvantages:

Every request no matter how small must be processed and returned to the server which is then passed
to the client through internet.

The network traffic on internet between the server and client due to transfer of large files affects the
performance.

Client side application

Based on the amount of processes performed at the client end, clients are classified as thin or thick. If most of
the processing is performed at the server end, and the client is merely used to request input and present
output, it is a thin client whereas if a client attempts to perform some of the processing on its end then it is
called a thick client.
Client side approach allows the data and software to be transferred to the local client and executes all
processing at the client end. Client-side solutions typically are implemented by augmenting the Web browser in
the form of plug-ins, ActiveX or Java. Plug-in are software modules that apply to specific file-types when a
Webpage is loaded. They are used to perform basic operations such as zooming and panning within a Web
browser, thus easing the over-loaded server. The use of Java is considered to be the best option because the
software coded in Java can achieve platform independence and can have powerful programming functions.

Advantages:

Application use processing power of the users computer

User can have greater control over the data analysis process

Disadvantages:

Downloading softwares and data on client machine is time consuming.

Huge complex datasets may be hard to process on user machine, if it is not powerful

Use of either of the approaches has its advantages and disadvantages. Moreover using either of them is
inadequate for a wide range of applications on the internet. Therefore a hybrid approach is sought that allows
the two approaches to work in a complementary manner. The hybrid approach that integrates Java and CGI
ensures a user-friendly interface by the use of Java and a powerful data processing server by the use of CGI. Its
use can assign different tasks to the appropriate side (server or client) and can balance workload.

Open Geospatial Consortium and Web Services

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) is a non-profit, international organization constituted to lead the
development of standards for geospatial and location based services.
OGC Web Services: OGC Web Services (OWS) are OGC standards created for use in World Wide Web
applications. The World Wide Web Consortium has defined a general purpose web service architecture based on
a trio of standard that is
(1) SOAP,
(2) Web Service Description Language (WSDL), and
(3) Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
In parallel with the development of these general purpose web services, it also takes care of interoperability
issue. The OGS Web Services (OWS) includes the Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and
Web Coverage Service (WCS).

A. Web Map Service (WMS)

The OGC Web Map Service (WMS) is an open specification that allows the use of dynamic maps on the web.
WMS services are useful in making maps available online in an open, recognized way across different platforms
and clients. Any client built to support the WMS specification can view and work with WMS service. Client
applications work with a WMS service by appending parameters to the URL of the service. WMS services support
the following operations:

Request metadata about the service (GetCapabilities)

Request a map image whose geographic and dimensional parameters are well-defined (GetMap)
Request information about features in the map (GetFeatureInfo (optional))

It is not necessary for a WMS service to support all the operations but to qualify as basic WMS it must support
at least GetCapabilities and GetMap operations. The optional GetFeatureInfo operation is used as a queryable
WMS.
The maps returned by a WMS service are images only. They do not contain actual data.

B. Web Feature Service (WFS)

The OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) is an open specification for serving geographic features over the web.
Serving the data through a WFS service allows any application that can work with Web services to access
geographic features from a map or geo-database. Unlike Web Map Service (WMS), the WFS service returns
actual features with geometry and attributes that clients can use in any type of geospatial analysis. WFS
services also support filters that allow users to perform spatial and attribute queries on the data.
WFS services use Geography Mark-up Language (GML) to encode the feature data. Since WFS only works with
features, any raster layers in the map are not included in the service.
All WFS services support the following operations:

To obtain service metadata (GetCapabilities)

Feature Type information (DescribeFeature Type)
GML-Encoded Feature (GetFeature)

C. Web Coverage Service (WCS)

The OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS) provides an open specification for sharing raster datasets on the web.
The raster datasets made available through WCS services are coverages. A WCS service returns data in a
format that can be used as input for analysis and modeling.
A WCS service supports the following operations:

GetCapabilities--Returns service-level metadata and a brief description of the data collection

DescribeCoverage--Returns a full description of one or more coverages
GetCoverage--Returns a coverage in a well-known coverage format

References
Geospatial
data
processing
in
distributed
computing
environment-URL:http://www.csiindia.org/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=3ee63e0b-3891-464f-bb32- 7615ec1cc065&groupId=10157
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisserver/9.3/java//index.htm#wms_service.htm