Web-based Multimedia Gis for the Analysis and Visualization of Spatial Environmental Database

Recently, Web-based GIS applications have become important tools for disseminating geographical information in digital map format on the Internet because of their platform independence, interactivity, and wide accessibility. This trend brings about new insights on the integration of Web-based GIS and multimedia on the Internet since multimedia has already been seen as the strength of Internet applications. This paper briefly examines the principles of Web-based GIS applications and multimedia technology, and then focuses on the development of a Web-based multimedia GIS that links GIS and multimedia technologies on the Internet. The Web-based multimedia GIS is based upon interactions between three components: 1) a Web-based GIS application developed to manipulate spatial environmental database including georeferenced images and digital maps; 2) a Web-based interactive multimedia application designed to manipulate multimedia information including text, graphics, photographs, digital video and sound; and 3) a mechanism of linking the Web-based GIS application and the Web-based interactive multimedia application. The paper concludes with an example that demonstrates the use of a Web-based multimedia GIS, which allows the user to explore digital maps and associated multimedia information on the Internet.