Interoperability in Web-Based Geospatial Applications

This paper characterizes the requirements of geographic information systems (GIS) middleware and its components for dynamic registering and discovering of spatial services specifically for collaborative modeling in environmental planning. The paper explores the role of Web services with respect to implementation standard and protocols and identifies implementation features for exposing distributed GIS business logic and components via Web services. In particular, the paper illustrates applications of the interoperability specifications of Open GIS Consortium’s (OGC) Web mapping service and (WMS), Web processing standards (WPS) with respect to implementation feature. The paper demonstrates a prototype implementation of collaborative environmental decision support systems (GEO-ELCAExploratory Land Use Change Assessment) where Web service-enabled middleware adds core functionality to a Web mapping service. The application demonstrates how individual workspace-based namespaces can be used to perform Web mapping functionality.