The GIS Web Portal: Beyond Data Services

The GIS web portal usually functions as a web-based gateway to integrated and distributed geographic resources. Although current GIS web portals are gaining popularity among GIS users and are of great significance for building distributed Internet GIS, they remain weak in terms of analytical and modeling components. We discuss the possibilities of integrating state-of-the-art technologies which include Grid computing, Web Services, OGC (Open GIS Consortium) interoperability standards and the Semantic Web. Emphasis is given to the exploration of technical details of how we can combine these components together to build comprehensive GIS web portals that are capable of supporting advanced GIS analytical services. Prior and present research from the Geography and Computer Science communities is reviewed. A new methodology framework is introduced and based on it, a simple demo is presented which not only tests some of our initial ideas but also illustrates the challenges Internet GIServices developers have to face when implementing powerful yet intelligent Internet GIServices in the future.