Multidimensional Marine Environmental Data Conversion and Visualization Using Python and GIS

The Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) generates huge amounts of predicted tidal currents data every day. The data are used for a hydrodynamics forecast system of the Singapore Strait. This paper deals with the access, extraction, and visualization of those spatial data, stored in netCDF (network Common Data Format) file format. The expected software solution had to fulfil several requirements. Hydrodynamics time series must to be selected and converted into the Shapefile format. Geoprocessing operations on the Shapefiles have to perform the currents visualization and thematic map layer creation. The exported map images should be animated along time. The final result of the three aforementioned procedures is an animated hydrodynamics map of the Singapore Strait which shows the predicted tidal current changes within a certain time interval. For these given requirements, the developed software framework consists of two main tools. For the conversion process a stand-alone and multi-platform Python tool has been implemented. The tool has integrated and enhanced existing open-source modules and packages. The Shapefile post-processing and visualization task is done by the created HydroViz ModelBuilder geoprocessing tool for ArcGIS. The hydrodynamics visualization framework as well as all intermediate output data and the final map can be used and adapted by TMSI researchers for interactive visualization and analysis of marine environment.