Iche 2014

The application of distributed software architectures is a common trend in geospatial analysis. On the basis of service oriented architectures, web services are used to provide and process geospatial data. Especially in the European public administration, the implementation of the INSPIRE directive makes the use of standardized web services mandatory. The web services protocol and interface standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium are well suited for this purpose. This paper describes how web services, initially in the form of OGC Web Processing Services, can be used to efficiently compose and publish complex geodata-processing workflows in an automated and centralized manner. Therefore, the RichWPS orchestration environment and software collection is presented which consists of various components that cooperate to realize workflow modelling and orchestration. The environment is optimized for Web Processing Services, and at the same time provides improved usability for users who are no IT experts. In this paper, the concept and functioning of the service orchestration are described. Following this, the practical application is demonstrated by means of a use case. Finally, a conclusion is drawn to sum up the results and outline both the advantages and drawbacks, closing with a brief outlook for further development.