Web Based Geospatial Data Repository

Abstract

This project titled as ‘Web-Based Geospatial Data Repository’ is a complete and fully functional web application which can be termed as a Geospatial Web Portal or Geoportal. The name of the final product is IGISpatia. The basic purpose of developing such a product is to provide an online interface for better management of geospatial data resources and sophisticated data discovery options. This product is intended to be used by the students, staff and faculty of Institute of Geographical Information Systems (IGIS), NUST. It is hosted over a live IP and can be accessed globally through the URL http://spatia.igis.nust.edu.pk. The application consists of various features and functionalities which enable a registered user to benefit from the repository. Only registered users have the access to use these features and view and/or download the geospatial data. To register for this site, one should be a member of IGIS-NUST, which means that he/she must be in possession of an email id which is on the domain of IGIS-NUST i.e. example@igis.nust.edu.pk . A registered user can upload any geospatial data that he/she might possess. Further, he/she can also download the data uploaded by any other user if he/she allows it. Using the integrated application ‘GeoExplorer’, one can also create and edit/update the geospatial data and create and publish online maps. The geospatial web services WMS, WFS and WCS can be used by providing the credentials of registered user in a Desktop or Web applications. The geospatial data is uploaded based on metadata standards which are certified by ISO and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The users can update and maintain their profiles like the user profiles in typical social networking sites. The users can also upload/download documents related to the uploaded data or maps. Further, the geospatial data resources can be searched using various methods which include searching based on keywords, searching based on geographic extent and searching based on dates. As one can see that IGISpatia is fully equipped with all the features and functionalities of a typical Geoportal or SDI along with some extra functionalities which make it slightly different from those SDIs. These extra functionalities are like user interaction, commenting and rating options and much more. Therefore, this application is suited best for the purpose it was intended to be developed for, which is to facilitate the students of IGIS to promote geospatial data sharing and management