Developing Lightweight, Data-Driven Exploratory Geo-Visualization Tools for the Web

Abstract

This paper details efforts to development a set of prototype, web-based geovisualization tools. The focus is on design and implementation of lightweight tools that can run in standard web browsers and access data, stored in a remote database. The web geovisualization tools incorporate several standard exploratory spatial data analysis methods, including linked brushing and interactive animation. These tools are constructed using Macromedia Flash, a commercial software application that produces content for the web using a publicly available file specification called SWF. The advantages and disadvantages of Flash for geovisualization are discussed. One advantage is that it supports links to remote databases. Here, we discuss use of XML as the communication syntax for the geovisualization tool-to-database link. Two solutions to dynamic database access have been implemented, one using a stand-alone Java server and the other using Java servlet technology; the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed.