Aim4GDI: Facilitating the synthesis of GDI resources through mapping and superimpositions of metadata Summaries

Abstract

In the world of geospatial data infrastructures, geoportals are developed to facilitate access and use of geospatial resources, including data. The design and implementation of effective and efficient geoportals are becoming crucial. Providing possibilities for users to organize and integrate available resources can arguably enhance the process of data discovery and spatial analysis required, and hence, is the focus of this paper. We argue that the synthesis of summaries of distributed datasets, map and feature services through the geoportal can present a coherent view to support data discovery. For this purpose, the atlas metaphor is used as an indexing server and integration interface of summaries. Thematic maps and a storyteller view are accessible through the atlas metaphor. They can be used to provide a supporting context for data discovery and access purposes. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007.