A Web-Based Environmental Information and Visualization System for Interdisciplinary Project Contexts: An Insight

Abstract

In joint research initiatives with focus on interdisciplinary environmental research, such as the ongoing Catch Mekong Project or the recent projects WISDOM and DELIGHT, scientists of different disciplines work together to answer questions related to a broader social-environmental theme. In this context, environmental information systems have proven to be effective tools for data search, analysis, interpretation and dissemination among project partners and stakeholders. During the WISDOM project the web-based EnvironmentaL Visualization and Information System (ELVIS) was developed that has been constantly further developed and improved to store, manage, disseminate and visualize a broad range of environmental geo-data, such as hydrological in situ data from measurement networks, local planning data in vector format, or large scale Earth Observation satellite data gathered from the participating project partners. This article describes the system's architecture which is completely based on free and open source software. Furthermore, it shows how software project management tools, continuous integration and configuration are applied to be able to instantiate the system for different project contexts. This is especially useful for groups who deal with similar issues in developing one system for many projects.