Open GIS and On-Line Environmental Libraries

Abstract

An essential component of an Environmental Information System is geographic or geospatial data coupled with geoprocessing functions. Traditional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) do not address the requirements of complex digital environmental libraries, but are now incorporating strategies for geodatabase federation, catalogs, and data mining. These strategies, however, depend on increased interoperability among diverse data stores, formats, and models. Open GIS™ is an abstration of geodata and a specification for methods on geographic features and coverages that enables compliant applications to exchange information and processing services. For EIS, Open GIS provides an architecture for selecting geodata at its most atomic level, fusing those data into structured information frameworks, analysing information using spatial operators, and viewing the results in informative, decision-supporting ways.