Benefits of Open Access

Approaches to Geospatial

Visualization

Presentation to Seminar on Geospatial Best Practices for Architects, USDepartment of Transportation, Washington D.C., April 11, 2007.

By: Mark Austin, Natasha Shmunis, Michael Ball, University of Maryland,College Park, MD 20742. E-mail: [austin,kosnat]@isr.umd.edu;

mball@rhsmith.umd.edu

Table of Contents

! Open Access: What does it mean?

! Old approach to data access

! Advantages of Open Access

! Using free GIS

! Open Access Visualization

! Development Challenges

Open Access: What does it mean?

! Geospatial data should be available for free

for public use

! It means this data could be shared with

different government agencies, private and

public sectors, and other countries.

! It means there will be more and more data

available for users. And more and more tools

to support it

Old Approach to Data Access

! Centralized processing of data into meta-data.

! Often, data and data processing tools are proprietary…

Advantages of Open Access

! Free of cost and free to re-use without any

restriction

! Open data lowers the cost of research and

development

! Promotes independent research

! Facilitates the use and development of open

standards and open source technologies

Free GIS resources on the web

! Almost every state in theUS provides web accessto geospatial data

! Many universitiescollaborate with stategovernments to providemore data and more tools

! Map Window GIS is freeand open source

Affiliates include: IdohoState University, UtahState University,andNational Oceanic&AtmosphericAdministration…

http://www.mapwindow.org/

Using Free GIS

! Data Storage:Florida WetlandsWebGIS at theUniversity ofFlorida

! http://srvgis.ifas.ufl.edu/website/wbl2002/viewer.htm

! Data Format:Online InteractiveMap

Using Free GIS

! Data Storage: HarvardGeospatial Library --catalogand web based mappingenvironment

! Data Format: Shapefileformat that can be openwith free ESRI ARCViewerand other formats

http://peters.hul.harvard.edu:8080/HGL/jsp/HGL.jsp

Amtrak stations

Using Free GIS

! Data Storage:Cheasapeak Bay & MidAtlantic from SpaceProject at TownsonUniversityhttp://chesapeake.towson.edu/

! Data Format: Shapefileformat that can be openwith free ESRIARCViewer

Open Access Visualization

Open Access Architecture for AIXM Visualization

How can you get involved?

! We expect to have a web site up-and-running

by mid-2007.

! Software prototypes will be available for

download.

! Contact us: Mark Austin

(austin@isr.umd.edu), Natasha Shmunis

(kosnat@isr.umd.edu), Michael Ball

(mball@rhsmith.umd.edu).