UN Food And Agriculture Organization GeoNetwork Uses WMS

by Lance McKee

and Jeroen Ticheler
ARTEMIS - SDRN - FAO-UN
Room F817
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome - Italy
Jeroen.Ticheler@fao.org

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information to help countries modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. FAO focuses special attention on developing rural areas, where 70 percent of the world's poor and hungry people live.

To serve those goals, the FAO's Environment and Natural Resources Service (SDRN) has worked since 2001 to improve dynamic and standardized internet access to interactive maps, satellite imagery and related spatial databases from FAO units and other organizations. SDRN's efforts resulted in GeoNetwork, FAO's Spatial Data and Information Portal. GeoNetwork

• Improves access to and integrated use of spatial data and information
• Supports decision making in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food security
• Promotes multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable development
• Enhances understanding of the benefits of geographic information

Many users, thus open standards are essential

GeoNetwork allows easy sharing of geographically referenced thematic information between different FAO Units, other UN Agencies, NGO's and other institutions. Making spatial information more available to technicians, decision makers and scholars is important for the whole international development community, and equitable access is essential to avoid reinforcing the "digital divide." Thus it was important for GeoNetwork to adhere to open standards as much as possible so that it imposed no requirements on users to purchase particular software.

• GeoNetwork provides four capabilities:
• Global library for geospatial data
• Metadata catalog describing geospatial data
• System for searching, editing and publishing geospatial information
• Service that allows integration of data from various sources

Many sources, thus metadata-based search is essential

 GeoNetwork allows users to search by entering free text, by selecting a country, region or continent, or by entering a combination of both. In early 2004, the GeoNetwork catalog contained 1,000 metadata records, 600 downloadable geospatial data files, metadata for 5,000 hardcopy maps, and 200 dynamic map services.

Figure 1: GeoNetwork Search Page

GeoNetwork uses a web based Geographic Metadata Catalog System developed by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) that implements the ISO 19115 Geographic Metadata and ISO 23950 (Z39.50) standards and the OpenGIS Catalog Services Specification. Users can find interactive maps by searching in GeoNetwork for digital data with an Interactive Map or by directly connecting to a pre-configured map server. Servers with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) compliant Web Map Server (WMS) interfaces let users view and overlay data layers using only a Web browser (see InterMap below), and these open interfaces enable any vendor's application to get map views from any vendor's map server if the application and server both implement the WMS specification.

For example, one can go to FAO GeoNetwork (http://www.fao.org/geonetwork) and search for "GLC2000." GLC2000 is the Land Cover of the World 2000 database maintained by the Global Vegetation Monitoring (GVM) Unit that is coordinating and implementing the GLOBAL LAND COVER 2000 Project (GLC 2000) in collaboration with a network of partners around the world, coordinated by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). GLC2000 makes use of data acquired by the VEGETATION instrument on board the SPOT 4 satellite, made available through a sponsorship from members of the VEGETATION program, including JRC. A map button opens the main map in a browser and views of the map are transferred via the open interfaces. ArcIMS Map Servers are also supported.

Figure 2: Landcover Map of the World 2000

GeoNetwork includes a links page that provides access to spatial data resources at FAO and other organizations, such as METART (low resolution satellite imagery, meteorological data and derived products from the ARTEMIS and Agrometeorology Groups), GIEWS GeoWeb (Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture), GTOS-TEMS - TEMS (Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites, is an international directory of sites and networks that carry out long-term terrestrial monitoring and research activities), and FIGIS (Fisheries Global Information System). Other United Nations sources include the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG), the UN Cartographic Section, ReliefWeb - a project of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Unit from the World Food Program (WFP).

SDRN worked with the VAM Unit to develop the "InterMap" viewer function that enables users to overlay various map layers from different sources, by means of OGC's standards and a "cascading map server" capability developed in OGC. A cascading map server performs functions such as ensuring that the maps returned from the different servers use the same coordinate reference system.

GeoWeb is one initiative among many in the UN that benefit from OGC's open standards. The UN is a Principal Member of the OGC and has implemented a U.N. Geographic Information Strategic Plan that emphasizes the importance of OGC standards in providing interoperability among the many organizations that make up the UN and that are partners in UN activities.