A Web Map Portal for Vaud State, Switzerland

 Vaud is a state in Switzerland. And, like states all over the world, Vaud, via its Central Administration (CA, the state government) plays a key role in the collection and distribution of geographic data for the region. Many other organizations - public and private - within the state and country provide spatial data as well. That's part of the reason the state decided ten years ago, before any OpenGIS® specifications were approved, to pull those resources together. The state wanted to provide the rich datasets to anyone, and enable searching for specific resources via a metadata catalog. Vaud also wanted to simplify and streamline data ordering so that interested parties need visit only one website (prototyped in the graphic below) to gather data from many organizations.

Two years ago, ASIT-VD proposed a solution based on OpenGIS Specifications and received positive feedback from member partners and the State of Vaud. Currently the project is, at least in part, a proof of concept. Says Marie-Paule Lagasquie, ASIT-VD Coordinator, "our main goal in this project was to prove to our partners that geographic data from different OGC compliant servers could be publicly accessible through the Web without any client application." While OGC continues to add specifications and interfaces to make more and more data and services interoperable, the idea of a fully interoperable system, that causes little if any change in systems already in place, is still a new one to many agencies.

The Pilot

For now, ASIT-VD's pilot uses the OpenGIS Web Map Service Specification (WMS) to access data and produce maps from several servers. In time, ASIT-VD plans to support Web Feature Service (WFS) so that vector data can be distributed in addition to the "picture maps" of WMS. ASIT-VD acts as the developer, providing the framework and support to data providers. Those who participate, in time, will garner revenue from data purchases made through the ASIT-VD's data Web shop.

The portal site currently includes links to Web mapping applications from several states who want to provide access to their data, but who do not yet support WMS. http://www.asit.vd.ch/consultation/consultation.htm. The webpage of links notes that some of the websites listed require a download, something that the ASIT pilot, and its future full implementation, specifically aims to avoid. Looking at the linked sites, the variety of solutions that ASIT-VD wants to unite is significant: the websites of cantons (towns) use everything from MapGuide to CartoWeb to ArcIMS to MapXtreme.

At the next level of government, the state level, only the States of Vaud and Neuchâtel, among the French speaking states of Switzerland, are conformant with WMS. Still the website gets the players together, the first step in moving toward interoperability.

Under the Hood

ASIT-VD hosts its server in Lausanne. This is truly a portal in the sense that it hosts no data. Instead, it hosts the client application that can access any of the currently available, and future, OGC compliant servers that choose to participate. The server hosts IONIC Software's WMS Portal, which provides a smart client accessible to anyone with Web access. Far more than a simple browser, the application supports advanced tools that can change the projection system of the chosen data layers or resize images as needed.

The first organization to provide data to the portal was Vaud itself. The state uses ESRI's MapObjects to publish its Web maps. The CA of Vaud contracted with IONIC to develop a WMS connector for MapObjects.

 

The proof of concept prototype is hosted at http://www.asit.vd.ch/consultation/ogc/wms_appli/light.html and shows Swiss data from the states of Vaud (using MapObjects and IONIC's connector) and Neuchâtel (using CartoWeb technology from society CampToCamp, which out of the box supports WMS, among other specifications). Other WMS severs from CubeWerx and Digital Earth hosted in Canada and the U.S respectively, help illustrate what is possible (right). Full deployment, expected before the end of 2003, will include other data providers and bring online a full catalog search and data sales capabilities.

The biggest challenge in getting this far? Marie-Paule Lagasquie explains that partners were not convinced of the relative ease of deployment of this type of solution. The biggest concern, now overcome, involved apprehension of having to significantly change the existing server, convert data or other tasks. The ease of bringing the Vaud data online, and the linking to other servers, has brought the key players around.

Advice, Expectations and the Future

Marie-Paule Lagasquie notes that it is difficult to give advice to others on comparable implementations, since "each projects is so different." "Moreover," she highlights, "ours is truly particular, because we are not the owner of the data, but we offer the opportunity for everyone to access data of our partners."

While generally pleased with how OpenGIS Specifications served its goal, ASIT-VD recognizes some technical challenges with WMS technology, including limited support for common symbology. She notes, too, that it is a large organizational effort develop and host the portal for data providers. And, she realizes, some providers may prefer to "go it alone" rather than partner with other public or private organizations. She's hopeful, however, that in time more and more will join ASIT in the portal.

ASIT-VD is sensitive to its partners needs. Others goals down the road include support for more languages, something very important for this multi-lingual nation, and tools to allow each provider the ability to customize its interface. Goals for the metadata catalog include the ability to query it from a single webpage, the ability to export metadata in XML, and the ability to send metadata to the ASIT-VD portal in XML.