Web GIS

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Web GIS (also known as Web-Based GIS), or Web Geographic Information Systems , are GIS that employ the World Wide Web to facilitate the storage, visualization, analysis, and distribution of spatial information over the Internet.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Introduction

The World Wide Web, or the Web, is an information system that uses the internet to host, share, and distribute documents, images, and other data.[7][5][6] Web GIS involves using the World Wide Web to facilitate GIS tasks traditionally done on a desktop computer, as well as enabling the sharing of maps and spatial data. While Web GIS and Internet GIS are sometimes used interchangeably, they are different concepts.[5][6] Web GIS is a subset of Internet GIS, which is itself a subset of distributed GIS, which itself is a subset of broader Geographic information system.[8][9][10][11] The most common application of Web GIS is Web mapping, so much so that the two terms are often used interchangeably in much the same way as Digital mapping and GIS. However, Web GIS and web mapping are distinct concepts, with web mapping not necessarily requiring a Web GIS.[5]

The use of the Web has dramatically increased the effectiveness of both accessing and distributing spatial data, two of the most significant challenges of desktop GIS.[1][12][13] Many functions, such as interactivity, and dynamic scaling, are made widely available to end users by web services. Due to the scale of the Web can sometimes make finding quality and reliable data a challenge for GIS professionals, and end users, with a significant amount of low-quality, poorly organized, or poorly sourced material available for public consumption.[13] This can make finding spatial data a time consuming activity for GIS users.[13]

History

The history of Web GIS is very closely tied to the history of geographic information systems, Digital mapping, and the World Wide Web or the Web. The Web was first created in 1990, and the first major web mapping program capable of distributed map creation appeared shortly after in 1993.[9][12][14] This software, named PARC Map Viewer, was unique in that it facilitated dynamic user map generation, rather than static images.[14][7] This software also allowed users to employ GIS without having it locally installed on their machine.[1][14] The US federal government made the TIGER Mapping Service available to the public in 1995, which facilitated desktop and Web GIS by hosting US boundary data.[1] In 1996, MapQuest became available to the public, facilitating navigation and trip planning.[1]

In 1997, Esri began to focus on their desktop GIS software, which in 2000 became ArcGIS.[15] This led to Esri dominating the GIS industry for the next several years.[12] In 2000 Esri launched the Geography Network, which offered some web GIS functions. In 2014, ArcGIS Online replaced this, and offers significant Web GIS functions including hosting, manipulating, and visualizing data in dynamic applications.[1][2][12]

Applications

Web GIS has numerous applications and functions, and is used to manage most distributed spatial information. These functions can be divided into categories of Geospatial web services including web feature services, web processing services, and web mapping services.[3] Geospatial web services are distinct software packages available on the World Wide Web that can be employed to perform a function with spatial data.[3]

Web feature services

Main page: Web Feature Service
Dynamic web page: example of server-side scripting (PHP and MySQL)

Web feature services allow users to access, edit, and make use of hosted geospatial feature datasets.[3]

Web processing services

Main page: Earth:Web Processing Service

Web processing services allow users to perform GIS calculations on spatial data.[3] Web processing services standardize inputs, and outputs, for spatial data within an internet GIS and may have standardized algorithms for spatial statistics.

Web mapping services

Web mapping involves using distributed tools to create and host both static and dynamic maps.[9][3][1][2] It is different than desktop digital mapping in that the data, software, or both might not be stored locally and are often distributed across many computers. Web mapping allows for the rapid distribution of spatial visualizations without the need for printing.[16] They also facilitates rapid updating to reflect new datasets and allow for interactive datasets that would be impossible in print media. Web mapping was employed extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic to visualize the datasets in close to real-time.[17][18][19]

Web coverage services

Main pages: Earth:Web Coverage Service and Web Coverage Processing Service
This section is an excerpt from Web Coverage Service[ edit ]

Web Map Tile Service

This section is an excerpt from Web Map Tile Service[ edit ]

Open Geospatial Consortium

This section is an excerpt from Open Geospatial Consortium[ edit ]

Geospatial Semantic Web

Main pages: Geospatial semantic web and Semantic Web

The Geospatial Semantic Web is a vision to include geospatial information at the core of the Semantic Web to facilitate information retrieval and information integration.[20] This vision requires the definition of geospatial ontologies, semantic gazetteers, and shared technical vocabularies to describe geographic phenomena.[21] The Semantic Geospatial Web is part of geographic information science.[3]

Criticism

All maps are simplifications of reality and, therefore, can never be perfectly accureate.[22] These inaccuracies include distortions introduced during projection, simplifications, and human error. While traditionally trained ethical cartographers try to minimize these errors and document the known sources of error, including where the data originated, Web GIS facilitates the creation of maps by non-traditionally trained cartographers and, more significantly, facilitates the rapid dissemination of their potentially erroneous maps.[23] While this democratization of GIS has many potential positives, including empowering traditionally disenfranchised groups of people, it also means that a wide audience can see bad maps.[16][19][22][24] Further, malicious actors can quickly spread intentionally misleading spatial information while hiding the source.[22] This has significant implications, and contributes to the infodemic surrounding many topics, including the spread of potentially misleading information on the COVID-19 pandemic.[25]

Due to the nature of the Web, using it for storing and computation is less secure than using local networks.[26][27][28] When working with sensitive data, Web GIS may expose an organization to the additional risk of having its data breached then if they use dedicated hardware and a Virtual Private Network to access that hardware remotely over the internet.[26][27][28] The convenience and relatively low cost of Web GIS often prevents this from being implemented.

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Fu, Pinde; Sun, Jiulin (2011). Web GIS: Principles and Applications. Redlands, Calif.: ESRI Press. ISBN 978-1-58948-245-6. OCLC 587219650. https://archive.org/details/webgisprinciples0000fupi. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Fu, Pinde (2016). Getting to Know Web GIS (2 ed.). Redlands, Calif.: ESRI Press. ISBN 9781589484634. OCLC 928643136. https://archive.org/details/gettingtoknowweb0000fupi. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Zhang, Chuanrong; Zhao, Tian; Li, Weidong (2015). Geospatial Semantic Web. Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17801-1. ISBN 978-3-319-17800-4. OCLC 911032733. 
  4. ↑ "Web GIS, Simply". ESRI. https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/insider/web-gis-simply/. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ezekiel, Kuria; Kimani, Stephen; Mindila, Agnes (June 2019). "A Framework for Web GIS Development: A Review". International Journal of Computer Applications 178 (16): 6–10. doi:10.5120/ijca2019918863. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Rowland, Alexandra; Folmer, Erwin; Beek, Wouter (2020). "Towards Self-Service GIS—Combining the Best of the Semantic Web and Web GIS". ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 9 (12): 753. doi:10.3390/ijgi9120753. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "What is the difference between the Web and the Internet?". W3C. 2009. http://www.w3.org/Help/#webinternet. 
  8. ↑ Mathiyalagan, V.; Grunwald, S.; Reddy, K.R.; Bloom, S.A. (April 2005). "A WebGIS and geodatabase for Florida's wetlands". Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 47 (1): 69–75. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2004.08.003. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168169904001188. Retrieved 31 January 2023. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Peng, Zhong-Ren; Tsou, Ming-Hsiang (2003). Internet GIS: Distributed Information Services for the Internet and Wireless Networks. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-35923-8. OCLC 50447645. https://archive.org/details/internetgisdistr0000peng. 
  10. ↑ Moretz, David (2008). "Internet GIS". in Shekhar, Shashi; Xiong, Hui. Encyclopedia of GIS. New York: Springer. pp. 591–596. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_648. ISBN 978-0-387-35973-1. OCLC 233971247. https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofgi0000unse_i4o0/page/591. 
  11. ↑ Hojaty, Majid (21 February 2014). "What is the Difference Between Web GIS and Internet GIS?". https://www.gislounge.com/difference-web-gis-internet-gis/#:~:text=Web%20GIS%20originates%20from%20a,kind%20of%20distributed%20information%20system.. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Peterson, Michael P. (2014). Mapping in the Cloud. New York: The Guiford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-1041-2. OCLC 855580732. https://archive.org/details/mappingincloud0000pete. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 DeMers, Michael (2009). Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems (4 ed.). Wiley. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Putz, Steve (November 1994). "Interactive information services using World-Wide Web hypertext". Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 27 (2): 273–280. doi:10.1016/0169-7552(94)90141-4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0169755294901414. Retrieved 14 September 2022. 
  15. ↑ Maguire, David J (May 2000). "Esri's New ArcGIS Product Family". ArcNews (Esri). http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer00articles/esrisnew.html. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Monmonier, Mark S. (1985). Technological Transition in Cartography. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299100707. OCLC 11399821. https://archive.org/details/technologicaltra0000monm. 
  17. ↑ Dong, Ensheng; Du, Hongru (2020). "An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time". The Lancet Infectious Diseases 20 (5): 533–534. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30120-1. PMID 32087114. 
  18. ↑ Everts, Jonathan (2020). "The dashboard pandemic". Dialogues in Human Geography 10 (2): 260–264. doi:10.1177/2043820620935355. https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/9YTSZSDCXKMR3IININZ7/full. Retrieved 12 September 2022. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Adams, Aaron; Chen, Xiang; Li, Weidong; Zhang, Chuanrong (2020). "The disguised pandemic: the importance of data normalization in COVID-19 web mapping". Public Health 183: 36–37. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2020.04.034. PMID 32416476. 
  20. ↑ Egenhofer, Max J. (2002-01-01). "Toward the Semantic Geospatial Web". Proceedings of the tenth ACM international symposium on Advances in geographic information systems - GIS '02. GIS '02. New York, NY, USA: ACM. 1–4. doi:10.1145/585147.585148. ISBN 978-1-58113-591-6. https://archive.org/details/gis2002proceedin0000acmi/page/1. 
  21. ↑ Janowicz, Krzysztof; Scheider, Simon; Adams, Benjamin (2013-01-01). Rudolph, Sebastian. ed. A Geo-semantics Flyby. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 230–250. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39784-4_6. ISBN 978-3-642-39783-7. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Monmonier, Mark (10 April 2018). How to lie with maps (3 ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226435923. 
  23. ↑ Monmonier, Mark (1 June 1990). "Ethics and Map Design: Six Strategies for Confronting the Traditional One-Map Solution". Cartographic Perspectives 1 (10): 3–8. doi:10.14714/CP10.1052. https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/view/cp10-monmonier. Retrieved 15 September 2022. 
  24. ↑ Zhong-Ren, Ren (November 2001). "Internet GIS for public participation". Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 8 (6): 889–905. doi:10.1068/b2750t. 
  25. ↑ Mooney, Peter; Juhász, Levente (July 2020). "Mapping COVID-19: How web-based maps contribute to the infodemic". Dialogues in Human Geography 10 (2): 265–270. doi:10.1177/2043820620934926. 
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 McCarthy, Niall. "VPN Usage Surges During COVID-19 Crisis [Infographic"]. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/03/17/vpn-usage-surges-during-covid-19-crisis-infographic/?sh=632c78677d79. 
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Skahill, Jeffrey. "Tips for Leading a Remote Team during Covid-19". https://www.gislounge.com/tips-for-leading-a-remote-team-during-covid-19/. 
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 "Five Reasons GIS Users Should Use a VPN". https://gisuser.com/2021/10/five-reasons-gis-users-should-use-a-vpn/. 

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