Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. Geomatics software

1.2. Pooling

1.3. Book outline

1.4. Bibliography

PART 1 Software Presentation

Chapter 2. ORBISGIS: Geographical Information System Designed by and for Research

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Background history

2.3. Major functionalities

2.4. Architecture and graphical interface

2.5. Examples of use

2.6. Community

2.7. Conclusion and perspectives

2.8. Acknowledgments

2.9. Bibliography

Chapter 3. GEOXYGENE: an Interoperable Platform for Geographical Application Development

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Background history

3.3. Major functionalities and examples of use

3.4. Architecture

3.5. Communities

3.6. Conclusion

3.7. Bibliography

Chapter 4. Spatiotemporal Knowledge Representation in AROM-ST

4.1. Introduction

4.2. From AROM to AROM-ST

4.3. AROM-ST

4.4. From AROM-OWL to ONTOAST

4.5. Architecture

4.6. Community

4.7. Conclusions and prospects

4.8. Bibliography

Chapter 5. GENGHIS: an Environment for the Generation of Spatiotemporal Visualization Interfaces

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Context

5.3. Functionalities linked to the generation of geovisualization applications

5.4. Functionalities of the geovisualization application generated by GENGHIS

5.5. Architecture

5.6. Scope and user communities

5.7. Conclusion and perspectives

5.8. Acknowledgments

5.9. Bibliography

Chapter 6. GEOLIS: a Logical Information System to Organize and Search Geo-Located Data

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Background history

6.3. Main functionalities and use cases

6.4. Architecture

6.5. Users and developers

6.6.  Conclusion

6.7.  Bibliography

Chapter 7. GENExP-LANDSITES: a 2D Agricultural Landscape Generating Piece of Software

7.1. Introduction

7.2. Context

7.3. Major functionalities

7.4. Case uses

7.5. Architecture

7.6. Communities

7.7.  Conclusion

7.8.  Acknowledgments

7.9. Bibliography

Chapter 8. MDWEB: Cataloging and Locating Environmental Resources

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Context

8.3. Major functionalities and case uses

8.4. Cataloging functionality

8.5. Locating functionality

8.6. Administration functionality

8.7. Architecture

8.8. User community

8.9. Conclusion

8.10. Bibliography

Chapter 9. WEBGEN: Web Services to Share Cartographic Generalization Tools

9.1. Introduction

9.2. Historical background

9.3. Major functionalities

9.4. Area of use

9.5. Architecture

9.6. Associated communities

9.7. Conclusion and outlook

9.8.  Acknowledgments

9.9.  Bibliography

PART 2 Summary and Suggestions

Chapter 10. Analysis of the Specificities of Software Development in Geomatics Research

10.1. Origin and motivations

10.2. Major functionalities, fields, and reusability

Chapter 11. Challenges and Proposals for Software Development Pooling in Geomatics

11.1. Requirements and challenges

11.2. Solutions

11.3. Conclusion

11.4. Bibliography

Glossary

List of Authors

Index

First published 2012 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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©ISTE Ltd 2012

The rights of Bénédicte Bucher and Florence Le Ber to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Innovative software development in GIS / edited by Florence Le Ber [and] Benedicte Bucher.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-1-84821-364-7
  1. Geographic information systems. 2. Geography-- Data processing. 3. Geomatics. I. Le Ber, Florence. II. Bucher, Bénédicte.
  G70.212.I556 2012
  910.285--dc23

2012008578

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-84821-364-7

Chapter 1

Introduction ¹

Research in geomatics must face major challenges to improve the management of the interaction of humankind with the planet at various levels. These challenges cover types of problems such as risk management (monitoring a volcano), sustainable development (the prevention of coastal erosion or the control of increasing urbanization in a given area), or even societal issues, such as the accompaniment and improvement of the integration of positioning techniques and their mobile applications in our everyday lives. To process these issues, we often need to turn to computers and develop software that can meet the requirements of the data handled. The goal of this book is to study the innovative software development activities carried out by geomatics research teams, and more specifically to analyze which of these development activities can be pooled, and whether it is relevant to do so, in the sense that it promotes research activities. We have chosen to focus on one aspect of geomatics research: the design of models and analysis methods to utilize geographical data.

The rest of Chapter 1 clarifies the contextual elements that are essential to the study of geomatics, and more specifically the definitions of the terms used. We successively clarify the notions of geomatics software and pooling in our context before presenting the goals and structure of the book.

1.1. Geomatics software

Geomatics is a technical and scientific field derived from geography and computer science. It develops methods to represent, analyze, and simulate geographical space. Its goal is to improve the understanding of this space and the management of human activities and human interventions on the planet. Thus, the core activities of geomatics is made up of techniques of Earth observation as well as techniques of model design - mainly maps - useful for analysis and reasoning. The traditional spatial representations are printed maps, gazetteers, or lists of triangulation points. For the past 20 years, geographical data have become digital and geomatics has been characterized by the intensive use of computer science. This development is highlighted by two phenomena. The first is the increase in data, specifically satellite data, and this increase requires the development of automatic processing. The second phenomenon is the increasing role of geographical information in information infrastructures (use of maps on the Web, localized services, etc.).

1.1.1. Digital geographical data

A core specificity of geomatics is its data.

A primary aspect is the distance between the data and the information represented through them. This is partly due to the fact that space observation often happens through the measurement of physical signals that must then be interpreted into meaning. This distance between the data and the information is also due to the difficulty in representing the notion of position in space so as to carry out operations on the shapes of the objects and the spatial relations they represent. More specifically, a digital model of geographical space must render two important notions: positioning in space and the nature of the phenomena. Positioning in space is shown through projections, which relate the different parts of the Earth's surface to an ellipsoid linked to coordinates in a stable mathematical referential versus the Earth. Geographical projection is usually followed by a cartographic projection to view the data on a plane screen. Thus, part of the Earth's surface or its subsurface is positioned by a geometry provided with coordinates - eventually reduced to a point. From there, two major positioning methods exist: the and the lattice [COU 92]. For example, a road is generally represented by an object of linear geometry (corresponding to the axis of the road on the ground) with attributes taking its nature into account (identification number, classification, and type of surface). This is a model. However, in three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds, roads are often not represented in the data as objects, but the human user can see them in the terrain image (due to texture). Other phenomena, such as air pressure, must be represented as fields which have a given value in any point of space. More specifically, discretized versions of these fields are used. These are lattice models. The continuous/discrete duality that exists at the level of the observed reality and in both models of representation can also be found in the principles of software development and sometimes leads researchers to adopt different approaches to study one phenomenon. When we study a city, for example, we use OGIS with a preference for lattice representation manipulation and GO with a preference for the manipulation of objects. Overall, the choice of a representation often frames a domain of expertise and the joint manipulation of two types of representations remains complex even though there exist proposals to integrate them [LAU 00].

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