Achieving interoperability for integration of heterogeneous COTS geographic information systems

Abstract

Using multiple commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) GIS suites is a common phenomenon, because different COTS products often have different strengths in various applications. On the other hand, deploying heterogeneous GIS software has the tendency to form fragmented data sets and to cause inconsistency. Data consolidation is an effective way to preserve data integrity. To accomplish this, we must achieve interoperability between different GIS tools. While vector spatial data have the standard database models to support interoperability, raster based images have been conventionally managed as files. Compared to the database approach, the file-based management for raster data is disadvantageous in terms of performance and flexibility. We implemented an adapter that allowed the file-based GIS tools to access the raster data storage in databases managed by a COTS software product. To integrate the COTS GIS into the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) framework, we have further enhanced this adapter and made it compliant to the J2EE Connector Architecture (J2EE-CA) standard. Using this kind of J2EE-CA adapter, any GIS can be managed by any J2EE server. The J2EE framework is an ideal foundation for building enterprise-wide geographic information systems.