Cartographic Web-Resource "Trans-Siberian Railway": Sources and Development Technology

Abstract

The article discusses the creation of a thematic resource on the history of the Trans-Siberian Railway using modern Web-GIS tools which will provide for accumulating source information collected during research and presenting it in a form accessible for researchers. The online GIS allows one to work with the materials named in several modes:  interactive, tabular (with a description of the source base) as well as modes of editing information in the cloud storage database or in a limited mode of data input and data loading. The GIS project is represented by a set of vector and raster data transformed to work in a modern coordinate system: historical maps and diagrams, satellite images in the form of mosaics and image fragments obtained through available geoservices (Google, Yandex, Bing). Digital layers are also available which are generated and edited based on the digitization of historical and modern maps of different scales. Simultaneously with the work on the web-resource, the authors are creating the Transsib desktop GIS. The development and launch of the web-GIS "Trans-Siberian Railway" gives its users a number of new opportunities including the availability of generalized information and cartographic database on the history of the construction and operation of the Transsib as well as an opportunity for several users to work with project materials simultaneously, search for the necessary metadata information in the GIS, etc.