Interoperable Map Interface towards the Sharing and Integration of Internet Geospatial Resource: A Metadata Perspective

Abstract

Map interface has been long serving as the major platform allowing humans to visually inspect the phenomena of reality. One distinct and improving feature for internet GIS technology is the easier sharing of geospatial data from distributed georesources. Though this development enables more complete and flexible data integration at clients’ applications, the heterogeneous nature of different georesource, nonetheless, impedes the correct interpretation towards the content of map interface. Based on standardized geospatial metadata and formalization of cartographic knowledge, we proposed a map interface visual aids mechanism in this paper. By incorporating consideration of data completeness, temporal difference and positional accuracy consistency, the designed map interface can not only suffice the needs for data visualization, but also provide correct visual aids to the map interface contents in an interoperable and automatic way. As the number of accessible geospatial information continues to grow in the future, such an intelligent map interface is absolutely a mandatory feature for any application wishes to take advantages of the abundant internet georesources.