Online Spatial Data Analysis and Algorithm Development for Geo-scientific Applications Using Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

Availability of geospatial data from online data repositories and geoportals are increasing with rapid pace. For better utilization of these heterogeneous data sets, it is required to give more attention to develop web based algorithms as well as geocomputation models that allows high-level information extraction from distributed nature of geodata. The Open Geospatial Consortium specification such as Web Processing Service (WPS) provides the solutions for integrating remote sensing data for the computation of algorithms from distributed sources in multi-user environment. The main purpose of present study is to develop and implement a WPS based geoprocesses and analysis approach using Online Image Processing System. The software framework developed during this study is a platform independent solution which is developed using free and open source technology. As a demonstrative case study, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Normalized Difference Built-up Index algorithms are annotated for automatic deployment in geoscientific processing workflow environment. The Sentinel-2 data sets and polygon geometry as region of interest are stored and published as web services for input dataset in application server repository. A case study for Champawat district of Uttarakhand state of India has been demonstrated to identify vegetation greenness and built-up sites during the summer season. In order to access the functionalities of the online application, an interactive and responsive Graphical User Interface is developed in web GIS environment. The proposed approach can be very effective and useful to address the key challenges in commercial desktop based software for geoprocessing and analysis of remote sensing data.