Web Based Spatio-Temporal Data Bidirectional Relationship Visualization—A Case Study of Oceanographic Data

Abstract

Environmental data visualization tools are used for data validation, maintenance, and assessment of status and trends of environmental variables. However, currently available visualization tools do not meet all the requirements needed for efficient data management. In this paper, we propose a new approach and present a web-based implementation of a visualization tool that focuses on efficient visualization and seamless integration of maps and graphs. Our approach emphasizes the spatio-temporal relationship of environmental data stored in a relational database. Several new advantages emerge with this approach. Through a case study of two oceanographic datasets—the HarmoNIA project database and the Croatian national monitoring database—we show how this approach enables intuitive status and trend assessments, simplifies data validation, enables the updating of corrections, and is suitable for a web-based implementation that works efficiently even with large datasets.