Web GIS:

Principles and Applications

Pinde Fu, Ph.D.

pfu@esri.com
Project Lead / Senior Developer
Professional Services Division

Esri 2012
 Web GIS: Principles and Applications
Pinde Fu & Jiulin Sun

Web GIS course

Henan University, China

Applications
Principles

Technologies

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2
 Contents

• Introduction
• Technical evolutions
• Applications

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 The Web has changed everything

USPS

Washington Post / Newsweek

Blockbuster v.s. Netflix

New and more efficient business models have emerged, making

previous models increasingly obsolete.

How does it affect you?

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 GIS is no exception

1962 1969 1990 1993

CGIS Internet WWW Web GIS
Roger Tomlinson Tim Berners-Lee Xerox PARC Viewer
Father of GIS Father of the Web

URL, HTTP, HTML

Global reach; large
number of users; better
cross-platform; low cost;
easy to use; diverse
applications
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 Basic System Architecture

Client
(Web browser,
GIS
desktop, or mobile)
database GIS server Web server
server
HTTP Request
In t er n et
HTTP Response

Data tier Logical tier Presentation tier

(i.e., middle tier)

URL
HTTP
HTML
…

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 Evolutions

• From Web sites to Web services

• From SOAP to REST
• Web Services extended by browser side APIs
• From 3 tiers to n-tiers
• From local to the cloud
• From one way to two ways
• From wired to wireless
• More than just mapping

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 From Web sites to Web services

ArcGIS Server
2D 3D
Map maps Image Geometry Feature Search Tracking Routing Geoprocessing Catalog

Internet

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 From web services to browser side APIs
Server side
Map making and
other processes
Scope of
Web
services
Receive requests and
send responses

Internet

Send requests and

receive responses Scope of
browser-side
APIs
Display maps,
interact with users ArcGIS API for
JavaScript, Flex,
Browser side
Silverlight
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 From 3 tiers to n-tiers
Most of today’s Web GIS
applications are mashups
Web resource 1

Web resource
3

Web resource 2 Mashup

Web
server 1

Web browser
Web resource 4

Impacts on NSDI, app dev, research

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 Mashup

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 Highway speed Hospital Basemaps
Highway and photos status
incidents

Geocode Service
Helicopter
and ground Web application 2
vehicle Server 0
2
locations Internet
Processed to GeoRSS format
Find Incidents
Service

Mashup on
smart-phones Mashup in Web
using ArcGIS browsers using
Mobile ArcGIS
JavaScript API
and AJAX
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 Geoparsing, screenscraping

The internet is your geodatabase

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 Design pattern

Web GIS application =

basemaps +
operational layers +
tools

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 Geoportal & Cloud GIS,
hubs of today’s Web GIS

Geoplatform
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 Cloud GIS

Upload data to ArcGIS

Online

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 Cloud GIS

Publish to ArcGIS
Online

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 Lots of applications

• e-Government
- Public information service
- Two way communication
- Operation and decision support

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 Public information service

Online, not in line

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 Demos

• Environmental Public Health Tracking prototype

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 EPHT

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 Reverse information flow & VGI

ArcGIS Server
feature service

Mapping the spatial-

temporal patterns of VGI,
tweets, YouTube, Flickr ….

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 ePlanning and incident reporting

Demo: MWRD
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 From wired to wireless
Post PC era

Web
Mobile GIS
GIS

Application dev paths

• Native application based
• Browser based
Important client
for Web GIS

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 Browser-based approach

• ArcGIS API for JavaScript

- iOS

Still have access to GPS & other positioning technologies via HTML 5

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 Native application based approach
Esri products

Java

Silverlight
Windows Mobile Objective C
.NET Mobile
Applications & SDKs
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 Demos

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 More than just mapping

Pennsylvania Radio Network Outage Management

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 Map algebra
If one or more towers are down, Where & who will be affected?

ArcGIS Flex Viewer

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 Demos

• Geospatial analysis online

- Publish a geoprocessing service
- Use it via JavaScript and ArcGIS Flex Viewer

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 User Experience Design Principles

1. Make it fast.
“Don’t make me wait”
2. Make it simple.
“Don’t make think”
3. Make it enjoyable.
“Let me have fun!”

ArcGIS APIs for JavaScript Flex

and Silverlight
ArcGIS Explorer
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 ArcGIS.com Catalog
Technologies
Geoport al
Se
Me arc
tad h
ata an
d
dis
cov
er
Publish
Server Connect and use Client Pr
Author with og
ArcGIS Desktop ra
ArcGIS Server, m
ArcGIS.com Cloud No mi
programming ng

ArcGIS.com, ArcGIS Explorer, Web APIs,

ArcGIS Flex Viewer, ArcGIS for Mobile APIs, …
iOS/Android …
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 Web GIS Course
Lectures Labs
GIS in the Web era
Cloud GIS Build a Web GIS application Using ArcGIS Online
Web Services Overview Publish and use your own map service
Web Services optimization Optimize your map services
Web Services Standards Animate your space-temporal data
Geospatial mashup (I) Use ArcGIS Viewer for Flex
Geospatial mashup (II) Configure ArcGIS Viewer for Flex
ArcGIS API for JavaScript (I) Build a Web GIS application using JavaScript (I)
ArcGIS API for JavaScript (II) Build a Web GIS application using JavaScript (II)
Volunteered Geographic Information and Map social media data
Wed Editing Publish and use feature services;
GIS Analysis on the Web Publish and use geoprocessing services
Mobile GIS; Use ArcGIS for iOS and Android;
Web GIS Applications in e-Bus & e-Gov Application case studies
Web GIS Frontiers and Prospects Preview the next release of ArcGIS Server
Student final project presentation

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 Technologies covered

1. ArcGIS.com (with free account )

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 Challenges, science, research areas

• Security
• Reliability
• Scalability
• Privacy
• Data quality and uncertainty
• Standards and Interoperability
• Semantic interoperability
• Copyright
• Business models
• Dynamic Demography
•…
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 Questions? Pinde Fu
pfu@esri.com

Adding Web GIS to your curriculum!

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