Spatial Data Standards and GIS Interoperability
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Spatial Data Standards and GIS Interoperability ® An ESRI White Paper • January 2003 ESRI 380 New York St., Redlands, CA 92373-8100, USA • TEL 909-793-2853 • FAX 909-793-5953 • E-MAIL [email protected] • WEB www.esri.com Copyright © 2003 ESRI All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. The information contained in this document is the exclusive property of ESRI. This work is protected under United States copyright law and other international copyright treaties and conventions. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as expressly permitted in writing by ESRI. All requests should be sent to Attention: Contracts Manager, ESRI, 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373-8100, USA. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. 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J-9015 Spatial Data Standards and GIS Interoperability An ESRI White Paper Contents Page Overview.................................................................................................. 1 What Does Being an "Open" GIS Mean? ................................................ 1 The Value of Being Open ........................................................................ 2 GIS Data and Technology Interoperability........................................ 3 Metadata Support......................................................................... 3 Interoperability of GIS Technology With Other Technologies and Systems.............................................................. 4 Platform-Independent Solutions .................................................. 4 The Evolution of Spatial Standards ......................................................... 4 The Georelational Database............................................................... 5 The Spatially Enabled Database ........................................................ 5 The Future With Web Services................................................................ 5 Web Services Framework.................................................................. 6 The Standards for Web Services........................................................ 6 Web Services and GIS ....................................................................... 8 ESRI and Web Services..................................................................... 8 The Geography Network.............................................................. 9 WMS and WFS Connectors......................................................... 9 Standards Organizations .......................................................................... 9 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 10 More Information..................................................................................... 10 ESRI White Paper i J-9015 Spatial Data Standards and GIS Interoperability Overview Geographic information system (GIS) technology is evolving beyond the traditional GIS community and becoming an integral part of the information infrastructure in many organizations. The unique integration capabilities of a GIS allow disparate data sets to be brought together to create a complete picture of a situation. GIS technology illustrates relationships, connections, and patterns that are not necessarily obvious in any one data set, enabling organizations to make better decisions based on all relevant factors. Organizations are able to share, coordinate, and communicate key concepts between departments within an organization or between separate organizations using GIS as the central spatial data infrastructure. GIS technology is also being used to share crucial information across organizational boundaries via the Internet and the emergence of Web Services. To fully realize the capability and benefits of geographic information and GIS technology, spatial data needs to be shared and systems need to be interoperable. GIS technology provides the framework for a shared spatial data infrastructure and a distributed architecture. ESRI has developed its products based on open standards to ensure a high level of interoperability across platforms, databases, development languages, and applications. ESRI is also committed to supporting and actively leading efforts associated with interoperability and the development of standards. This white paper discusses the value of being "open," the evolution of spatial standards with the development of new technologies, including the future of Web Services, and provides an overview of where ESRI is concentrating its efforts with regards to interoperability. What Does Being an To put this question into context, it is important to understand that during the past "Open" GIS Mean? 20 years, the concepts, standards, and technology for implementing GIS interoperability have evolved through six stages. 1. Data converters (DLG, MOSS, GIRAS) 2. Standard interchange formats (SDTS, DXF™, GML) 3. Open file formats (VPF, shapefiles) 4. Direct read application programming interfaces (APIs) (ArcSDE® API, CAD Reader, ArcSDE CAD Client) ESRI White Paper Spatial Data Standards and GIS Interoperability J-9015 5. Common features in a database management system (DBMS) (OGC Simple Feature Specification for SQL™) 6. Integration of standardized GIS Web services (WMS, WFS, ArcIMS) All six of these approaches and related technologies are important and continue to play a significant role in GIS interoperability today. In early years, the constraints of computational speed and cost limited our ability and caused us to focus on practical solutions such as direct file conversion. Data sharing between organizations with different GIS vendor systems was limited to data converters, transfer standards, and later open file formats. Sharing spatial data with other core