Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Services

Web map, coverage and feature services allow users to access Wellington City Council GIS data live over the internet and display it in applications such as ArcMap, MapInfo, GeoMedia and AutoCAD. Web services are an innovation based on a specification from the Open GIS Consortium www.opengeospatial.org

Web Map Service (WMS) WMS allows users to display maps or data as an image overlay on a map. Most modern GIS applications are WMS compatible.

Web Coverage Service (WCS) A provides raster source data in GeoTIFF format.

Web Feature Service (WFS) A provides vector source data (points, lines and polygons with associated attributes).

Accessing OGC web services using ArcGIS

To add WMS or WCS services

Step 1. In ArcCatalog under the GIS Servers option choose to Add WMS Server or WCS Server.

Step 2. Copy in the service url and choose Get Layers to test the service.

Step 3. The layers included in the service are now available and can be used in Arc Map. Add the WMS service into ArcMap either by dragging and dropping from ArcCatalog or from the ArcMap Add Data dialog box.

To add WFS services NOTE: In order to access WFS services in ArcGIS the Interoperability Extension must be installed.

Step 1: In ArcCatalog, add a new interoperability connection by double-clicking on "Add interoperability connection":

Click the button for Format to open the Formats Gallery.

Select the Web Feature Service (WFS) format and click OK.

This format adds support for the WFS specification into ArcGIS. Next, choose a WFS data source and begin using it in ArcGIS.

Almost any place in ArcGIS where you can use a feature class, you can select and use your WFS services -- for example, as a map layer in ArcMap or as an input feature class in geoprocessing.

Accessing WMS using MapInfo

NOTE: not all features are visible at all scales. Property boundaries display at scales below 1:4000 Step 1. In MapInfo go to File > Open Web Service > Open WMS

Step 2. go to Servers > Add, and paste the service url into the Server URL field, and add a description. Click ok

Step 3. Back in the WMS servers list choose the service you just added and click ok. In the Open WMS Table window choose the layers you would like to add to your mapper. Be sure to select image/tiff as the Image Format and check the Show Projection Description check box.