ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY AGGREGATION OF MAP (GEOSPATIAL) DATA BY MIHAL MIU An integration project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in INFORMATION SYSTEMS Athabasca, Alberta April 2015 © Mihal Miu, 2015, 2016 Abstract: Aggregation and fusion of geospatial data using a virtual globe implemented as a GIS application named PlaniSphere developed by the author. Geospatial data can be obtained from public suppliers as well as from commercial vendors. Commercial vendors and open-source suppliers focus on different details of information and use a variety of file formats that can be restrictive in their usage. To widen usage aggregation and fusion of geospatial data obtained from different sources can be used to generate a new 3D/2D map or an enhanced 3D/2D map using geospatial data from existing sources. The new or enhanced 3D/2D map has the potential to be used in land analysis, land resource management, city planning, agriculture, forestry, and orbital analysis of objects. Table of Contents Background ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Problem/Opportunity ............................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Goals ............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Design and Implementation Challenges ....................................................................................................... 9 Problem ....................................................................................................................................................... 13 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 14 Potential Solution(s) /Opportunity ......................................................................................................... 18 Milestones ............................................................................................................................................... 20 Compatibility of Map Data and Supporting Infrastructure ..................................................................... 20 Project Resource ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Participants ............................................................................................................................................. 21 Hardware / Software / Budget ................................................................................................................ 21 Deliverables................................................................................................................................................. 24 Implementation .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Functionality of PlaniSphere ................................................................................................................... 25 GUI Design ............................................................................................................................................... 25 Layers and Aggregation of Layers ........................................................................................................... 29 Layer Format ........................................................................................................................................... 35 Export Capability ..................................................................................................................................... 37 Pros with regards to the Export Capabilities ...................................................................................... 39 Cons with regards to the Export Capabilities ...................................................................................... 40 System Architecture ................................................................................................................................ 41 PlanOSM a Precursor to PlaniSphere ...................................................................................................... 43 Expandability ............................................................................................................................................... 43 Implementing the Plug-in Infrastructure ................................................................................................ 45 Creating a plug-in using the Plug-in Infrastructure ................................................................................. 51 Pros of the Plug-in Infrastructure ........................................................................................................... 52 Cons of the Plug-in Infrastructure ........................................................................................................... 52 Demo Plug-ins ......................................................................................................................................... 52 Coding a New Plug-in .............................................................................................................................. 53 Distribution ................................................................................................................................................. 58 Potential Usage and Domain Specific Application Examples ...................................................................... 59 Education ................................................................................................................................................ 59 Exploration .............................................................................................................................................. 60 Space and Planetary Exploration ............................................................................................................ 60 Logistics ................................................................................................................................................... 66 Land Analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 69 Land Analysis Plug-in ........................................................................................................................... 71 Remote Land Analysis of two Parishes/Townships in Rural Alberta .................................................. 80 Discussion with Regards to Using the Land Analysis Plug-In and its Methodology of Analysis .......... 93 Oceanography ....................................................................................................................................... 105 Map Data Sources ..................................................................................................................................... 109 Results ....................................................................................................................................................... 111 Future Work and Improvements with regards to PlaniSphere ................................................................. 113 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................... 115 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 116 Terminology .............................................................................................................................................. 117 References ................................................................................................................................................ 119 Background Problem/Opportunity Currently there is no geographic information system (GIS) service that allows aggregating and fusion of geospatial data from different data sources. Investigation showed that existing GISs are limited in scope. If multiple map services for geographically distinct regions could be aggregated then the end result would be a map with greater coverage or a new map. If multiple map services for the same geographical region could be aggregated than the resulting map produced would be an enhanced map. Investigation showed that current GIS commercial vendors are closed-source and will direct or encourage users to use geospatial data from their own sources or their preferred vendors. ESRI through its ArcGIS platform creates a GIS infrastructure and provides users with servers, clients, and geospatial data. ArcGIS has a plug-in infrastructure that allows users to perform their own customization, however restrictive. Another example is Google Earth. Google provides users with a desktop client that uses geospatial data hosted on Google’s servers/server farms. Google Earth does not allow for user customization and it has no plug-in infrastructure. Existing GIS vendors provide