0. North Dakota Geospatial Web Services
MAGIC Symposium
April 25, 2006
Bob Nutsch
GIS Coordinator
State of North Dakota

1. Agenda Background & Overview Architecture Components Usage
Lessons Learned
Future Plans
Summary
Historic Camper
Fryburg, Harley Jose

2. Background & Overview
To increase efficiency and reduce overall GIS costs at the state level, the Legislature provided funding to build the North Dakota GIS Hub
The GIS Hub is a database and web infrastructure used for hosting and sharing State agency GIS data and applications, it is located at the Information Technology Department
General funds pay for data and application hosting, agencies pay for development costs

3. Background & Overview
The primary purpose of the GIS Hub is to provide a central database serving state agencies
Web services are used by agencies and their constituents, the public, consulting firms, and other levels of government
Web services as used here is a general term for data discovery, data browsing, and data delivery

4. Architecture - Software
ESRI – ArcIMS & ArcSDE
Safe Software – FME and Spatial Direct
Latitude Geographics – Geocortex Statistics
IBM – HTTP web server & WebSphere
Oracle
Linux, Solaris, Windows

5. Architecture - Hardware

6. 17th hole at the Bully Pulpit
Components
Hub Explorer
Metadata Explorer
Utility Toolbox
Data Streaming
17th hole at the Bully Pulpit
Medora, Ken Yetter

7. Components – Hub Explorer
Template used for browser-based application development
Used by state agencies for interactive mapping
There are both internal and external Hub Explorer sites
Includes ability to download vector data

8. Components – Hub Explorer

9. Hub Explorer – Game and Fish

10. Hub Explorer – Dept. of Ag.

11. Hub Explorer – Data Download

12. Hub Explorer – Data Download

13. Components – Metadata Explorer
Data browsing and discovery
Referenced data sets include:
GIS Hub web image and feature services
Raster data available on FTP
In-progress datasets
Interactive maps
County data
Includes vector data downloading
Mined by Geospatial One-Stop

14. Metadata Explorer

15. Metadata Explorer

16. Metadata Explorer

17. Metadata Explorer – Download Data

18. Components – Utility Toolbox
Runs as a servlet
Contains general application utilities
Used to record addresses that have failed geocoding
Used to create agency “static” maps:
NDDOT – road conditions, construction, load restrictions
ND Emergency Services – rangeland fire index

19. Utility Toolbox – NDDOT Maps
Road Conditions
Road Construction
Load Restrictions

20. Utility Toolbox – Fire Index

21. Components – Data Streaming
ESRI-centric image and feature services
Streaming of image and vector data
Primarily used by users outside of firewall
OGC-centric Web Map Services
The first WMS was developed for use by the National Map
Used by state and federal agencies
Additional WMS are created as needed

22. Data Streaming - Feature & Image Services

23. Data Streaming - Feature & Image Services
ArcMap

24. Data Streaming - Feature & Image Services
ArcExplorer

25. Data Streaming - WMS
The
National
Map

26. Data Streaming - WMS
ND State
Water
Commission
(MapServer)

27. Data Streaming - WMS Using uDig to display the Ft. Lincoln
Infantry Post
(Custer rode from
Ft. Lincoln to
Little Bighorn)

28. GIS Hub Web Services Usage
68,400 data downloads – 5.8 terabytes (3/2004-3/2006)
Feature services – est. 15,000 hits Jan-Mar
Web applications average 70,000+ hits/month
2006
WMS

29. Image Services - Usage
October 5, 2005 Snowstorm

30. Image Services - Usage Popular Extents for the public-facing
Game & Fish
Hub Explorer

31. Lessons Learned Templates allow more rapid development of applications
Multiple production servers – load balancing, maintenance, upgrades
Test/development server, including access by agencies
Use metadata as a method of web-based data discovery – helps agencies recognize the value in metadata

32. Lessons Learned Monitor usage of web services:
Remove under utilized services, or combine into fewer services
Recognize highly used and/or important services – optimize software and apply monitoring tools
Consider creation of OGC web services if not yet available

33. Future Plans As demand requires:
Develop additional WMS
Implement WFS and other OGC services
Migrate from ESRI-centric web services to OGC-centric web services
Raster downloading via Hub Explorer and Metadata Explorer
Improvements to Metadata Explorer including metadata submittal

34. Summary
Geospatial web services are a mechanism for getting data out to users who would otherwise not have easy access to it
It is important to
Provide options for data discovery, data browsing and data delivery
Provide a buffet of data delivery choices – streaming and download
Geospatial web services assist in economic development – oil & gas, coal, hunting, fishing, business siting
Web services can free up agency time

35. Thank You! For more information, please contact:
Bob Nutsch, GIS Coordinator