Spatial Information Integration Services (SIIS)

1. Spatial Information Integration Services (SIIS) A South Australian implementationof ISO 19115 ISO/TC211 Workshop on Standards in Action Adelaide, South Australia October 2001 Mr. Neil Sandercock, SA Spatial Information Committee Mr. Rob Crompton, Aspect Computing Pty Ltd

2. Agenda • The SA Govt’s Spatial Initiative • SIIS Overview • the vision, design objectives, business models • Data Discovery • technology & standards • using an object model for metadata • Real World Views and Information Community Views • Lessons learned

3. The “Spatial Initiative” • The SA Govt’s Spatial Initiative was conceived in 1992 • Enjoys highest level of support • Its objectives are to: • build a sustainable, export-focused spatial industry in SA • gain operational efficiencies by process reform within government • empower the community and industry with ready access to government information

4. The SIIS Vision • “to develop and implement the technology for a spatial information infrastructure for the SA government and the broader community that will enable spatial information from any number of disparate data sources to be accessed by users and business systems anywhere across the State”

5. Design Objectives • generic, best-of-breed components, open, scalable, distributable • support existing standards, reactive to new and evolving standards • support legacy systems (preserve existing agency investments) • vendor independent • provide clear separation of responsibilities (custodian, deliverer, client) • able to be commercialised

6. High Level State Needs economic, community, environment Govt Business Needs asset management, emergency response, environmental protection, land administration, resource development Spatial Applications Spatial Information Integration Services Spatial Datasets The Spatial Business Model Policy and Standards

7. Client Web Interface API ServiceManager Directory Services Spatial Information Integration Services Service Deliverer Security Services Accounting and Commerce Services Query and Response Services Integration Services Data Custodian SIIS Services Model Spatial Browser Agency Applications Application Interfaces Access Services Dataset Interfaces Datasets

8. Spatial Information Integration ServicesData Discoverypresented byMr Rob CromptonAspect Computing Pty Ltd

9. The SIIS Project • Technology • Built around strategic commercial-off-the-shelf technologies • scalable, open architecture • browser-based (of course) • designed to handle medium to high data volume spatial queries from multiple data sets • multi-thread capable

10. The SIIS Project • Standards used • ISO 19110: providing a framework for classifying real world phenomena in a set of geographic data • ISO 19115: providing a structure for describing digital geographic data in metadata • ISO 23950: providing a standard for communicating between library/information based systems

11. The SIIS Project • Specific themes & features for creating the Real World View from: • AS 2482 & AS 4270: feature coding for spatial data interchange • FGDC: US Federal Geographic Data Committee • DIGEST: Digital Geographic Information Exchange Standard • TSSDS: US Tri Service Spatial Data Standard

12. Data Discovery • Two stages of discovery: • select an “area of interest” • via a polygon on a map • via a gazetteer • search through metadata • via a theme search using a pre-defined Information Community View • via field searches

13. Data Discovery • Spatial metadata is: • structured according to ISO 19115 • ISO 19115 CD1 is to Draft ISO 19115 as HTML is to XML • structure specified by UML which we translated to a relational database structure • DTD specified as part of ISO 19115 • organised into categories via Real World Views & Information Community Views

14. Views • The Real World View (RWV) is an ISO 19110 defined structure for the naming of geographic entities • Information Community Views (ICV): • map to the RWV • use the terminology of a particular user community to make searching easier • a catalogue for a particular community

15. Views • The RWVs and ICVs have hierarchical structures • For example, an ICV for “Environmental Management” • themes (hydrography) • feature types (aquifer recharge area) • attributes (flow rate, salinity, discharge, pH etc)

16. Views

17. Lessons Learned • Converting existing metadata into the new structure requires a significant effort - plan for it • scripts & parsing to leverage any structure existing in the original metadata • Maintain the principles of good user-interface design for metadata maintenance whilst grappling with the complexity of the standards and how to implement them

18. Lessons Learned • In general, the standards are abstract, specifying structure but little on content or specific examples • ill-defined metadata elements / fields • difficult to determine the intent of the Committee • There is no single source of information on which to develop a RWV - we consolidated our RWV from a large number of standards & guidelines

19. Lessons Learned • working with an evolving standard requires a strong link to the standards body: we were able to provide valuable feedback on improvements • Obtaining copies of draft Standards by “early implementers” requires a process • straightforward & cost free

20. Lessons Learned • provides a significant opportunity to upgrade Government spatial data to leverage the open approach (eg Gazetteer) • Implementation technologies are immature & rapidly improving • choice of Java (J2EE) was the correct strategic choice • XML will open up the exchange of spatial information between governments and private sector users

21. Questions