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Geospatial technology

Corvallis Mapserver project logbook
ArcIMS + ColdFusion + MapOptix
ArcPad

Here is the ArcXML Programmer's Reference Guide. To tweak ArcIMS servers and viewers you really need to know ArcXML. It's used for ArcPad configuration too.

Here are a few notes left over from a paper I wrote on Archaeology for a GIS class.

Some issues to think about

What are people doing for revision control with spatial data? Seems like a vector-based revision control system would not be impossibly difficult to implement. You could keep it in a spatial database and query on changes. "Show me all changes to the parcel database in the last 6 months". Rasters don't really get editted in GIS systems; either you have a new ortho photo or you don't, so storing the entire copy of each raster is not so bad. A query is "Show me the photo for this area for 1996", not "show me what changed between these two photos".

I talked with Toshimi Minoura yesterday and he said that there is a school in Germany that has been working on this problem (esp as it relates to editing and updating databases) for many years.

How can we best apply Flash to online cartography? The apps I have looked at so far use it for the user interface. It's regarded by some as an improvement over Javascript because the two predominant browsers have independently developed versions of Javascript that work differently, whereas Flash plugin comes from one company so it's more consistent across browsers and platforms.

Server side vs client side user interfaces for web mapping It's not really a matter of 'versus' rather than 'where do we draw the line?' Some things HAVE to be on the client. Others can be implemented in either place.

For significant work such as editting and updating we still need a desktop app. Web mapping should be used more for display and simple analysis, with a desktop app communicating with central data stores as the model for editting and advanced spatial analysis.

Fuzzy thoughts -or- Who gets to decide where the shoreline is, and why isn't it fuzzy?

For georeferencing historical maps, can we use a fuzzy confidence overlay to indicate what areas of the map look good spatially and what ones don't?

Stuff to look at in more depth

Refractions developed PostGIS
Manifold GIS software
Remote sensing
GRASS Open source GIS software
Elkhorn Slough Wireless Project Spring 2003 CSU Monterey Bay project
Clipping orthophotos Process used in CDS Wireless project

Cartography

To learn more than you could want to know about color and shading on maps, visit these sites.

http://www.reliefshading.com/ has articles by Bill Patterson of the National Park Service on producing 2d and 3D maps using natural colors.

http://shadedrelief.com/ has lots of information on shading techniques and very interesting articles about cartographers.

Geobuzzword Compliance section

ACSM ASPRS: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
AGU: American Geophysical Union
SAF Hydrophiles Oceanography Geology Hydrology Forestry Biometrics
SCGIS Society for Conservation GIS
SAS