Category Archives: meta

Parameter standardization for SQL fed queries through WMS/WFS?

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Web map services are not straightforward any more. Some are based on complex queries to database like Oracle, MSSQL and PostGIS. This makes it possible for the services to provide highly specialized data views to their clients. Sometimes this is done by having the web map service accepting or forwarding non-standardized parameters. It’s beautiful and confusing at the same time.

My major problem with this practice is not that it is being done, but the lack of standardizations of parameters. I frankly think this is a problem and I am foreseeing it becoming more so as time goes by without any action taken. Continue reading →

RESDIE – Rapid Environmental Spatial Data Inventory and Evaluation

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Field database front end

Throughout the last four years I have been traveling to several countries where part of my job has been to get an overview of available spatial data. To do this I needed a tool to make a list of data and associated metadata. So I started playing around with a MS Access database. At a recent stay in Timor Leste I used it for collecting and structuring data.

I guess the database (not necessarily the Timor Leste data) could be useful for more people than me. So in this posting I will explain a bit about how it works and also make it available for download and use. License is CC SA-BY. No promises for updates or user guidance. Continue reading →

Productive week

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This week I posted twice on the TZGISUG website and once on the TZCRC website. The change from Tikiwiki to WordPress has been revigourating for the work. More focus can be given to content. The thought of editing content wiki-style is good, but for TZCRC, TZGISUG and the Mindland website I really can do without.

As one can read in the TZGISUG article I am thinking some about content as well. Is it  right that the TZGISUG website has a lot of spatial data? My conclusion is that it should be kept somewhere else. Preferably through a National Spatial Data Infrastructure in Tanzania.

Publishing in one media is not good enough. So I have tweeted about the postings and posted about them on Facebook. It is interesting to keep an eye on the statistics. Seems like it works…