About the Nature GIS Portal
Summary
The portal is one of the main deliverables of the Nature-GIS project.
The interface allows the users to discover, visualize, share and retrieve geographic information and
datasets related to protected areas in Europe, first of all the demonstration use cases developed by the project.
The portal is a powerful example of the webGIS way of operating and represents then an introduction
to this technology and facilty for the final user. Its entire architecture is based on the latest ISO/TC211
standards and OGC specifications for GI interoperability and is compliant with the INSPIRE principles,
of which Nature-GIS has been one of the first pilot project demonstrator.
In line with INSPIRE, the Nature-GIS Thematic Portal aims at creating a gateway from where one can search for spatial data, their information, services and organizations related to nature conservation. Following the principle of INSPIRE “Data should be collected once and maintained at the level where this can be done most effectively” the Nature-GIS Thematic Portal does not store or maintain the data. These are distributed in many national and thematic servers across Europe and each server is maintained by the organization responsible for the data.
The Portal provides facilities related to protected areas and link to functions as to publish and provide access to metadata and data, delivery, viewing and analysis of GI. Many typical GIS tools are available and let the user discover, display, overlay and query the data accessible through the SDI. Additional manipulation operations, such as creating, deleting and updating of datasets are available, requiring however specific data policy agreements.
Building a spatial data infrastructure implies also the definition of a geospatial objects vocabulary. Indeed, building an information community requires a consensus about the vocabulary that will be used. The Nature-GIS data model defines this vocabulary and more generally identifies all data sets that can be useful when managing protected areas. The standards and specifications used, the metadata profiles and the data model are described in the Nature-GIS guidelines and as well available on the members' area of the portal.
The Nature-GIS Thematic Portal has two main gateways that give access respectively to
i) the Catalog of on line data that can be combined on the display by the user,
ii) the Gallery of demonstration use cases.
In line with INSPIRE, the Nature-GIS Thematic Portal aims at creating a gateway from where one can search for spatial data, their information, services and organizations related to nature conservation. Following the principle of INSPIRE “Data should be collected once and maintained at the level where this can be done most effectively” the Nature-GIS Thematic Portal does not store or maintain the data. These are distributed in many national and thematic servers across Europe and each server is maintained by the organization responsible for the data.
The Portal provides facilities related to protected areas and link to functions as to publish and provide access to metadata and data, delivery, viewing and analysis of GI. Many typical GIS tools are available and let the user discover, display, overlay and query the data accessible through the SDI. Additional manipulation operations, such as creating, deleting and updating of datasets are available, requiring however specific data policy agreements.
Building a spatial data infrastructure implies also the definition of a geospatial objects vocabulary. Indeed, building an information community requires a consensus about the vocabulary that will be used. The Nature-GIS data model defines this vocabulary and more generally identifies all data sets that can be useful when managing protected areas. The standards and specifications used, the metadata profiles and the data model are described in the Nature-GIS guidelines and as well available on the members' area of the portal.
The Nature-GIS Thematic Portal has two main gateways that give access respectively to
i) the Catalog of on line data that can be combined on the display by the user,
ii) the Gallery of demonstration use cases.