Innovative Software Development in GIS

At a time when people use more and more geographic information and tools, the management of geographical information in software systems still holds many challenges and motivates researchers from different backgrounds to propose innovative solutions.
Representing geographical space beyond our mere perception is key to making relevant decisions, whether it is with respect to sustainable development or to the planning of everyday activities. Designing, sharing and exploiting such representations entails many challenges.
This book presents recent software design projects, led in teams, which sometimes have different backgrounds, to address these challenges. It analyzes the specificities of these projects in terms of motivation, data models and analysis methods. Proposals are also put forward to improve resource sharing in this domain.

Contents

1. Introduction, Bénédicte Bucher and Florence Le Ber.
Part 1. Software Presentation
2. ORBISGIS: Geographical Information System Designed by and for Research, Erwan Bocher and Gwendall Petit.
3. GEOXYGENE: an Interoperable Platform for Geographical Application Development, Éric Grosso, Julien Perret and Mickaël Brasebin.
4. Spatiotemporal Knowledge Representation in AROM-ST, Bogdan Moisuc, Alina Miron, Marlène Villanova-Olivier and Jérôme Gensel.
5. GENGHIS: an Environment for the Generation of Spatiotemporal Visualization Interfaces, Paule-Annick Davoine, Bogdan Moisuc and Jérôme Gensel.
6. GEOLIS: a Logical Information System to Organize and Search Geo-Located Data, Olivier Bedel, Sébastien Ferré and Olivier Ridoux.
7. GENEXP-LANDSITES: a 2D Agricultural Landscape Generating Piece of Software, Florence Le Ber and Jean-François Mari.
8. MDWEB: Cataloging and Locating Environmental Resources, Jean-Christophe Desconnets and Thérèse Libourel.
9. WEBGEN: Web Services to Share Cartographic Generalization Tools, Moritz Neun, Nicolas Regnauld and Robert Weibel.
Part 2. Summary and Suggestions
10. Analysis of the Specificities of Software Development in Geomatics Research, Florence Le Ber and Bénédicte Bucher.
11. Challenges and Proposals for Software Development Pooling in Geomatics, Bénédicte Bucher, Julien Gaffuri, Florence Le Ber and Thérèse Libourel.

Chapter 1. Introduction 1
Bénédicte BUCHER and Florence LE BER

1.1. Geomatics software 2

1.2. Pooling 12

1.3. Book outline 17

1.4. Bibliography 18

PART 1. SOFTWARE PRESENTATION 23

Chapter 2. ORBISGIS: Geographical Information System Designed by and for Research 25
Erwan BOCHER and Gwendall PETIT

2.1. Introduction 25

2.2. Background history 26

2.3. Major functionalities 30

2.4. Architecture and graphical interface 39

2.5. Examples of use 48

2.6. Community 61

2.7. Conclusion and perspectives 63

2.8. Acknowledgments 64

2.9. Bibliography 64

Chapter 3. GEOXYGENE: an Interoperable Platform for Geographical ApplicationDevelopment 67
Éric GROSSO, Julien PERRET and Mickaël BRASEBIN

3.1. Introduction 67

3.2. Background history 68

3.3. Major functionalities and examples of use 69

3.4. Architecture 75

3.5. Communities 84

3.6. Conclusion 86

3.7. Bibliography 88

Chapter 4. Spatiotemporal Knowledge Representation in AROM-ST 91
Bogdan MOISUC, Alina MIRON, Marlène VILLANOVA-OLIVIER and Jérôme GENSEL

4.1. Introduction 91

4.2. From AROM to AROM-ST 93

4.3. AROM-ST 100

4.4. From AROM-OWL to ONTOAST 112

4.5. Architecture 113

4.6. Community 115

4.7. Conclusions and prospects 116

4.8. Bibliography 117

Chapter 5. GENGHIS: an Environment for the Generation of Spatiotemporal VisualizationInterfaces 121
Paule-Annick DAVOINE, BogdanMOISUC and Jérôme GENSEL

5.1. Introduction 121

5.2. Context 122

5.3. Functionalities linked to the generation of geovisualization applications 127

5.4. Functionalities of the geovisualization application generated by GENGHIS 133

5.5. Architecture 140

5.6. Scope and user communities 141

5.7. Conclusion and perspectives 147

5.8. Acknowledgments 148

5.9. Bibliography 149

Chapter 6. GEOLIS: a Logical Information System to Organize and Search Geo-Located Data 151
Olivier BEDEL, Sébastien FERRÉ and Olivier RIDOUX

6.1. Introduction 151

6.2. Background history 152

6.3. Main functionalities and use cases 153

6.4. Architecture 182

6.5. Users and developers 184

6.6. Conclusion 186

6.7. Bibliography 186

Chapter 7. GENEXP-LANDSITES: a 2D Agricultural Landscape Generating Piece ofSoftware 189
Florence LE BER and Jean-François MARI

7.1. Introduction 189

7.2. Context 190

7.3. Major functionalities 193

7.4. Case uses 201

7.5. Architecture 204

7.6. Communities 207

7.7. Conclusion 209

7.8. Acknowledgments 209

7.9. Bibliography 210

Chapter 8. MDWEB: Cataloging and Locating Environmental Resources 215
Jean-Christophe DESCONNETS and Thérèse LIBOUREL

8.1. Introduction 215

8.2. Context 216

8.3. Major functionalities and case uses 220

8.4. Cataloging functionality 224

8.5. Locating functionality 238

8.6. Administration functionality 244

8.7. Architecture 247

8.8. User community 249

8.9. Conclusion 251

8.10. Bibliography 253

Chapter 9. WEBGEN: Web Services to Share Cartographic Generalization Tools 257
Moritz NEUN, Nicolas REGNAULD and Robert WEIBEL

9.1. Introduction 257

9.2. Historical background 258

9.3. Major functionalities 262

9.4. Area of use 265

9.5. Architecture 273

9.6. Associated communities 276

9.7. Conclusion and outlook 277

9.8. Acknowledgments 279

9.9. Bibliography 279

PART 2. SUMMARY AND SUGGESTIONS 283

Chapter 10. Analysis of the Specificities of Software Development in Geomatics Research 285
Florence LE BER and Bénédicte BUCHER

10.1. Origin and motivations 286

10.2. Major functionalities, fields, and reusability 288

Chapter 11. Challenges and Proposals for Software Development Pooling in Geomatics 293
Bénédicte BUCHER, Julien GAFFURI, Florence LE BER and Thérèse LIBOUREL

11.1. Requirements and challenges 294

11.2. Solutions 303

11.3. Conclusion 311

11.4. Bibliography 313

Glossary 317

List of Authors 325

Index 329

Bénédicte Bucher is Head executive officer at the research department of IGN ( National Geographic Institut), Saint Mandé, France.

Florence Le Beris is Senior scientist at ENGEES (Ecole Nationale du Génie de l'Eau et de l'Environnement de Strasbourg), Strasbourg, France.