Last revision Mar 7, 1996
Best Of Breed
On Thu, 6 Oct 1994, I wrote:
"I have been asked to assist in finding a way to use the internet to allow people to examine the metadata we are collecting about BLM spatial data. Someone has suggested WAIS. Is this the best way to go? Does anyone know of a internet site that demonstrates a way to query a large database? At the moment we are not required to have any graphics on line. Any suggestions or information would be appreciated."
Since then I've expand my goal to include spatial geographic search.
Here is a summary, in HTML format, of the responses I got. It also includes new/related information that I've collected.
As I get a chance to examine the sites, I will be reordering the entries in the order of how well they meet my needs, or how much they impress me ;-) . I will also be adding my own review comments to this document, to help others evaluate and navigate through this list. Any other reviews are welcome and will be included.
Some of these sites may have special hardware or software requirements. The pc version of Mosaic doesn't work properly on some of these site. If you are having problems try the following replacement for pc Mosiac.
Netscape for X, PC, and Mac (0.9) ftp://ftp.mcom.com/
Please mail me additions, corrections, and/or comments at mailto:skatz@blm.gov. If your web browser does not support mailto: then use our Web Comment Page.
303-236-0101
BLM GeoSpatial Support Staff Home Page http://www.blm.gov/gis/gishome.html
For the most up to date version of this html go to http://www.blm.gov/gis/nsdi.html
For GIS utilities go to ftp://ftp.blm.gov/pub/gis
The following sites are required reading for anyone thinking about producing and/or serving metadata.
Internet users with one of the popular software applications such as Mosaic can browse descriptions of the different USGS data collections. When a user finds a data set of particular interest, they can click on a symbol and see more details, including instructions on how to order it. Alternately, keywords and latitude/longitude bounds can be used in a powerful searching mode to scan the entire USGS collection. Some of the data sets are on-line for immediate transfer. The Clearinghouse address is:
I put this on the top of the list because it is the first public node I found that is part of the federal government's requirement that agencies make their metadata public. As of Jan 30, 1995 the metadata on this site is sparce and 'generic'. Hopefully it will get better. ssk
The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has information on the rules for metadata collection that government agencies are all mandated to follow.
I'm told that there are some metadata tools at this site. ssk
Review: So you think you understand the FGDC metadata standard? Well think again. I have just finished putting some metadata files throught this nifty program and was I shocked. This program is a must for anyone who is serious about metadata.
In addition to checking for errors and omitions, it will also write your data out in html format.
I put this at the top of the list because some much of the metadata I've seen to date has little to no relationship to the FGDC standard. ssk 6-21-95
The following 2 examples use bogus data values to create compliant metadata files. The files were created using BLM's version of Document.AML. Projection is UTM.
After looking at the previous metadata file, you might wonder what a minimumly compliant metadata file would look like. Your wish is my command. ssk
Peter Schweitzer's site has the following sample metadata conforming to the standard (well, almost). Projection is geographic.
The US Navy has produced some files that are supposed to be compliant.
Review: In my opinion this X-windows site is the most impressive site I've
found so far. Try rotating the globe. Make sure you look at the AVHRR data.
Use the geographic
search of a map to rubberband a box around the geographic areas in which you
are interested. Also use the slide bars along the X-windows to view
different parts of the AVHRR image. The major problem with this site is that it
is REALLY SLOW. Don't keep moving slide bars. Wait until you are sure that
all responses have been returned, or you will waste a lot of time. This site
DOES NOT require Mosaic, Lynx or any Web software. ssk
For more information goo
http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/glis/glis.html
The telnet site is ascii based but has much of the same capabilities.
for xglis, using an x-windows terminal, enter xhost + before
starting the telnet session or just start it with
xhost + xglis.cr.usgs.gov
Review: This site uses inline images at various scales to allow you
to start on the continent level and 'zoom' down to pre-existing maps.
I followed the example and got the 2 Jervis Bay references.
I think this is the best WWW site. ssk
The interface is in two separate parts:
"Define a Region" presents zoomable map interfaces so that you can define
the region of interest at various scales.
Once the region is defined you can "Generate a query form" as a parameter
interface to various databases and stores of information.
The query for "Spatial Data Sets" provides a FORMS interface to a WAIS
index of high-level metadata describing data sets that are spatially and
thematically documented.
We use a subset of the FGDC "Content Standards for Digital Geospatial
Metadata" (plus a few extra fields). We have chosen what we feel is a
minimum set of fields so that we can develop a concise interface that
doesn't try to do too much.
This is what we index out of each high-level metadata report, together
with its equivalent WWW FORM feature:
Minimum Bounding Rectangle .... zoomable map interface
small set of theme keywords ... Data Set Theme picklist
the free text ................. additional text area
The set of hits will present a marked up metadata file, an SGML interchange
file, a GIF image, and links to other relevant WWW documents. The marked up
metadata also presents a live link to the database to generate a more
complete data set description (not FGDC format).
We are currently looking at developing a link to the GIS (ArcView, Avenue,
ARC/INFO) to generate a simple map showing the spatial extent of the set
of hits to indicate gaps in coverage.
We now need to convince other organisations in Australia that this type of
information discovery mechanism is the way to go. We don't yet have a
truly distributed system. If there is anyone listening (even in other
countries) who has a WAIS index to FGDC metadata of data sets that are
spatially relevant to Australia then we would be very interested in adding
your server to our interface. For example I imagine that NOAA has relevant
data sets.
We are presently using "freeWAIS-sf" from Uni of Dortmund as the indexer
and server, and "SFgate" to help with the query interface.
It is a bit scanty but at least a start.
This site has information about NEONS, an environmental
data management system designed before all the FGDC & SDTS stuff.
It is based on metadata. There is an X Data Browser which you
might be able to run remotely (need X, 8-bit display, fingers crossed).
This site has meteorological data. Many weather centers around
the world use this system.
Review: I finally got to look at this site using a lowly Xtermial. It seems to
be a hybrid of www and xglis. I could only look at the demo data since none
of the web links connected me to a 'real' site. This isn't a real web,
rather it uses the web to start an application on its computer. the info
is transfered via a x-window opened with an xhost command. But the site
is very interactive, allowing you to browse through data and selecting
images (maps?) to view. ssk
Review: This site has lots of maps as gif files and movies showing showing
weather scenes from space. It really isn't anything that will help me but
because is has so much spatial data, I'm giving it an Honorable Mention. ssk
The http process (that responds to information requests) supports
sending the answer from a program, writing a script to submit
from a program, writing a script to submit an SQL (or whatever)
query to your database and returning the form should be easy.
This will get you to an index of a bunch of meterological
type places, that show various ways to get data (interactive
map, form, etc.).
They are trying to document data sets according to the FGDC
Content Standards for Geospatial Metadata.
For more info contact
Review: Spatial is a form that allows you to enter in 4 lat/long coordinates
using the keyboard. It reports a standard WAIS list which is a searchable
index. You can click on the lists for text, which is a single page of
data about the file or you can download the file by click on demz (be sure
to set 'load to local disk), and get the compressed dem. Seems to
work OK except that when I did an index search on ashland I got 4
items in the list, of which 2 were duplicates of the other 2.
The site works but doesn't really give you any strong
querying capability. I used the DEM data set. ssk
Review: States is a form that lets you push a button next to the name
of a state and bring up a list of maps in that state. It is similar
to Spatial, except that it appears to take the window from a
states file, rather than asking you for them. ssk
Review: dcwindex brings up an inline image of the USA. You then click on an
area, and a http page reports the quad name and allows you to download the
arc-info binary file. I haven't tried the down load yet. In the test data
set there are only 4 items, including Oegon and New York. Make sure your
geographic window covers either the NE or NW or you will find NOTHING. ssk
This gateway is still under refinement. Expect to see spatial
search here soon!
1) Identify an area of the earth in latitude/longitude limits.
The center of your area of interest can be selected by clicking
with the left mouse button anywhere on the map. You can
select a 'zoom' factor from the form and press the 'Submit Request'
button to zoom in on an area. You can also enter numerical
values in the appropriate fields to identify a region. New
maps based on the parameters you've entered are generated
'on the fly'. Once you've identified your area of interest
click on the 'Query Databases' button and the 'Submit Request'
button to go on to the next step.
2) The query form will allow you to select any number of data
sources that are available for the selected region. This prototype
only has two data sources linked to it: a relational database
of U.S. cities and Leemans/Cramer temperature data. Select
the data that you're interested in and click the 'Submit Request'
button. Please understand that this program is only a prototype
and that just about any type of data can be linked in to the
system.
3) Examine the results of your query. This form will eventually
give the user an opportunity to download the data.
Currently, you MUST access Mapper with NCSA's XMosaic browser. It seems
that the other browsers I've tried don't have the FORMS functionality
that XMosaic has.
Review: This application works as described. You can point to a location
and it becomes the center of the next map image. There is a default height
and width of the new map that can be adjusted using the forms capability.
The relational database link only reports back the names of the cities that
fall in the window. The temperature map is color coded but without a
legend. This application creates new map images "on the fly". ssk
Review: This is a frontend for other functions, including
viewing a scanned map, finding a geographical name ( including
a page of metadata, and a location map), and using NAISmap. ssk
NAISMap is the FIRST interactive GIS on the web. NAISMap allows you to
select data layers, order them, set their fill and outline colours,
fill patterns, outline types, etc. NAISMap uses a vector database from
the National Atlas Information Service
Review: This site does exactly what it says it does. I think a major
enhancement that it needs is to allow you to set a geographic window.
Presently you always get all of Canada. There is a problem when you
want to look at overlapping polygons with solid color file.
The last theme over plots (hides) the previous info.
All in all, this approach allows you to
graphically see data from the national atlas. There isn't any link
to data, nor can you click on the image for any interaction. But
you can pick any number of themes.
I found out that to select more than one theme, you
have to hold down the control key while clicking on the entry
in the theme list. ssk
Related sites also have some database searching.
This is sponsored by the Geographics Names Section of Canada Centre for
Mapping, Geomatics Canada, and Natural Resources Canada using data
gathered by the Geographic Names and the Canadian Permanent Committee on
Geographical Names (CPCGN).
This should be a relatively stable release; I don't plan on making
any major modifications anytime in the next handful of months.
Review-3-28-95: Sometimes their computer said the load was to heavy to
run Xearth. I did get to look at the output and is a globe viewed from
space. If you get to look at it and like it, the source code is available
via ftp. ssk
The geographic coordinates can be fowarded to whatever other querying
tool the application can use. ssk
Currently, we only have a prototype, with very simple linework and data
only for Washington, D.C., but you get the idea.
In the near future, we should have
better cartography and the full national database. I would appreciate any
comments or suggestions, as well as possible applications you would use such
a service for (the browser interface is optional--you can use the maps
themselves in any HTML document).
Brandon plewe@acsu.buffalo.edu
Review: This is just a map viewer. I can't comment on how it works, but
it does produce its images faster than other map viewers I've looked at.
It only produces lines, but can be zoomed in and out. There is a forms
capability that allows you to enter lat/lon coordinates and width and height
from the keyboard. No links to metadata and/or text yet. ssk
For historical purposes:
The mapbrowser of mine (Brandon's) that is at:
it is merely a new interface to Steve Putz' Xerox Map Viewer:
but I have added links that can perform spatial queries on MBR-enabled
WAIS databases (the links are at the bottom). Currently, I only link to two
metadata databases, but I can link to any others as well.
The Tiger Mapping Service is a follow-up to this, taking the Xerox server and
adding more capabilities to it.
Here is C and f77 source for a converter to change Arc Info .gra files
to .gif files. This should be useful for those A/I folks trying to make
www map browers.
Here is an updated version of the file rtagif.tar.Z mentioned on your web
page http://www.blm.gov/gis/nsdi.html#Arc_Info_gra_to_gif_converter.
(march 21, 1996)
Also try their home page.
I have also a map by county:
Metadata is in ARC/INFO and query uses A/I to make PostScript-maps. Then we
use netpbm to covert PS-maps to gif-files.
Review: You start with a gif of Finland and can click on the county of
interest.
and at the end of the doucment choose the option Map making process using GRASS
(not the dynamic map making option).
Review: Grass raster, vector and point (site) files can be selected (in total)
combined and displayed on the screen. No metadata. You can select from
several pre-defined geographic areas, and also from a list of themes.
Very slow, especially when using the raster data. ssk
It is a canned application and is not an interactive one, unless
clicking on a single hypertext link is deemed interactive.
An *INTERACTIVE* ARC/INFO GIS on the web that is builds on the previous is
Also here's some stuff pointed to from
Please be patient with regard to getting a connection;
our server is currently based on a rather flakey HTTP daemon, which will be
replaced soon. Meantime it only handles one concurrent connection, and
hangs if you stop the data transfer part way through.
Basically, in forms one gets to pick summary level, geographic area,
variables and data theme. Some options currently only have one option
but you get the idea. The entire image generation is handled by SAS
writing to standard output. This idea is based on the server Larry Hoyle
initially build in Kansas. The boundaries and stf data are processed
using Blodgett/Meij code. The ascii polygon files are re-accessed and
turned into SAS datasets which are now accessed for thematic mapping.
Basic code is in
The "List all counties" button is a nifty application of the VIEW option
in SAS, reorganizing the data on the fly.
Review - This is another arcinfo map viewer, using tiger data. It is
supposed to allow you to download the data but i didn't try it. ssk 3-13-95
Review - This is another map server that requires you to give the xhost
command before you start you web brower. It is supposed to allow you
to enter a 3 CHARACTER city id and then displays a weather map for that
area. (note they say 3 DIGITS). when i tried it, it didn't have any
information for the test cases I used. ssk 3-12-95
For you collectors of nifty spatial applications on the Web:
The Subway Navigator is now available on:
The Subway Navigator is a WWW server which allows you
to search for routes in subway systems of various cities
(35 at this time) around the world. Many thanks to all contributors
who have given time to provide maps, data, corrections, etc.
Want to locate the Japanese earthquake?
The World-Wide Earthquake Locator was developed in Edinburgh very much as an
illustration of what is possible using the World-Wide Web and the internet. It
relates to work we have done building an earthquake analysis system using data
dynamically obtained over the internet.
The system uses data available from the USGS National Earthquake Information
Center within hours of an earthquake having taken place. The data is mapped
using the Xerox PARC Map Viewer.
Some interesting principles relating to internetworking are demonstrated:
o Unusually, each of the components of this system (the interface, the data and
the display display software) are physically remote from the user and from
each other.
o Using the Web, global accessibility is achieved, with no dependency on having
the appropriate software to display the data (other than a web browser).
o The speed of accessing the maps is related to network connectivity to Palo
Alto, not Edinburgh. If you think about it, this is interesting. In
principle the interface in Edinburgh could direct you towards your nearest
server (if there were map servers distributed regionally) hopefully to get
access to regional maps or even just to achieve the best possible graphics
performance.
o Whereas some other maps of earthquakes are up to a week out-of-date, the
dynamic nature of this interface means not only are the maps as recent as the
earthquake records, but maps can be zoomed and panned to suit particular user
requirements.
Access is via the URL
I am a computer science Master's student and am trying to write a
server that provides geographical information to client programs. Try
to find out exactly what i am trying to do.
Review - If you are interested in watching the evolution of a new map server
you might look at his proposal. Perhaps you can make suggestions to help him
create the tool that you need :-) ssk 3-13-94
These section contains sites that have developed forms for querying
databases. I personally feel that we will need something like this
in order to handle questions like "do you have any PLSS data in OHIO,
at 1;24000 scale, that was digitized before 1986 AND have transportation
data for the same area?"
The next two actually have some data to go with the interface
I also tried my hand at using a gif for getting data
This shows BLM surface ownwership in the western US, with links to
public land statistics.
This is under development. ssk 5-7-95
The BLM has build yet another prototype schema for dealing with the
FGDC Metadata Standard. It is specific to Informix, but might be portable
to other RDBMs. SMM stands for Spatial Metadata Manager. I've included
the Entity/Relationship (ER) diagram for those who want to see how the
whole thing fits togetter.
Note: On Nov 30, 1995, I receive a message from Chuck Stein
(stein@nrlmry.navy.mil) saying that the interface is up with a limited
amount of real data. ssk
We're doing lots of implementation of Earth Science stuff using
A Post-Relational database technology. (Buzz-word alert!)
Review: I didn't find much that related to metadata/www mapping. I'm
leaving it on the list because it points to sources for www software. ssk
Review - 3-28-95: Well I blew it. Buried deep in this site is an attempt
to put the FGDC nsdi metadata standard into a relational database.
It includes an ERD (in gif format) and the sql files to create the
database. Follow the links to Big Sur and then go deeper. ssk
then scroll down to the bottom of the home page and select
"biofuels publications database". There is also a forms query tool.
Review: Althought this site doesn't directly deal with spatial metadata,
its forms based interface to a sql rdbms is the most innovative I've
seen. I like the approach much better than that of a WAIS search, as
presently implimented by the USGS. In fact, I took some of the ideas I
found at this site and used them to create a forms based spatial metadata
search prototype. ssk 5/18/95
We are archiving 3 lists here and
are providing WWW and gopher access to all. Searching of the index
is also provided, not using WAIS, but rather the built in capabilities
of the gn server software. The lists accessible are ESRI-L, IMAGRS-L
and TGIS-L, with all archives going back a over a year. The
URL's for out servers are:
Follow the "Remote Sensing and GIS Information" link to find the
appropriate info.
Here are some places you can go for more technical informantion
on how to do some of the things you have looked at in this html.
GLIS
GLIS (Global Land Info Sys) at a USGS site which allowed you to query
databases using a "form". Both these sites are TELNET.
ERIN
The ERIN site in Australia is well documented and has a
good set of pointers to other documents. They have both a spatial data query
and database query html.
ERIN spatial interface
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 19:29:57 +1000
From: David Crossley
Erin Interface Pages
I am starting to put together some WWW pages to keep tabs on developments
in this area...
NEONS Environmental Metadata Map Browser
I wasn't sure if you only wanted FGDC type metadata, but ...
You might check out:
International Weather
There is a weather service that will let you look at any US airport
weather station and see the current (within 15 min.) weather.
USGS Spatial WAIS Development
Waisqvarsa.er.usgs.gov site deals with this issue alot--
including the development of Spatial WAIS.
Doug Neibert at USGS, Reston
Email ddnebert@qvarsx.er.usgs.gov
Phone 703-648-5691
USGS Water Resoures
If you have Mosaic/Lynx or the like, try out the following URL and
click away. The TEXT options include 'nearly' compliant metadata
entries for data sets of national coverage we have in Water Resources
here at USGS. These were generated using the DOCUMENT.AML in the
ARC/INFO GIS package.
Mapper
There is a new WWW prototype interface to geophysical data
called Mapper. Mapper is a common gateway interface (cgi)program that
will allow users to access data via the World
Wide Web. A typical session on Mapper would proceed as follows:
Canadian National Atlas Information Service (NAIS)
Try this Canadian site which shows names of ascii maps. It has some querying
capability. It also links to NAISmap and a geographic name server (see below).
NAISmap
NOAA
This NOAA site has interactive generation of temperature maps.
Canada Geographic Name Server
Try this WWW geographic names server:
xearth (version 0.92)
Xearth sets the X root window to an image of the Earth, as seen from your
favorite vantage point in space, correctly shaded
for the current position of the Sun. By default, xearth updates the displayed
image every five minutes; the time between
updates can be changed using either X resources or a command line option.
Xearth can also render directly into PPM and
GIF files instead of drawing in the root window; see the man page for details.
Map Browsers
This section shows some of the work being done to develop ways for
users to point to maps and get geographic coordinates. I believe,
but can't swear, that these create new maps from raw digital data, rather
than cutting images from pre-existing gifs (but I could be wrong). One
of the most obvious limitation that is due to the nature of the WWW is
that you can only click on one point, to define a center, rather
than being able to click on 2 points to define a box.
TIGER Map Browser
I finally get to announce this to the rest of you. I have been working with
several people at the U.S. Bureau of the Census on ways to better distribute
Census data and provide useful services to the Internet, and we have begun
to develop the Tiger Mapping Service, a WWW tool for generating maps from the
nationwide Tiger street database. It can be found at:
Arc Info .gra to .gif converter
From: prashb@rta.nsw.gov.au
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995
Updated: March 21, 1996
GeoWEB Site
There are examples you can check out linked through
Arc-Info Finland Maps
I have made a little WWW-metadata-server about Finland's
National Land Surveys Topographics database. I am trying to translate
all the pages into English, but my time is limited...
Interactive Grass #1
We at Purdue have made a GRASS-CGI interface that allows GRASS accessibility on
Internet. Because of security problems we haven't made it public. We are using
a mapmaking utilty using GRASS. Look at the URL
Interactive Grass #2
Sue Huse at Berkeley announced the following
Interactive ARC-INFO
A Masters student doing a project with me this year has
undertaken a major implementation which successfully interfaces arc/info
with the web, allowing interaction. Its been on public access for around
two months. Only some of the facilities are currently available.
SAS Mapping
All, I'd like your comments/ideas on the following "yet again a very
experimental map server". You will need a postscript viewer, like
ghostview, (or a gif viewer, ssk) to use this.
Virginia On-Line Atlas
Interactive Weather Map
Subway Navigator
EDINBURGH GIS MAPPING
Build a Map Server
From: Gokul.S.Janga (gokulj@CC.USU.EDU)
FORMS Based Query
BLM SQL FORMS for Metadata Searching
I finally did it myself. I have written the beginnings of a sql forms
based interface to metadata query.
BLM's FGDC Metadata Standard Informix Relational Schema
From: Sol Katz skatz@blm.gov
Date: Nov, 1 1995
Master Environmental Library
Another attempt at an interesting interface can be found at
MEL, which is a distributed environmental data access system which
allows users to search for, browse, and retrieve environmental
data from distributed sources. It is similar to the Xerox map browers and
Brandon Plewe's map browser.
SEQUOIA 2000
Have you thought of mentioning SEQUOIA 2000's EosDis efforts on
your ftp site listing? For more information, check out
Biofuels Spatial SQL
Yes, they do exist. Usually in an HTML format through a WWW client.
If you have access to a WWW client (like Mosaic), the NCSA home page
has information about a process called gsql that is a forms builder
for a sql RDBMS. Very nice tool that has about 70% - 80% the
functionality of sql. Another application I was involved with uses
perl scripts to make request from a document database. Although
it's not quite complete, you can check it out by directing your
Web client to
Mailing List DBMS
Reference Sites
WWW FORMs Interface
The following was copied from
Chris Stuber's WWW Personal
Preference Reference Page. It seems like a great place to start if you
are looking for a way to create your own forms based site.
Experimental tutorials on various Mosaic-related topics are now
available. Comments welcome (send them to whats-new@ncsa.uiuc.edu).
Using WAIS, has anyone found a way to use the equivalent of a
"greater than" or "less than" operator in a fielded search?
WAIS clients/servers offering fielded search (i.e you search for
a string as the value of a particular field in a document
rather than anywhere in a document) allow the "equals" sign but
don't seem to allow the ">" and "<" signs, etc. we are used to
RDBMS.
Scenario: User wants to search a WAIS server containing metadata
records in FGDC format and wants to limit searches to data
for which the source was larger or equal to 1:100,000.
User would want to do something like:
SOURCE_SCALE_DENOMINATOR <= 100000
For more about fielded searches, see for example:
For a introduction to WAIS try
Using the ever amazing SFgate script from Ulrich Pfeifer I have now
got something going. Check it out at
SVF (Simple Vector Format) is a new file format proposed by Softsource.
Such files could be imbedded in a document to provide a vector map
which can be zoomed and panned. Certain layers can switch off and on as
you zoom in and out. This would allow the user to navigate the map until
they found a region of interest. Selecting various defined objects or
regions would then link to other relevant documents or perhaps initiate
a query at a WWW server via CGI scripts.
The documentation is at...
As yet I don't see any way to use these images on WWW, or even to view
them locally. I had hoped that Softsource would be able to make available
a beta release of their customised NCSA WWW client so we who have an urgent
need for these capabilities would be able to test it out and give some
feedback to Softsource.
An index of USGS digital map coverages is available at:
Review: The data in the indexes would be a excellent target for
an WWW application. If someone could put both the 1:24,000 index
and 100k index into a searchable database, and have both a sql type
query AND a map browser capability to get a geographic window, it might
be a big step in demonstating the use of metadata to identify
existing digital maps. I'd be interested in working with folks on
this. ssk
Here is your chance to meet Barney, the metadata hero, and accompany him as
he learns something about the FGDC Metadata Standard.
Review: These sites point to many other sites. ssk
The URL for Mosaic to access the USGS digital map products is:
and provides alphabetical listings, by state, and by "graphics" or
a map interface for 1:250K, 1:2M, and 1:100K data, with 1:24K data
to come.
Review: This is an index page to other stuff. I didn't find anything
to do with metadata or interactive geographical search. No rating. ssk
The library of the University of Texas in Austin holds 200,000 (?)
digitised maps.
Review: I looked at this and found that the maps have been created and are
just served to you. You may pick the map you want to see by going through
a menu system. I'm guessing it's just a bunch of gifs. ssk
The following sites are supposed to contain examples of metadata. Some
of it is supposed to be in NSDI format. We'll see :-)
This is not self querying, everything will be set up in htmls, one page per
coverage. Updating these htmls will be automated.
And, of course, it ain't on a WAIS server either.
note: If anyone knows how to convert the above information into a URL, please
let me know. ssk
I am pleased to announce that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has two
new servers on the Internet. These efforts are in support of our
activities to share our data and information.
The servers are Fire Management and Region 1 (Pacific Region).
I invite you to visit these servers via our World Wide Web home page at:
Review: This is an attempt to make the metadata standard more understandable
by using hypertext to navigate through the document. ssk
1. Mosaic application for browsing USBR plan for implementing the National
Geospatial Data Clearinghouse.
2. WAIS server for metadata with some spatial datasets for the San Joaquin
Valley Drainage Program.
Open SRC San_Joaquin_Valley.src --- This should be on the Directory of
Servers.src. The data is on machine: sacsrv.mp.usbr.gov
3. Anonymous ftp for some data.
All of their own advantages. For large text documents and searches, I prefer
WAIS and secondly Gopher. The software for all of them is rapidly changing,
however, so the choices and options should keep improving.
The cdrom directory has a text file called how2use.txt, as well as data and
document subdirectories. The document directory contains the metadata files
as well as other document files (ascii) that should help you understand what
a DRG is and the status of the project.
The BLM has modified ESRI's Document.aml to produce a more FGDC compliant
output. The forms were also modified to reflect the standard. Finally the
whole thing was modified to work under ArcInfo rev 6.
The BLM has modified ESRI's Document.aml to produce a more FGDC compliant
output. The forms were also modified to reflect the standard. Finally the
whole thing was modified to work under ArcInfo rev 7. The menus have also
been reorganized to better match the FDGC standard.
I wrote a metadata generator which creates meta files according
to the FGDC standard. It's kinda clunky but it works. It's written in
C (should compile everywhere) and follows a question-answer format.
The good news is that, because you get source code, you can modify it to
meet specific needs, like default addresses/phone numbers. The bad news
is that you can't go back to a previous field (except editing it after its
finished) and you have to go all the way through to have it write to a disk.
It's not perfect but its Free! :-) I use it in conjunction with Peter
Schwietzer's metadata compiler
so that our users can access the metadata via Netscape.
You can get it from
I'd appreciate any comments, criticisms, accolades. :-)
Announcing a WWW Metadata Validation Service.
and MEL might fit in also (still under developement,
currently stuck in demo mode) :
IMAGIN is a non-profit member organization consisting primarily of
government agencies (fed-state-regional-local) interested in sharing
digital data. Joining IMAGIN (and signing the IMAGIN Data Sharing
Agreement) gives member agencies rules, protocols, and suggested
standards for sharing digital GIS and related data sets amongst
themselves. 'DataLogr' is IMAGIN's data documentation tool. DataLogr is a
stand-alone EXE that runs under Windows or DOS. An agency-wide license
comes with IMAGIN membership, or non-members can purchase DataLogr for
$85 + $4.50 S&H. Many of you likely heard of DataLogr last spring or
winter, and despite my best intentions it has not been upgraded since
(since my job description didn't include programming DataLogr - it was
something I did when I got the chance). In my new job, I actually should
be contracting with IMAGIN to upgrade DataLogr within the next 6 months
(not that there's much money involved but the fact that a signed contract
says it will be done by some date pretty much assures it WILL be done).
The upgrade should make DataLogr fully compliant with the FGDC metadata
standard for use by IMAGIN members - whether the program structure and
menu items get 'generified' enough to be truly useful for non-Michigan
folks remains to be seen (that would take more effort...).
In short (OK, its too late for that, but...):
You can get the current version of xtme at
or using ftp from the same location.
I see xtme as complementing systems like DOCUMENT in that it should
allow users to modify existing metadata before entry into the
Clearinghouse. And of course for those who don't use GIS already,
anything is an improvement. Xtme handles the element names, the
structure (i.e. which elements go where), and the indentation. I
think that will help a fair bit, even though it doesn't make the
process pain-free.
From: "Grose, Peter"
The executable code for the FGDC Metadata Toolkit developed by the
Strategic Environmental Assessment Division of NOAA's Office of Ocean
Resource Conservation and Assessment is available from the WEB. All the
necessary files were compressed (using PKZIP) into 1 downloadable file of
8.0Mb size. Thisdataset contains disk images of the public domain executable
code , a database template for holding the data, and instructions of
installing and operating the software. The Toolkit was developed using
WATCOM's POWERBUILDER version 4.0 and at present will only operate under
Windows 3.1x. A 486 class CPU with 16Mb RAM is strongly recommended for
adequate performance. We are working on collecting all the source code
(Powerbuilder Macros & Bitmaps) and these will be added to the dataset as
soon as possible (Early February is the target). To extend the Tooklit or
recompile for a different operating system (NT or Win95) a copy of
Powerbuilder will be required. To operate the Toolkit as compiled no
additional licenses or software are required.
This distribution is for unrestricted usage on an as-is basis.
The distribution files are located on the ORCA Internet Information Service
whose address is:
The dataset and can be accessed by selecting "What Information is
Available" from the home page and then performing a query using the
following criteria:
The data product can be accessed directly using its complete URL of:
The files are accessible using anonymous FTP from-
The zip file containing the Dataset is 95-23.ZIP 7.9M 1/17/96
and a readme file is named- README1.TXT 2K 12/20/95
Geographic Designs Inc. is pleased to launch its WWW home page at:
This features info about Geolineus, the metadata management system for
ARC/INFO, along with specs for our other products and services. The page
is still under construction, so please check "What's new" when you
return to it after your initial look. Everything should be completed
and ship-shape by the first week of March. Cost is $500. but only available
on Sun Unix platforms.
LINNET Geomatics has built and is successfully using a metadata
catalogue system in the Province of Manitoba.
The Data Catalogue is flexible enough to adopt almost any metadata
standard that the user wishes to employ. Written in MS-ACCESS, the
catalogue system includes a search engine, a map viewer and spatial query
function (currently in development), a request module, and user profile
maintenance. The administration component of the catalogue system
includes a back end security function that links to a customer database,
and a link to a data exchange manager which can retrieve requested
datasets on demand and delivers them to media of choice or network
destination.
Information about this system will be made available on our WWW pages.
You can visit LINNET on WWW by using
You can get a copy of Corpsmet, a program to collect metadata via
Grab all the files in that directory.
The list address is
NSDI-L@fgdc.er.usgs.gov
The listproc for signing up, setting mail preferences, finding
archived messages, and signing off is
listproc@fgdc.er.usgs.gov
Sue Stitt of the USGS/NBS has pointed out that there are 2 FDGC
metadata templates available. One is in wordperfect
The other is the most comprehensive metadata template I've seen.
It literally has everything. It is based on mp. It is your
responsibility to remove what isn't appropriate.
Review: The graphics on this site are pre-existing gif files. The data can
be downloaded in arcinfo export format. There is a page of metadata describing
each map. Nothing here that is interactive query. Only 7 state maps are
available. But there was one thing
I really liked. Next to each file was its SIZE. Developers, nudge, nudge,
wink, wink, know what I mean?. ssk
I got a message in March saying that they now have 14 maps on the site. ssk
The Montana Node of the NSDI is now officially online!! The Montana State
Library Natural Resource Information System (NRIS), in conjunction with the
Montana Interagency GIS Technical Working Group, and with partial funding from
a Federal Geographic Data Committee grant have implemented a WWW and WAIS
interface to GIS databases, documentation, and GIF images for GIS data
holdings in Montana. The site has been implemented with a WWW forms interface
to a WAIS server and through two WWW HTML pages. The WWW - WAIS interface is
the newest addition to our Internet services. The Montana Maps, GIS
Data List, and WAIS pages are really all just different interfaces for looking
at the same data All of these can be found by first accessing the NRIS
home page at
I'd like to draw your
attention to CAST's homepage and in particular to CAST's Arkansas
Geospatial Data Catalog and National GIS Database Catalog.
We hope to be setting up FTP facilities soon to download our Arkansas
and National Databases.
Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies
Compiler of Arkansas and national level geospatial databases.
Announcing the Great Lakes Regional Environmental
Information System.
This WWW-based information system, developed by the
Consortium for International Earth Science Information
Network (CIESIN) through a cooperative agreement with US
EPA, provides access to a wealth of information resources
and analysis tools pertaining to the Great Lakes Region.
the Arc/Info Tutorial web site
Additional links to tutorials can be found at:
Although still under development... the Tiger Home Page is now on the
Web. Please check it out at URL
If you have comments, please forward them to tiger@census.gov
We built a system called MATT (Mapping Analysis Tool for
Transportation) using Tcl/Tk for the map viewer program and Tcl for
communications between the viewer and the map server.
If you're interested in what the Tk GUI looks like, there are some
WWW pages:
is the MATT home page
We are generally pleased with Tcl/Tk for writing the GUI portion of
the application. Feelings about using Tcl for the interprocess
communication and to drive the components of the server are a little
mixed. Tcl got us up and running in a very short amount of time. One
Tcl philosophy is that when Tcl runs out of steam, you should switch
to a compiled language. I think we went a little beyond the point of
running out of steam. Not so much in performance, but in the area
of data structures and binding Tcl to real C++ classes. We are going
to make our interface to the map server be CORBA in the next turn of
the development crank. Then we'll likely run pure C++ on the server
side and do some bindings between Tcl and the C++ client side. That
way we'll be able to support both Tcl and C++ applications.
Not very GIS related, but you can find information about Tcl/Tk on
also see their GIS SPATIAL DATA SITES web page
For a great geographic search engine and access to multiple geospatial
data types, check out the following site:
This web site allows the user to look at samples of various geospatial
data types eg. Landsat TM, SPOT, Russian high resolution images,
USGS data, ETAK data, etc. It also allows the user to do a custom
search of specific databases for a variety of data types.
Review- I wasn't impressed, 3-13-95, ssk.
Following the newsgroups can provide valuable insight into problems
that you may be experiencing or give you a "heads up" on things to
consider for the future
I've built a map navigator
for the Real Estate industry -- it features computer generated,
street level maps of the entire SF Bay area, overlayed with icons
representing properties for sale (live from a SQL database) with
map generation times of less than 2 seconds, therefore qualifying
as one of the fastest GIS engines on the Internet. The URL is
and the organization is National Virtual Realty.
Go to
or
the CCRS site allows you to look at decimated
images of Landsat and Spot coverages of Canada.
The Montana Node of the NSDI is now officially online!!
The Montana State Library Natural
Resource Information System (NRIS), in
conjunction with the Montana Interagency GIS
Technical Working Group, and with partial funding
from a Federal Geographic Data
Committee grant have implemented a WWW
and WAIS interface to GIS databases, documentation,
and GIF images for GIS data holdings in Montana.
The site has been implemented with a
WWW forms interface to a WAIS server and through
two WWW HTML pages. The WWW - WAIS
interface is the newest addition to our Internet services.
Our WAIS server page was designed
to look like the USGS Water Resources WAIS server.
The URL to the WAIS interface is
Our WWW HTML links include the "Montana Maps" page at
and a "Data List" page at
The Montana Maps, GIS Data List, and WAIS pages are really
all just different interfaces
for looking at the same data All of these can be found by
first accessing the NRIS home page at
Our immediate future plans call for helping as many
organizations as possible in Montana
document their GIS and putting the documentation
on the WAIS server. We will also implement
a GIS Projects database on the WAIS server to facilitate
communication about ongoing data creation efforts.
We have submitted an unsolicited proposal to a number of
agencies, including the USGS, to create an "intelligent robot"
that traverses the net (NSDI) and accumulates geospatial metadata
for subsequent visualization, exploration and identification of
useful geospatial data. The software is called the "NSDI eXplorer".
The basic properties of the NSDI eXplorer are similar to those of
our Geographic Information Explorer (GIE) product.
The unsolicted NSDI eXplorer encorporates a superset of functionality
described in the software described in our proposal to the FGDC's solicited
"Cooperative Agreements for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Program".
Graphical depictions of our Geographic Information Explorer, NSDI eXplorer and
the solicited proposal can be found under our homepage.
Geographic Designs' Home-page:
Geographic Information Explorer:
NSDI eXplorer:
From: ANP@geovax.ed.ac.uk
There doesn't seem to be much European stuff in the list.
Perhaps you should look into CERN who are looking into distributed data
over the www in regards to high energy physics. There were a couple of
WWW conferences in Switzerland and Germany that may be of interest to
your readers. The URL are as follows:
International Conference on the WWW
(I hope I didn't copy this down wrong)
(the CERN httph 3.0 Guide_Install your own server)
From: Alan_Fisher@mail.fws.gov
I am pleased to announce that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has
several new servers on the Internet. These efforts are in support of
our activities to share our data and information.
The servers are:
Region 1 (Pacific Region)
I invite you to visit these servers via our World Wide Web home page at:
From: "Douglas D. Nebert, Chief, SDSU (Hyd), Reston, VA "
The proceedings of the upcoming ESRI User Conference are already
on-line and there are two listed papers that I could find that
deal with metadata directly -- many more that focus on Internet
service of spatial data or maps. The starting page is at:
Metadata papers are at:
Doug Nebert
Try the NOAA Metadata Server
Date: 29 May 1995 10:48:10 EST
no doubt by now you have already learned that Federal lands are mapped and
available on the USGS 100K Digital Line Graphs. The data layers denoting the
Federal lands is not yet on the Internet, but will be soon (no later than
July 15). You can clickk the GeoData home page on the Web. I don't have
ready access to the URL, but you can get there from the EROS Data Center
home page at URL
Colleagues are invited to try the George Mason University Geography web
pages at
In addition to the usual stuff you will find a Cartography Resources page
and online curriculum material for a couple of cartography classes, including
student maps.
This site creates a custom output to your specifications, but not in real time.
BUT you can get the DATA itself if you want it, not just a gif.
This is the message i received about a hour after i made the request. ssk
---------------------------------------------------------
Your SITEINFO request is completed.
See appropiate files for output via your www browser (like Mosaic).
Always look at ".txt" file first to see if request ran successfully.
URLs:
The above gif file(s) are not high enough resolution to display all
features and text on the map. If you requested an optional output
format, you may retrieve them by the following URL(s).
Retrieve and save them on your computer for subsequent processing:
No optional output formats requested.
--- OR ---
Browse the Region 10 GIS Product pickup area and
retrieve your files starting with t0630201036:
URL to FTP:
cd pub/region10/ftp/pickup
look for files...
rpeterso@r0serv.r10.epa.gov
U.S. EPA Region 10
Mailstop ES-095
1200 6th Ave.
Seattle, WA. 98101
(206)-553-1682
The Scientific Assessment and Strategy Team (SAST), a multi-agency
group headed by the USGS, has collected a large amount of digital
cartographic data for the Upper Mississippi basin that is accessible
online. There is a graphic interface with menus for displaying the
study area and retrieving the data. To check it out see:
Select: SAST Data Distribution System
The interface consists of a Backdrop map of the drainage basin (with
selectable maps on the backdrop for reference such as: watersheds,
major rivers, states, counties, basin, 100k quads). Available data:
Counties 1:100K, Counties 1:2M, Federal Lands 1:2M, Flood Extent,
Floodplain, Flood Probability, Geology 1:2M, Hydrologic units 1:250K &
1:2M, Hydrography 1:100K, National Wetlands, Railroads 1:100k & 1:2M,
River Miles, Rivers 1:2M, Roads 1:100K & 1:2M, State Boundaries 1:100K
& 1:2M and Toxic Release Inventory.
We here at the Hatfield Marine Science Center are definitely trying to
use GIS on the Web as a tool and are excited about the future possibilities. We
want oceanographic scientists to be able to view, query, summarize, and
eventually download Arc/Info coverages and to update information on research
cruise schedules, data quality, and the like. We've set up the capability from
one of our web pages the capability to start one's own interactive Arc View
session. It is quite slow at the moment and is a work in progress but it
essentially works. The URL is:
Click on the hypertext "Prototype Connection to the VENTS GIS." So far we've
had a favorable response from our scientists, who are marine geologists,
chemists, and biologists who study seafloor spreading centers.
See our list on
But just count them. It's only a handful of developers worldwide and
I think it's a great job they do for us now but we are still far away
from the break even point for GIS in Internet. We just passed this point
for GIS itself. Perhaps You remenber the useful/useless discussion
about GIS versus traditional Kartography.
The Office of the GIS Coordinator of the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources has recently posted their "ODNR Geographic Information
Guidebook" to their WWW page. There is a substantial amount of information
here including a fairly extensive discussion of the metadata elements
being collected by the department.
From: bpoore@fgdc.er.usgs.GOV (Barbara Poore FGDC Secretariat x5971)
Do you have a WAISserver running that has indexed metadata?
I'm looking for example implementations to test my query
interface with. This is only for testing and will not be
generally available to the public. I need to see what issues
are involved with searching sites that don't necessarily have
what I expect, etc.
I would especially like sites that do have what I expect which
is mp compliant FGDC metadata records indexed on bounding box
and date.
Please send me your URL and tell me what WAIS you are using
as well as how your data is indexed.
For a project to examine metadata compliance, the FGDC is also interested
in the answer to Chuck's question. Some Federal sites with
WAIS servers that are known to the FGDC :
Note: not all of these sites have FGDC compliant metadata, but they
all have metadata in some form.
The State of Montana, one of the participants in the FGDC's Competitive
Cooperative Agreements Program has a site with a WAIS server
and FGDC compliant metadata at :
There are other sites that can be accessed through the FGDC home
page at
This message is not intended to slight any Web sites I've
neglected to mention. If you are serving spatial data through the Web
and through a WAIS or Z39.50 client and have metadata that complies with
the FGDC standard, please let us know, we'd like to link to you and also
to allow you an opportunity to publicize the good things you've done.
In response to questions about interoperability of metadata
servers we are seeking to use the latest Z39.50 protocol to
accomplish this. This is far beyond the initial (1988) version
of the protocol (WAIS) that allowed ONLY free-text search.
The goal for interoperability is to really use the field-level
features of Z39.50 and a registered attribute set that includes
all the FGDC metadata elements. Z39.50 includes query construction,
server-client interface, and presentation rules (do I send text?
SGML? HTML? USMARC?). Z39.50 clients can be included into Web
clients (our hope) or now used as proxies (external apps) or can
be executed through a cgi-bin.
See this paper on how it will work within a few months:
(from Digital Libraries '95, Austin, TX, 6/95)
Then, at least between the servers, agents, or clients and
servers there can be a formal agreement on fields to be searched.
The browser applications (client-side, like Hot Java and
server-side (like cgi-bin) can handle the user interface.
With this level of interop it means that a broadcast-like
query can be made of one question to many servers. This is
demonstrated at:
using several freeWAIS-sf servers to be replaced later with
the smarter ones that know "all" the fields. The architecture
behind this original design is at:
(from 2nd WWW Conference, Chicago, 10/94)
Our department have just setup a WWW Server for the Geographic Resources
Center. The URL address is
All are invited to have a peek!
Please also be remind that this site is still under "heavy" construction,
so some of the pointers, links, may not be working as expected. The content
of this site will increase quickly.
There's ongoing efforts to develop this technology. I'm aware of the
GeoTIFF specs, and I've heard of a vector-based protocol for a new
version of HTML (but I need some details on this... where's the spec)?
For your browsing pleasure, here's a smattering of other URL's related
to or demonstrating interactive mapping with the web:
Canada National Atlas Information Service (NAIS) NAISMap
Docuument archive for the GeoWeb Project
Interactive map of Washington, DC demonstrating TIGER data coverage
Xerox PAARC Map Server
DeLorme Mapping
GIS/Mapping Web resources page -
FGDC training material including Power Point demos of our standard
clearinghouse, metadata, and NSDI talks are now available on
The FGDC has just published a workbook on the metadata standard which is
available from the address below. We are working on a digital version of the
workbook which we hope to have available on the Web and in CD form.
Watch this space:
From: Charles@news.cais.com
Rich Signell of USGS AMG has created a Perl CGI Script that takes
lat-lon pairs and constructs a map in PostSript and Gif on the fly.
The program uses a number of Unix applications, including Perl, GMT 3.0b,
GhostScript and NetPBM. The application is called map-it and is available
on Rich's home page
It is also available (but still under construction) at:
It is my intention to use this as a tool to help access our cruise and
sample database. We use ARC/INFO here, and I've seen some demo's of using
ARC over the Web -- but I agree with previous contributors to this thread
who mention that most people do not have a fast link with an X-terminal.
Our development path will continue to have two forks, and ARC/INFO route
for power users, and a WWW/HTML based route for more casual users.
I thought that I would just throw out something for comments. The following:
has an interactive GUI GIS called GRASSWay (some details
were recently given in GIS World---see Tcl/Tk article by
Zhuang and Engel). We use a modified version (for security
purposes) called "GRASS Lite." This, of course, requires
the X Window System. We are also offering SDTS export at this site.
The vision is this:
1. use image maps to locate data (visual search)
or WAIS (keyword search)
There's also a display-only map-making system which basically runs
GRASS' cartography program (ps.map), converts it to GIF, and then
displays it as an inline image.
We also plan to implement encryption and password mechanisms to
distribute our more costly data.
We're in the process of submitting a journal article outlining
both the vision and procedure. I'll post an announcement once
it is accepted.
Regards,
Darrell McCauley
http://soils.ecn.purdue.edu/~mccauley/
The EUROGI directories of European GI research and education/training
are now on-line. Forms enable the contribution of data by researchers
and education professionals themselves.
Please read the attached document for more details.
Johan van Arragon
Date: July 13, 1995
EUROGI Directories Project
Dear GIS-collegues,
In March of this year EUROGI, the European Umbrella Organisation
for Geographical Information, started a prototype of GI directories.
This service is meant as a means to enhance cohesion and
coordination in the European GIS-community and reduce duplication
of efforts. As a first step towards realization of a complete list
of directories, the prototype contains two databases: European GI-
research programmes and European GI-education and -training courses.
The databases consist of a still limited set of data from several
European countries. Data are accessed via geographical queries by
means of so-called clickable maps and by forms in which additional
search criteria can be given. The WorldWideWeb (WWW) functionality
of the Internet is used for the interface. In addition to the
directories, a more complete EUROGI WWW-site has been set up, with
information concerning EUROGI and links to related initiatives.
EUROGI has decided to continue the prototype as a WWW-site, located
for the time being at Utrecht University and maintained by NexpRI.
Data collection is therefore resumed forcefully, in order to have a
representative information system as soon as possible, in the interest
of the whole European GI community. We invite you, to contribute your
data of research programmes and educational courses.
Very recently, two forms have been put on-line, one for GI research
and the other for GI education/-training. From now on, anybody with
access to the WorldWideWeb can enter his or her own information and
thus let it be a part of the European GI databank.
By doing so, you contribute to the European GI infrastructure.
In case you do not have access to WWW, you also send data via E-mail.
We can supply you with the appropriate E-mail forms. And if you do not
have an Internet connection, you can use a fax form, also available at
this address.
The URL (address) of the EUROGI WWW-site and the on-line forms is:
Your comments are welcome, contact us at:
arragon@frw.ruu.nl or wessels@frw.ruu.nl
We have developed a Toy that could become a tool with slight
modifications.
The experiment allows to interactively query a land use database on a
ARC-INFO GIS by using the WWW. You can pan, zoom and select different
covertures of the map. You can also click over the map to request
information about map objects.
The URL of it is:
Thanks for opening the discussion. I believe that WWW can facilitate
access for geographical databases. Check it against our server.
We've developed a Distributed Dynamic Object Oriented GIS system using HotJava.
It certainly is not a toy, though in the prototype on web it is not really too
useful. These types of tools combined with efforts like the pending OpenGIS
standards will make web based tools truly useful in the not-to-distant future.
You can find our demo at
From: Chris@news.cais.com
There is a Web-based GIS interface at Edinburgh University, the
product of an MSC student's dissertation. I don't recall the
exact page name, but you can get to it from the title page:
It seems to work well (when traffic is light) the user completes
a form and then resulting graphics are converted to GIFs
Chris
Imaging radar lets us look at our planet in a whole new way. Radar can see
through the clouds, take images at night, look through dense trees, and see
through desert sands. Scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory are also experimenting with using imaging radar to make
topographical maps. You can see the results of these efforts on the
NASA/JPL Imaging Radar Home Page on the World Wide Web at
Beginning July 20th, the Home Page will feature 3D flyovers of the San
Francisco Bay area and of Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank, in the greater
Los Angeles area. The Home Page will feature each of these two video
flyovers in both "3D perspective" (which does not give the full 3D effect,
but does not require special 3D glasses) and in "full 3D" (special glasses
are generally available at local comic book stores for about 50¢).
Both of these flyovers were made in order to test the ability of imaging
radar to create topographical maps. By using areas like San Francisco and
Pasadena-to-Burbank where the topography is well known, the radar-generated
maps were compared against the known topography and found to be very
similar. This means that, in the future, imaging radar might be used to
map remote areas of the world, or areas perpetually covered by clouds where
no topographical maps now exist.
Nancy Leon nancy.j.leon@jpl.nasa.gov
The Institut for Geography and Geoecology II (Prof.Kilchenmann) at the
University of Karlsruhe, Germany, takes over the GIS related WWW-Pages from
the ILR Hannover, produced by Roland Stahl.
This is a (supported) Internet-Link to most of that new stuff using Internet
with WWW in GIS and other Regional Information Systems.
Most of the starting linkpages and textfiles have been produced by the ILR in
Hannover (thanks to Roland Stahl) are transfered to this server at the end of
June.
Starting in July 95 IfGG2 is responsible for these pages. The Administrator is:
Matthias Werner (matthias.werner@bio-geo.uni-karlsruhe.de)
We ask You to inform us about all new and/or usefull GIS and Remote Sensing
related WWW-Pages and tools around the world. Do not hessitate to send Your
comments and new ideas. Help us to develop and maintain these links up to
date for all of You using Regional Information Systems.
The new link You will find at following URL for the Homepage of IfGG2:
the direct link to the "GIS in the Internet"-Pages You will find at:
Attention: The Pages now fullfil the 8.3 DOS name convention. You have to
change the filenames if you have some of these included in your server.
The pages are still active at ILR until first of august 1995. An automatic
redirect is not possible because of the change of the filenames. The most
important pages will be replaced by a deviation. All other will end nowhere
and will cause an error.
Matthias Werner (IfGG2)
I was unaware of this, and post it for your general interest and perusal...
A new set of TIFF tag extensions for georeferencing raster data within
TIFF 6.0, GeoTIFF, was announced July 1995. Information is available
at:
Specifications and source code are available via ftp at:
A mailing list for discussion of the development of this standard is
geotiff@tazboy.jpl.nasa.gov . To subscribe send email to:
geotiff-request@tazboy.jpl.nasa.gov
with:
subscribe geotiff your-name-here
.as the body of the message.
SOURCE: sci.data.formats FAQ.
(Forwarded from the GeoTIFF mailing list geotiff@tazboy.jpl.nasa.gov):
GEOTIFF 1.0 Specification now Online!
This is the first announcement of the GeoTIFF 1.0
(final) Revision interchange standard for georeferencing raster format data
Just thought you might like to know that a very complete GIS Web Site
listing is at
Tune in to find out!
A draft of the Geospatial Metadata Profile (GEO) is ready for
review at the URL listed below. This profile is intended to
be a guide to developers to support the attributes defined in
the Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata promoted
by the U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee. Z39.50 Version
2 or 3 servers are planned to serve such hierarchically-organized
metadata records and serve related document forms (browse graphics,
different representations of the metadata record, and the digital
spatial data set itself in a common exchange format) as either
variants or as embedded URL links.
The GEO profile uses attributes previously defined in bib-1 and
in GILS and it is proposed that GEO be a superset of GILS
(GEO servers can be thought of as GILS servers but not
vice-versa). This is done for interoperability purposes.
The profile does not include the Abstract Record Syntax yet,
but describes the schema for the data elements using a Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML) Document Type Declaration.
With some help and deeper understanding of both the standard
and how nested data elements are processed in Z39.50 this can
be added.
If you are interested, please take the time to comment either
from the perspective of a Z39.50 implementor or from a spatial
data user familiar with the metadata content standard.
Please send comments to Doug Nebert (ddnebert@usgs.gov).
The URL for comment is:
BADGER, the Bay Area Digital Geo-Resource, invites you
to visit our web page at:
The BADGER project is part of NASA's effort to promote "Public Use
of Earth Science Data over the Internet". It is a three year project
to develop a non-profit community service offering on-line access to San
Francisco Bay Area geographic data.
Under "On-Line Services", please use our browser that allows
you to view various Geo-Spatial data sets from around the San
Francisco Bay Area. Our current data sets include Landsat,
DRG, DLG, and DOQ imagery, with more data sets coming on-line
all the time.
Thank you for your patience with regard to technical information
about the Virginia OnLine Atlas/Tiger Mapping program. The
requests for detailed technical information about this WEB
project has outpaced our ability to monitor and reply. Thus, I'd
like to invite you to take a look at our new "howtoweb"
information about the program, scripts at the following URL:
AT present, this page is not linked and is subject to minor
revision. It will be link very shortly. However, I thought you
may wish to obtain this information now.
Thank you again for your patience and we appreciate your interest
in our project.
My apologies for not sending this earlier. The URL for the TriServices
Spatial Data Standard templates is:
We do have a new GIS data browser up and running that
used ESRI shapefiles as its basis, its at
Any comments would be appreciated.
If you want to produce a GIF/JPEG of an arc/info image, then the fastest way
is to use screensave, then use your favorite image-processing program to change
the sunraster format to GIF or JPEG. I also tend to do my color editing
outside of arcinfo. As a recent example (created yesterday) you can look at:
In arcplot I used the color.shd shadeset and the original colors were
white, red, green, red, cyan and gray for the lines and text. Then in
xv I shifted the colors and saved it as a gif. I emailed the gif to the
guy who is developing that exhibit and he interlaced it using paintshop pro.
This all took about 30min from the time Rick said "what about that loess
thickness map I asked you for last week". This is a pretty good way to
serve static arcinfo maps over the net.
The 5-step method that I have described elsewhere:
addresses the problem of "how do you make a gif from arc/info if you can't
use screensave?" I can't use screensave because the maps are produced
based on requests via WWW. When arc/info runs under these conditions
(user "nobody", display not in x-window) you have to go outside arc to
accomplish what you wish. The method is a cludge, and as soon as something
better comes along I will abandon it (if we can afford it).
a del relieve de la Comunidad Valenciana
EEste servidor ha sido desarrollado por el (Universidad de Valencia)
AUTORES
review: I stumbled across this site. It seems to be a gif imagemaping set of htmls.
I copied some of the text from the main page but
since it is in Spanish, I can't do much of a review :-) ssk 10/16/95
It seems for the most part viewing of maps occurs by way of conversion
into an image (ie a GIF), and then to create a hyperlink the image must
go through some kind of image editing program (ie MAPEDIT) to create
hidden hyperlinked polygons.
The MAPEDIT program is available on the www at
Another 'how to' can be found in the September 1995 issue of the journal
DR.Dobbs. Again this is putting links to image files.
Other sites that I was informed about:
have beautiful examples of such linked maps using something like
'MAPEDIT' or 'MAP THIS!' (also available on the web - somewhere - I
don't know where.)
Appian Interactive Corp. is proud to announce that a new version
(2.5) of the Pythia WWW browser is now available for free download
at
We have collaborated with one of our major customers, Ontario
Investment Services, to create a proper demonstration of how Pythia is
being used. After you've obtained a copy of the Pythia browser from
our web site, we encourage you to point it at
This small volume demonstrates fast SQL
database queries (3 sec), with results returned as picklists, and bar,
line, and pie charts. This site is a Pythia WWW server linked to a
Sybase RDBMS, operating on a DEC Alpha over standard Internet links.
The demo shows less than one-half of one percent of the entire OIS
volume.
What is Pythia?
Pythia is a set of software products which extend the existing WWW
by adding new tags for
Can I buy Pythia?
Pythia is not available to end-users. Our apologies to all individuals
who have contacted us, but Pythia is designed for use by OEMs
who require a cutting-edge WWW browser which can be customized or
integrated with existing software products. An interesting OEM, for
example is Digiphone
which is integrating Pythia with an Internet voice telephony product.
Pythia & other WWW browsers
Our product is NOT a replacement for Netscape or other freeware
browsers. Pythia doesn't support 'ftp', 'gopher', 'telnet' or other
obsolete protocols. Pythia is a high-end product, based on the
proposed HTML 3 specification and our proprietary extensions. It works
best with well-formatted, HTML 3 compliant WWW sites, and a PC with at
least 8 MB of RAM and an advanced display (16K colors). It does a
decent job of displaying conventional HTML pages, but its real
purpose is to work with Pythia-enhanced WWW sites such as the OIS.
**** FINDING THE POLLUTION IN YOUR BACKYARD ****
The Chemical Release Inventory of England & Wales
Friends of the Earth (FOE) is launching possibly the world's
first INTERACTIVE MAPPING SYSTEM to offer you LOCAL pollution information.
Enter your postcode to generate a map, CENTERED ON YOUR OWN HOUSE, which
displays local factories within 25 km. Any factory can then be selected
in order to examine the emissions from individual factories by substance
and year. PAN the map and select another factory.
At the site you will also find BACKGROUND INFORMATION about the pollution
data set, suggestions about WHAT YOU CAN DO and details of FOE's wider
RIGHT TO KNOW campaign.
CHECK OUT THE POLLUTION IN YOUR BACKYARD at
Review: This site uses Netscape extensions, so the first page is not
clear to my mosaic 2.7 beta browser. Data and maps are for England and
Wales. Note that all the CAPITIZED words come from the original post.
ssk 10-30-95
We currently have approximately 1,000,000 satellite images on-line for
people to search, preview, and select the data that best meets their
needs. The system allows the user (over the web) to click on a map to
identify the area that they are interested in and then they can further
narrow the search criteria based on acceptable cloud cover percentage,
and date. We also have a resources page on our site that identifies
other sites with valuable information and a review of those sites. We
are currently in beta release of our new version and can be accessed at
The 1st OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop was designed to bring together
professionals from a variety of disciplines to address and advance the
state of the art in the development and extension of methods,
standards, and protocols to facilitate the description, organization,
discovery, and access of network information resources.
One deliverable of this workshop was a small, commonly agreed upon
more set of elements (the DublinCore) that could be used to facilitate
resource discovery of distributed information. Recognizing the need
for increased access to distributed geospatial information, the
COVERAGE element was proposed to describe the spatial locations and
temporal durations characteristic of the object.
The DublinCore is not designed to supplant existing metadata schemes,
but rather to represent a semantic framework that may allow for
interoperability among differing collections of information and to
recognize the need for extensible hooks for more refined searching
within a particular domain.
More information regarding the OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop and a
detailed description of the DublinCore can be found at
In the department here we're involved with the Horizon Project,
which seeks to enhance digital library technology, specifically WWW
client and server technology, in support of better public access to
earth and space science data. Some of the same issues are involved
as with GIS applications-- quick access to large databases, combining
different types of datasets, intelligently displaying the data,
scalable servers, etc.
Right now I'm in the early stages of investigating Java as a
vehicle for doing some of the kinds of things we'd like to do. At
the very least, Java allows a much more interactive user interface
than was previously available on the Web, and eventually should be
able to download some of the computation from the usually overburdened
servers to the perhaps under-utilized clients.
The results of my first attempt at Java programming can be found at
I'd be glad to share information with others who may be embarking on
a similar path.
Incidentally, the subject of the above example is an offshoot of
work done here for the CoVis Project, which attempts to provide
educational material to the K-12 community, using the same data
scientists use. One element that would be nice to see more of in
GIS-type web applications is integrated helper/tutorial information,
so the non-scientist (like me!) can make more meaningful queries and
better interpret the results. The UIUC CoVis Web Server can be
found at
After many sleepless nights and Internet providers supplied headaches
we are pleased to present The GIS World Wide Web Users's Group. This is
a Web Page dedicated to GIS users. It's a place to share experience and
knowledge, a place to learn and teach. It's a resource of information
specifically about the GIS industry. It is maintained by a group of
dedicated GIS professionals who are unaffiliated with any vendor so it
should never read as one long advertisement.
It is temporarily (?) located at
which will ultimately be replaced with a domain name that is a bit more
descriptive and transportable. Until then, add the above address to
your Web browser bookmark file so you don't forget about us or where we
are.
Please come and see what we have put together. Make suggestions on how
we can improve it so it will be more useful to you. Become an active
participant. We are looking for people to submit material for inclusion
in future releases. The current plan is to update this page at the
first of each month so visit it regularly.
PS: Please let us know (daGISguy@ix.netcom.com) if you have any
problems reaching our page at the above address.
If anyone is interested I have written an experimental
ArcInfo Web interface that allows the user to set coverage
specific variables and plot a map. The Interface
allows the user to select coverage specific variables
for point, line and polygon coverages and select item types,
linecolor, pointcolor, polygon color, and also to
reselect item values.
It is not complete but works pretty good. The ArcWeb map
tool is available at
The coverages in use are marine oriented and cover the
Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod Bay, and the Stellwagen bank
National marine sanctuary. Take a look and tell what you think.
Check out the CARIS Internet Map Server,
We have developed a web-based map server which does NOT work
with predefined images but has an interactive vector-based
server delivering gif snapshots of map views. You can pan, zoom,
change display parameters, query, etc.
I would point you to our home page at
and follow under the heading "demos".
Our server has complete accounting, delivery and security
routines. To access some property examples you must
submit a password request which will be mailed to
you immediately.
'A WORLD OF WORLDS' is a VRML index being established by
MeshMart. It is a VRML globe with site links to real world
geographical, geological and archetectural features.
A preliminary version of the site is available at:
Please be aware that parts are still under development before
the site's public announcement. That will happen as soon
as we get all the imagemaps and forms stuff working right.
UNEP/GRID-Arendal and the Department of Surveying, Agricultural
University of Norway, announce the ultimate (?) WWW resource page for
the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) at URL:
This page was developed as a part of the "DCW and Data Quality
Project", carried out jointly by the two institutions. The page
includes a project summary, access to a number of project documents,
and a comprehensive collection of links to other DCW on-line
resources.
If you downloaded
after reading my announcement of our Arc/Info application for collecting
FGDC compliant metadata, please be informed that I have already been notified
of some bugs in the code and have fixed them. The tar file has been updated,
or you can just download the three AMLs that have changed from this directory:
In the future, you can check the updates directory to see the latest date of
any part of the program that has been changed. If you want me to INFORM you
when there have been changes, send me a note now, and I will TRY to keep all
interested parties informed, though I can not promise to do so.
Anyway, GISers may be interested to know that the Department of Geography
at George Mason University is this month's Internet Resource of the Month
in GIS World Magazine. As I said in the piece, possibly the most
interesting is our nascent effort to reach educators with a GIS Weather
Project, using the free Arc/View 1. This will eventually be a place to
obtain coverages (some already available) in near real-time for analysis
in Arc/View.
We also have the more well known Cartography Resources and Bosnian Virtual
Fieldtrip (being updated this week!).
In the attempt of providing a more coherent (a hopefully less
redundant) picture of the various issues regarding effective access to
distributed geospatial information, I have put together a database of
several list-serves that are dedicated (either directly or
indirectly) to the topic. This service provides stateful z39.50-http,
fielded searching accesses to almost all of the entries from the
following list-serves: GILS, NSDI, GEOWEB, and DISTGIS.
Due to the various gaps in the list-serve archives, however, I have
attempted to combine the archives with my own, thus there are no guarantees
that all of the messages are available trough this service. I
believe I have the majority of the messages, unfortunately, the most
of my *own* messages have been discarded by a nasty little procmail
call on my end... Oh well :) If anyone has the complete archives of
these list-serves, please let me know...
The PURL for this service is
Have a look at our new on-line version of the
USGS Geographic Names Information System at:
I suggest taking a look at the web site
This software allows interactivity on-line
while also allowing multi layered thematic mapping. Check it out.
A list of state and local governments data is at
I'm trying to collect information about metadata and would appreciate any
pointers to relevant sites on the Net. From a netsearch, I've found
several, but of course the search engines don't always find everything.
So, if you'll email me those you know of, I'll be happy to post a
compilation back here in a week or 3. Just to save some time, here are
some I've already located:
This page is still under construction
In pursuing my own interest in this topic,
I put together a summary of many resources
on database query and map generation via the
WWW at
Included are Thoen's October, 1995 GIS World
article, some Arc/Info User's Conference papers,
many working examples, plus links on CGI, PERL,
JAVA, and HTML Forms. It should serve as a
useful starting point for those considering a
project of this type.
You may want to look at
"Serving GIS Data Through the World Wide Web."
By: James Darrell McCauley, Kumar C. S. Navulur,
Bernard A. Engel, and Raghavan Srinivasan
Also, you may be interested in looking at
as well.
ABSTRACT
The Internet, a world-wide collection of interconnected networks of
computers, has facilitated the accessing and
sharing of information around the globe. The World-Wide Web is a
project on the Internet that allows hypermedia
information retrieval across the network. Geographic Information
System (GIS) data were made accessible on the
Internet by using the Geographic Resources Analysis Support System
(GRASS) and the Common Gateway Interface
(CGI) of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol in the World-Wide Web. An X
Window System-based GUI enabled users
anywhere on the Internet to manipulate and display GIS data layers of
interest. A platform-independent, display-only
map production system was also developed for data browsing. Data were
also organized using visual search techniques
(image maps) and made available in a vendor-neutral format (Spatial
Data Transfer Standard).
Best of the Web '96 by GIS World, this page is new and improved!
Check it out!
I haven't been able to update this html as often as I would like. So I've
decided to put 'unprocessed' sites in a seperate file.
I'll be moving sites in and out of this new html as time permits.
Mosaic Tutorials
WAIS: Can you do "<" and ">" searches?
GeoWEB Archive
I have been experimenting with using WAIS to index email and provide a
WWW search interface to it. Currently I only have the GeoWeb archive
but intend to add others soon.
USGS Metadata
For more information about metadata try
Grid Pointers
I found the following html page pointing to related subjects
Simple Vector Format (SVF)
Inline WWW vector images look to be a very promising way to provide a
spatial interface via WWW clients.
WAIS Background Info
ASU has some wais stuff via telnet, login as wais
WORLD WIDE WEB FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WORLD WIDE WEB FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS is another reference source
USGS Digital Map Data and Indexes
The U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Data Center is putting its entire
production database on anonymous ftp at
Barney - BLM's Whimsical Introduction to the FGDC Metadata Standard
From: Sol Katz skatz@blm.gov
Date: Nov, 1 1995
Pointers to Other Related HTMLS
NASA
Try the following for your list:
USGS EROS
The EROS Data Center also has a prototype World Wide Web server with a
map interface that allows one to identify the area of interest and get
down to a map and what is present there.
Texas Map library
From: John Sigerson (johnsig@WORLD.STD.COM)
Metadata Examples
EPA Metadata
There currently appears to be two camps as far as metadata availability via
internet (either via WAIS or WWW), although you could make something work with
other tools as well (a textfile listing via anonymous ftp). We are moving along
toward making metadata and spatial data available via WWW (in my spare time).
You can check out my efforts at
National Wetlands Inventory
The only other metadata example (and it is not complete) that I am
currently aware of is from National Wetlands Inventory. It lives on
Wetlands Metadata
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but we have a WAIS
server with metadata on it which can be accessed via internet. The six
sets of metadata on that server were done with the March 31 version of
the FGDC metadata standard. The information is as follows:
Name: USNBS_National_Wetlands_Research_Center
port: 1029
address: 164.159.126.3
database: /data/wais/spxwais/nwrindex/nwrserv
NSDI_L New U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Internet Servers
From: Alan_Fisher@mail.fws.gov
Date: Fri, 12 May 95 11:08:16 MST
Census and Health Metadata
I don't know how broad is your definition of spatial metadata. If you
include data dictionaries and file descriptions of spatially based data (like
census data, county- and tract- level health data, etc) you should be
aware of the following:
NBS Metadata Standard Browser
I have been working on, and am still cleaning up,
an interactive graphical metadata standard browser. You need
to be able to display inline graphics to use this site.
US Bureau of Mines Metadata
I finally got a chance to review material coming through GIS-L and came
across your request for information. We are and will be using multiple
methods of serving our metadata. If you get a chance, you might take a
look at them and tell me what you think.
USGS DRG Metadata
Digital Raster Graphic Product Development CD-ROM . We would like
to offer the data that is on the CD to users who do not have access to a
CD reader. The details of the CD are in the files resident at the site.
The FTP address is
release/drg/cdrom>ftpmcmc.cr.usgs.gov
login - anonymous, full e-mail address password
Change directories to release/drg/cdrom
Invoke binary FTP option
Metadata Creation Tools
Arc Info Document.AML
Document.aml is becoming the default FGDC metadata documentation tool
on Arc Info. You can get the Rev 7 version from
BLM's Version of Document.aml
From: Sol Katz skatz@blm.gov
Date: Nov, 30 1995
BLM's Version of Document.aml for arc rev 7
From: Sol Katz skatz@blm.gov
Date: March, 4 1996
FGDC Metadata Tool
From: Mike Scott mike@lorax.geog.sc.edu
Date: 25 Oct 1995 16:45:37 GMT
Metadata Validation Service
From: Charles Stein
Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 12:52:31 -0700
This service uses Peter Schweitzer's compiler for formal
metadata developed at USGS.
IMAGIN datalogr metadata tool
From: Dave Frey
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 08:51:15 -0500 (EST)
- DataLogr contains 100 possible fields, including:
* one-line text fields (lengths limited to 10,20,40,60,120, or 240
characters)
* multi-line text fields (memo fields or open text)
* Closed pick lists (must choose from the list of possible items
(e.g., Expected Update Frequency: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, ...))
* Open pick lists (choose from the list, or "OTHER" and type free text
* An Attribute Data Table 'field', which is really a repeatable set
of eight fields used to describe the attribute data (e.g., entity
type, field label, domain, description, field type, ...)
* A Source Information 'field', which is a repeatable set of eight
fields used to describe the sources used in creating this data set
(e.g., citation, media, scale denominator, currentness, ...)
- You can set up these fields in any order you like, using only the
fields you want (e.g., you can use a subset of only 10 of the fields if
you want), grouped however you want, with your own headings defined for
each group. But you can't rename field titles, use a field more than
once, or create new fields.
- The DataLogr input screen is set up like an input form, where all the
fields are listed in a table, you highlight the field you want to edit,
and the appropriate boxes pop up to be filled out (e.g., pick list with
options, or memo-text box, or attribute data table box, etc.). The
software is set up so that if you simply start at the top of the form
and start filling out the information, DataLogr will automatically step
you through the form without you having to click the mouse on the next
field, etc.
- In terms of FGDC compliance, the two primary weaknesses in the current
version are: incompatible field names (many of DataLogr's field names
are not directly related to the FGDC field name, althought the manual
has a cross reference between the two), and I basically bailed out on
the PROCESSING STEPS section (FGDC 2.5.2.x) - instead of providing a
repeatable set of several fields for PROCESSING STEPS/NOTES, DataLogr
simply provides an open text memo field. (the upgrade will definitely
fix both these problems)
- The other weakness for DataLogr for non-Michigan users is that several
of the pick-list options are Michigan-specific (e.g., a COORDINATE
SYSTEMS field has an open pick list with only the Michigan State Plane
options in the list. (this problem MAY get addressed in the upgrade).
- DataLogr is a generic tool. That is, it doesn't tap into the files of
a GIS layer or coverage to automatically fill in any of the fields (like
bounding coordinates). This is because DataLogr was written for a group
of agencies each of whom is using a different GIS package. All else being
equal, a tool like document.aml or the equivalent in MapBasic, etc would
be superior for a shop using that specific mapping software. On the flip
side, DataLogr's file structure is simple (and documented in the manual)
and DataLogr can be run in batch mode, so a programmer with access to the
file structures of a particular GIS package could easily write a tool to
generate a seed DataLogr file, leaving only a few fields to be manually
filled out.
XTME - Metadata Entry System
From: peter@limulus.er.usgs.gov (Peter N. Schweitzer)
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 15:34:07 -0500
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 96 09:54:59 EST
Spatial Domain = All Regional and National Information
Topic = Computer Systems
Organizational Unit = Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) Division
Time Frame = All Years
Data Products = Products
On-line Status = Online data products only
The title of the product is: NOAA's FGDC Metadata Toolkit: Software
Geolineus - metadata management system
From: rupert@GEODESIGNS.COM (Rupert Essinger)
LINNET Data Catalogue
From: Rolf Oswald (TechMgr@linnet.ca)
Corpsmet (metafile generation software)
From: jruby@tecsun1.tec.army.mil (Jeffrey G. Ruby)
Klamath GIS Project
This site has KMDD4.zip, a pc program to create a metadata database. It uses
forms based input screens to acquire and display the data. The forms
look like they follow the fgdc metadata standard but It DOES NOT create
a ascii fgdc metadata file.
Informix Metadata Schema
For those thinking about using a relational dbms for storing data, here
is a first cut schema written for Informix, that can be ported to
other RDBMS. I have no idea how compliant it is.
Metadata Mailing List
The NSDI-L list deals with subjects related to metadata and its distribution.
If you find this html of interest you should subscibe to nsdi-l. It is active
in bursts. Some these tools are discussed there. ssk
Metadata_templates
From: Sol Katz
Date: March 4, 1996
State Specific HTMLs
Montana_Maps
Encountered another salvo in the data-on-line activities. Montana
State Library has a pleasant looking server up now with maps, text,
and yes, even coverages, for download. The URL is:
Montana NSDI Node Online
From: Fred Gifford
Date: Wed, 3 May 95 13:55:30 MDT
Arkansas Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies
From: Stephan Pollard
Texas
I am happy to report that the state of Texas is working
toward open access to all non-sensitive spatial data
collected by agencies of the state. Much of the natural
resource information is available through the Texas
Natural Resources Information System via spatial WAIS and
anonymous ftp (tnris.twdb.texas.gov). We are working to encourage
other information to be disseminated through a distributed
network of servers over the internet. There are several
legal issues that are being addressed in this regard
including liability of the information being offered over the net.
Great Lakes Regional Environmental System
From: Jeff@news.cais.com Jeff Olsenholler Wed, 5 Apr 95
North Carolina Clearing house
The North Carolina Geographic Data Clearinghouse
Florida Clearing House
The Florida Data Directory
Nebraska Clearing House
Nebraska Natural Resources Commission
Utah
Can someone tell me if this address is correct? I haven't been
able to connect to it.
Stuff to be Arranged
These are sites that I haven't had time to shuffle about yet or I haven't
found a catagory to put them under. sigh......
CERES
A good looking home page is for CERES
USGS GILS
There's some stuff pointed to from
ONLINE ARCINFO TUTORIALS AND GIS
ArcInfo teaching materials that can be accessed (online or downloaded) on
the Internet.
Tiger Data
MATT (Mapping Analysis Tool for Transportation)
CERL (Construction Engineering Research Laboratories)
The US Army Corps of Engineers has a nice Geospatial/Metadata page.
Penn State WEB-based GIS Information
All sorts of useful internet based GIS information and data sources.
EPA Forest Metadata and Data
Forest Land Distribution Data for the United States.
Geographic Search Engine
From: Michael Cosentino (cosentino@AOL.COM)
Interesting GIS newsgroups and Mailing lists:
National Virtual Realty SF Street Maps
From: Thomas Churchill
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995
Canadian Satellite Photos
From: Norm Trowell
Montana NSDI Node Online
From: fred@nris.msl.mt.gov (Fred Gifford)
Date: Wed, 3 May 95 13:55:30 MDTweb metadata search tool
From: lanter@GEODESIGNS.COM (David P. Lanter)
Date: Thu, 4 May 95 15:50:31 PDT
International Conference on the WWW
New U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Internet Servers
Date: Fri, 12 May 95 11:08:16 MST
Region 2 (Southwest Region)
Fire Management
Air Quality
Sacramento - San Joaquin River Estuary Fishery Resource Office
Capturing and using metadata
Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 08:54:11 -0400 (EDT)NOAA Metadata Server
From: smclean@ngdc.noaa.gov (Susan J McLean)
Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 11:10:42 -0600state owned lands
From: "Donna K. Scholz" GMU site
From: jcrampto@gmu.edu (Jeremy Crampton)
Date: 19 Jun 1995 19:26:47 GMTCustomized Data Request
From: wwwserv@r0dg08.r10.epa.gov (WWW Server)
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 1995 13:18:33 -0700
Anonymous FTP to: earth1.epa.gov
We are always interested on the use and utility of this application.
If any comments or questions, please send a message to:
Thank You... Ray Peterson
Upper Mississippi basin
From: Bruce E. Wright bwright@resdgw30.er.usgs.gov
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 95 18:09:26 EDTHatfield Marine Science Center
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 95 19:12:59 EDT
From: "Dawn-Wright" European gis list
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 95 05:22:49 EDT
From: matthias.werner@bio-geo.uni-karlsruhe.de (Matthias Werner)GIS and Natural Resources - An Ohio Guidebook
From: dmarble@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 95 12:34:16 EDT
Need Metadata WAISserver
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 13:30:43 -0400
Interoperability using Z39.50
From: "Douglas D. Nebert "
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 17:53:12 -0400 (EDT)Geographic Resources Homepage
From: btsang@ctsc.hkbc.hk (Bosco Tsang)
Date: 10 Jul 1995 18:57:51 +0800and yet another list
From: bill.thoen@gisnet.com (Bill Thoen)
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 1995 04:43:00 GMTWider distribution of NSDI Workshop material
From: bpoore@fgdc.er.usgs.GOV (Barbara Poore FGDC Secretariat x5971)
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 07:56:19 -0400grasslinks
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 03:26:09 EDT
Susan Huse, as part of doctoral research, built
a public access GIS using a WWW interface.
You can view raster maps, vector overlays,
aerial photography, and do simple GIS functions.
It's as slow as the net, but it is fun to play with.
Of course, it was done in GRASS. See it yourself:
map-it
From: federman@octopus.wr.usgs.gov Alan Federman
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 09:08:52 EDTgrass lite www mapping
From: mccauley@pasture.ecn.purdue.edu
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 09:56:23 EDT
2. use GRASS Lite to view/maniuplate/etc
(the current version allows map algebra manipulations for raster)
3. if you like what you see, use the SDTS export to
dynamically create SDTS vector files (from GRASS)
and have it sent back with a MIME type of "tar"
Most browsers will then ask you for the name of the file
to save it under.
4. import into your favorite GIS (that supports SDTS, that is)
Agricultural & Biological Engineering mccauley@ecn.purdue.edu
Purdue University tel: 317.494.1198 fax: 317.496.1115
EUROGI WWW SITE of GI DIRECTORIES NOW ON-LINE!
From: Johan@news.cais.com
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 23:34:50 EDT
===============
NexpRI - Netherlands Centre of expertise for Geographic Information
Handling
Faculty of Geographical Sciences
University Utrecht
PO Box 80.115
3508 TC Utrecht
The Netherlands
Tel: INT-31-30-533537 Fax: INT-31-30-523699
E-mail: arragon@frw.ruu.nl
arcinfo web mapping
From: Pablo@news.cais.com
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 95 17:32:28 EDT
hot jave www mapping
From: korp@dis.anl.gov
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 95 07:56:18 EDT
uk www mapping
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 95 12:25:52 EDT
47 Benlamond Ave. Apt #7>
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA, M4E 1Y8
Email: 73611.204@compuserve.com -or- aw966@torfree.net
Voice (416) 698 7704
Fax (call voice fisrt): (416) 698 8553
Seeing the Earth in 3D Through Imaging Radar
From: nancy.j.leon@jpl.nasa.gov
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 95 22:09:32 EDT
LAUM WWW-GIS-Pages changed URL to IfGG [Germany]
From: stahl@laum.uni-hannover.de
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 95 22:48:23 EDT
Roland Stahl (ILR, now adasys GmbH)
GeoTIFF format... General Interest.
From: "Mark"@news.cais.com
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 95 04:01:42 EDT
GeoTIFF Revision 1.0 Format Released
From: Niles Ritter (admin/editor, GeoTIFF spec)
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 14:01:18 -0700
***GIS WEB PAGES***
From: jim@hdm.com Jim Aylward
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 95 09:50:27 EDT
GEO Profile ready for review
From: Douglas D Nebert
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 15:51:07 -0400 (EDT)BADGER (Bay Area Digital GeoResource)
From: cohen@stc.lockheed.com (Adam Cohen)
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 95 18:26:18 PDT
How to Web with TIGER ..... The Virginia Atlas
From: C Denise Stephens
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 13:56:46 -0400
Spatial Data Standard Templates
From: Ian Nixon
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 95 18:06:25 EDTGIS data browser using Shapefiles
From: sdlime@flounder.gis.umn.edu
Date: Tue Oct 3 16:40:46 1995
How To Do WWW Mapping with Arcinfo
From: schroede@denr1.igis.uiuc.edu (Erich Schroeder)
Date: 5 Oct 1995 14:48:57 GMT
Spanish Interface GIS a través de WWW
Pulse en el mapa para avanzar a la siguiente página
Copyright ©: 1995
Lola@glup.eleinf.uv.es
Pablo@glup.eleinf.uv.es
Cavero@glup.eleinf.uv.es
"How To" Tools for Imagemaping
From: Catharine Blott cblott@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 15:15:50 -0400 (EDT)
Pythia vector WWW browser
From: mk@pythia.com Mark Kluepfel
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 09:48:20 -0400 (EDT)
* relational database queries (dynamic SQL)
* charts (pie, bar, line, scattergram, reports)
* inline imagery (GIF/BMP/JPEG), video (MPEG, AVI, Quicktime), audio
(WAV)
Interactive Pollution Mapping
From: Susan Pipes susanp@foe.co.uk
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 18:38:02 GMT
On-Line Satellite Images
From: Clinton Libbey clinton@coresw.com
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 20:25:11 -0400 (EDT)
Metadata workshop and COVERAGE
From: emiller@oclc.org (Eric Miller)
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 10:01:00 -0500 (EST)
Java Mapping
From: "Joel Plutchak"
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 11:46:09 -0600
GIS WWW Users Group
From: dagisguy@ix.netcom.com (Jay Holliday )
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 12:23:49 -0800
Arcweb Mapping Tool
From: Ed Roworth
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 1995 04:42:21 -0500
CARIS Internet Map Server
From: Kevin Berry (caris.universal.ca - 198.164.13.1)
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 06:38:06 -0700
A WORLD OF WORLDS VRML
From: Richard Tilmann rtilmann@great-lakes.net
Date: 31 Dec 1995 16:42:33 GMT
DCW WWW Page
From: lanht@.nlh.no (Haavard Tveite)
Date: 8 Jan 1996 14:49:28 GMT
datadict.aml - Arc/Info metadata Tool
From: gerry@nris.msl.mt.gov (Gerry Daumiller)
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 96 13:31:55 MST
GIS World Internet Resource of the Month
From: Jeremy Crampton jcrampto@gmu.edu
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 1996 19:49:29 -0500
Searching NSDI listserv archives
From: emiller@oclc.org (Eric Miller)
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 15:32:39 -0500 (EST)
NOAAs FGDC Metadata Toolkit
USGS GNIS
From: dgovoni@usgs.gov Dave Govoni
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 09:33:24 -0700
Argusmap Web Browser
From: landinfo@passport.ca (Steve Rawlinson)
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 96 03:44:17 GMT
State Gov't Data On the Internet
From: sonny parafina
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 16:57:02 -0500 (EST)
More Metadata Sites
From: don@gisworld.com
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 11:09:43 -0500 (EST)
GIS WEB site in Spain
From: flv@cesga.es
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 08:39:31 -0500 (EST)
Mapping via the Web List
From: http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~geo/stu/duda/home.html Ken Duda
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 15:07:36 -0500 (EST)
Engel's paper on Mapping via the Web
From: sears@evansville.net Michael J. Sears
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 05:53:30 -0500 (EST)
Best GIS List
From: RAOHDM
Date: 7 FEB 1996 21:12:19 -0500
Recent additions for NSDI.HTML, yet to processed
From: sol katz skatz@blm.gov
Date: Feb 5, 1996
The List of Hotlists
A friend taking a class at the USGS found out about this list. It was
compiled from the hotlists of several dozen USGS employees. Althought
it isn't directly related to www mapping and metadata, it seems like a 'fun'
URL to look at. ssk
Comments, criticisms, and suggestions encouraged.
Mail to Sol Katz (skatz@blm.gov). If your web browser
does not support mailto: then use our
Web Comment Page
