Summer school  teaching unit:

Spatial Data Infrastructures

Michael Gould – drafted 20 May 2004

Hours

Session 1: SDI theory. June 7, 2004: 90 min. + 90 min. (afternoon)

Session 2: SDI practicals, Web services. June 8, 2004: 90 min. + 90 min. (morning)

Content

The unit consists of 2 sessions, divided into three topics (SDI, SDI practicals, and Web Services)

The unit, like most, is presented as four 90-minutes lessons:

1. Theory of Spatial Data Infrastructures, SDI (M Gould)

The teacher’s presentation will include the following topics:

• Definition of SDI
• Components of SDI: political, institutional, technological
  
• Historical events and politics leading to the creation of SDIs in USA, Australia, Europe, other parts
  
• European case in more detail
  
• GI2000
• Directive on Public Sector Information (PSI)
• INSPIRE
  

2. SDI details (M Gould)

In the second session we look deeper into the technology components of SDI:

• Conceptual architecture; diagrams
  
• Standards: ISO and OpenGIS
  
• Metadata
• Catalog servers
• Web Mapping, Feature servers, Coverage servers, Sensor web
  

3. SDI practicals (M Gould)

Session three will take place in the computer lab, and will involved connecting from web clients to Web Map Servers. Students will get a chance to judge the effectiveness of several SDI implementations, and will write a short critique of each site visited.

4. Web services (M. Gould)

After the coffee break the class will resume in the laboratory with an overview of the Web Services paradigm for creating distributed computing environments. Students will visit the web sites of some key web service providers.

Goals

Students should understand the nature of SDIs, their goals and their major components. The goal is that students completing this teaching unit, should be able to answer the following questions:

• What is a Spatial Data Infrastructure?
• What are the economic and political arguments behind the creation of SDIs?
  
• How does SDI differ from the concept of Enterprise (or Corporate) GIS?
• What are the most difficult parts of an SDI to implement?
• What are the major resources (WWW) where one can encounter the basic information on SDIs?
• How do Web Map Servers and clients work?
• Why are the terms heterogeneous and interoperability key to the success of SDI?

Students’ preparation in advance

Required readings:

• US president Clinton's Executive Order creating the National SDI (1994), http://www.fgdc.gov/publications/documents/geninfo/execord.html
  
• European Directive on re-use of Public Sector Information,  http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/multi/psi/library/index_en.htm
• INSPIRE web site: students should have a good look around the website  http://inspire.jrc.it
• INSPIRE position paper:  Architecture and Standards
• primer on web services:  http://www.capescience.com/education/primer/index.shtml
  

Software downloads, URL, and hardware

Software requirements: - no special requirements: the practicals will be run from standard web browsers

URLs: session 3 will focus on the following websites:

• http://eu-geoportal.jrc.it/
• http://www.geo-one-stop.gov/
• http://www.geoportal-idec.net/geoportal/IDECServlet?idioma=eng
• www.wmsviewer.com

Session 4 will visit the web services pages of Google, Xmethods, and ESRI

Hardware requirements for all sessions: Beamer

Hardware requirements for preparation/homework of students: Computers with internet access