NEXTMap Library via OGC-Compliant Services

 

Intermap's TerrainOnDemand portal has been specifically designed to encourage seamless access and use of geospatial data online, while integrating the resulting information into user-specific geospatial application environments. Supported clients include GIS desktop software, web browsers, and web services-enabled custom software. Users also can acquire geospatial information under new financial models that provide greater flexibility and control to customers who desire to solve geospatial challenges quickly and efficiently.

"The quality, resolution, size, and complexity of geospatial data is increasing exponentially, driving the need for more efficient data management," said David Cunningham, Intermap's senior vice president of sales and marketing. "Instead of storing and managing large datasets locally, customers are requesting a cost-effective, Internet-hosted solution that's compatible with both their existing application environment and their data access requirements - that's what TerrainOnDemand is all about."

Unlike many web service offerings that focus on web map service (WMS) functionality that displays geo-registered map images that can be displayed in a browser application, TerrainOnDemand offers full web coverage service (WCS) functionality that allows users to easily access native raster content such as digital elevation data, satellite images, digital aerial photos, and other phenomena represented by values at each measurement point.

The OGC WCS Implementation Standard states, "WCS provides access to potentially detailed and rich sets of geospatial information, in forms that are useful for client-side rendering, multi-valued coverages, and input into scientific models and other clients. The WCS may be compared to the OGC Web Map Service (WMS) and the Web Feature Service (WFS); like them it allows clients to choose portions of a server's information holdings based on spatial constraints and other criteria. Unlike the WMS [OGC 06-042], which portrays spatial data to return static maps (rendered as pictures by the server), the Web Coverage Service provides available data together with their detailed descriptions; defines a rich syntax for requests against these data; and returns data with its original semantics (instead of pictures) which may be interpreted, extrapolated, etc. - and not just portrayed."

The NEXTMap datasets include uniformly digital surface models that include cultural features (such as vegetation, buildings, and roads), digital terrain models that display the bare earth (with all cultural features digitally removed) and orthorectified radar images corrected to remove normal geometric distortions (grayscale images that accentuate topographic features).

Custom-developed analytical and querying tools for Intermap's microwave link planning and flood risk assessment applications are also available via the TerrainOnDemand Web services portal - other application-specific tools are in development.