Concepts and Applications of Web GIS

The World Wide Web (WWW) is the decisive technology of the Information age which had stupendous impact in the GIS world. This integration of GIS and Web technologies called web-GIS that bring analytic to spatial data in a way that wasn't possible before. Web GIS provides a fresh perspective on information and brings to life the often hidden meaning of spatial data to reveal new opportunities and innovative approaches with an intuitive user interface. The spectacular growth of Web GIS portals parallel to evolving information technology dramatically transformed the way people access and uses the geographic information. Web GIS brings GIS into the hands of the people. Now anytime and from anywhere people can access GIS maps on their desktops, tablets, and smart phones for a sophisticated range of activities to apply advanced geospatial analysis. At the same time it reduces the need to create custom applications, provides a platform for integrating GIS with other business systems, and enables cross-organizational collaboration. Web GIS is a much more flexible and agile workflow which allows government departments/organizations to properly manage all their geographic knowledge using a platform independent technology.

This book is intended for Web GIS developers, under graduate, graduate students, researchers, teachers as well as planners and policy makers who are either wants to built up their understanding in the domain or wants to implement the concepts of Web GIS for sourcing the need of their customers and come up with the actual solution. Each chapter of the book covers a component of Web GIS or an application of it. Where applicable, implementation strategies are given and related work is summarized.