|
Track: Database Management and SDE
John Geddes
MacDonald Dettwiler
13800 Commerce Parkway
Richmond, BC V6V 2J3
CANADA
Telephone: 604-278-3411
Fax: 604-278-2936
E-mail: jng@mda.ca
William K. Anderson, Marcel Mercier
LandData BC/One Window to Spatial Data Assets Using SDE
LandData BC is a system designed to provide consistent, uncomplicated access to land-related information held by the various agencies and ministries of the government of British Columbia. Defining Issue: Over many years, the government of British Columbia has acquired a wide variety of land-related information about the province. Each ministry or department gathered or purchased data specific to its own needs with little consideration given to the fact that in the longer term other departments might also find it useful. As increasing amounts of data were collected, the volume of and investment in land-related information grew substantially, as did the variety of ministry-specific data models, standards, and GIS platforms. With time, the land-related information "islands" throughout the government expanded with no systematic means of locating particular information, let alone accessing or sharing it. These barriers to realizing the full value of the investment in land-related information led to the
creation of the LandData BC program. Solution: LandData BC is made up of a physical infrastructure of computers, software, and communication networks and an organizational infrastructure that manages the cooperation of its data suppliers. The main elements that ensure its successful operation are a phased development plan, work groups, and newly developed common technology and standards for land-related information sharing. A pilot system was commissioned in 1993. This pilot was very successful and led to the implementation of the fully operational system currently being introduced. The operational system expands the number of provider databases, very significantly expands the number of users throughout government, and supports the ongoing addition of new data providers. Software: At the heart of LandData BC is a metadata repository based on SDE/Oracle and sophisticated spatial data model(s) for the full suite of government data holdings. This core is integrated with data access servers for
connection to a wide variety of databases (GIS, relational DBs, and older legacy systems); centralized services for user management, order processing, and accounting; and a WWW-based spatial data browser for very low-cost universal user access. Keywords: spatial data infrastructures, land information infrastructures, WWW, Internet, metadata, data standards, data modeling
|
|
