Track: Public Access and the Internet
Public Access to Environmental Data via GIS and the Web
John ShireyDonald Block , Qi Dai
GIS is an extremely useful data integration, management, analysis, and presentation tool for environmental data. Its use is mature. However, delivering finished maps to a broad audience has been difficult and costly. Contributing factors include cataloging and communicating map availability, printing, warehousing, and order handling. The Web has changed this - maps can now be delivered electronically anywhere in the world via the Internet. Cataloging is simplified and the "catalog" is easily discovered; communication is instantaneous; and printing, warehousing, and handling are eliminated. This paper discusses the use of electronic map preparation in the Environmental Protection Agency, from "canned" queries answering our most common questions, to simple fixed plots, to "Maps on Demand" - complex analyses performed in response to a Web-based request- and finally to delivery of database extracts and map objects through Esri's Internet Map Server software.
John Shirey
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
79 Alexander Drive, Bldg 4201/470
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
USA
Telephone: 919/541-5730
Fax: 919/541-7670
E-mail: shirey.john@epamail.epa.gov