Cloud Based Open-source Tools for Geo-spatial Mapping and Data Management

Environment and Climate Change Canada has developed the Integrated Nearshore Framework to assess the state of nearshore waters across the entire Great Lakes Basin. The Framework is data intensive and includes three phases:... [ view full abstract ]

Environment and Climate Change Canada has developed the Integrated Nearshore Framework to assess the state of nearshore waters across the entire Great Lakes Basin. The Framework is data intensive and includes three phases: 1) delineation of the nearshore into regional units, 2) the condition assessment, and 3) biological verification of the findings. Once the baseline assessment is complete for each lake, subsequent assessments will be completed every five years to assess changes in condition, emerging threats, and restoration projects.

A long-term data repository was required to archive the geospatial data collected and developed for the assessment.  To avoid costly licensing fees and annual maintenance charges, a series of open source products were selected and installed on a cloud server.  Geospatial data layers were stored in a database with metadata housed in GeoNetwork, a web-based application for managing geospatial layers and metadata.  GeoMoose was used to create an interactive web mapping application, accessing data from the database, with links to metadata on GeoNetwork.  Lastly, GeoServer was used to share database spatial layers as web mapping services to secondary portals, such as websites for community collaboratives. The presentation will highlight the suite of open-source software applications and their utility for data archive, sharing, and dissemination.