Geoportal for spatial planning

MicKa is a complex system for metadata management used  for building Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and geoportal solutions. It contains tools for editing and management of metadata for spatial information, web services and other sources (documents, web sites, etc.). It includes online metadata search engine , portrayal of spatial information and download of spatial data to local computer.

MIcKA is compatible with obligatory standards for European SDI building (INSPIRE). Therefore it is ready to be connected with other nodes of prepared network of metadata catalogues (its compatibility with pilot European geoportal is continuosly tested).

Functions:

• Spatial data metadata (ISO 19115)
• Spatial services metadata (ISO 19119)
• Dublin Core metadata (ISO 15836)
• Feature catalogue support (ISO 19110)
• OGC CSW 2.0.2 support (catalogue service)
• User defined metadata profiles
• INSPIRE metadata profile
• Web interface for metadata editing
• Multilingual (both user interface and metadata records). Currently 16 languages supported. It is possible to dynamically extend the system for other languages.
• Context help (multilingual)
• Import from the following metadata formats are supported:
  • ESRI ArcCatalog,
  • ISO 19139,
  • OGC services (WMS, WFS, WCS, CSW)
  • Feature catalogue XML
• Export – ISO 19139, GeoRSS
• Support of thesauri and gazetteers.
• Display of changes with GeoRSS
• Template base interface with possibilities to change according to user requirements
• Possibility of deep cooperation with any of map clients for display of on-line map services.

 System requirements

• Relational database(ORACLE >= 9, PostgreSQL >= 8.0, MS-SQL >= 2005, or other SQL databases)
• PHP >= 5.2 with  XSLT support
• Independent on Operating system

 Method for metadata editing

Metadata are stored in relational database and edited by dynamically generated forms. Therefore it is possible to amend other standards or profiles. It is possible to switch between profiles while editing. Individual profiles can be distributed into sections. With help of control elements it is possible to duplicate individual items, select from code lists or connect to supporting applications. Checking of mandatory items is enabled while editing.

 Fig. 1: Editing application interface

Concept of work with spatial data:

MIcKA enables to enter spatial extent of metadata:

• By choosing bounding box directly in map. All maps (for coordinates input or metadata extent display) are realised through connected WMS. Any WMS server can be connected (set in configuration file).
• By gazetteer search. Access to gazetteers is realised through connection to WFS server. By default WFS from HSRS server is connected. It serves administrative division of the Czech Republic and Europe (up to NUTS3 level). The software is possible to connect to any WFS server or may be configured according to user requirement to other gazetteer services. 

Fig. 2:  Entering of spatial extent using gazetteer and bounding box:

Concept of work with keywords:

The system enables several ways of classification:

• Thematic ISO categories (mandatory for datasets)
• Key words
  • entered by user (arbitrary)
  • chosen from thesauri (GEMET or another thesauri may be connected as web service to system. It is also possible to build our classification/ thesaurus on uniform server software compatible with GEMET)

In compliance with INSPIRE requirements parts of the system are:

• GEMET thesaurus service client - data classification
• service code list – for services classification

Key words are inserted in order to enable multilingual search.

Fig. 3: Support of GEMET thesaurus and service classification according to INSPIRE

Support of the INSPIRE:

• INSPIRE metadata profile is included
• selecting keywords from GEMET thesaurus
• selecting keywords from code list of INSPIRE services
• Continuous checking of metadata completeness according to the INSPIRE profile
• Batch checking of completeness of INSPIRE profile
• Implementation of catalogue service according to OGC CSW 2.0.2 / AP ISO 1.0

Fig. 4: Module for batch control of INSPIRE profile

Catalogue service:

1. Catalogue service is an integral part of the system.
2. It is based on OpenGIS® Catalogue Services Specification – profile Catalogue Service for Web (CSW) and OpenGIS® Catalogue Services Specification 2.0.2 - ISO Metadata Application Profile standards.
3. Supported operations:
4. Basic: GetCapabilities, DescribeRecord, GetRecords, GetRecordById
5. Editing: (CSW-T): Transaction, Harvest
6. Queryable elements: according to used standards (OGC, INSPIRE). May be extended according to user needs
7. Extensions:
   • OpenSearch standard is implemented. These formats are supported:
     • GeoRSS, RDF, HTML, KML
     • Web browsers integration is enabled
   • OAI-PMH harvesting support

Fig.5:  Metadata changes displayed as RSS channel in MS Office Outlook

 

Fig 6: Metadata search with OpenSearch in web browser MS Internet Explorer 8 (Czech republic Ministry of Environment)

Fig.7: Extent of metadata records as an output of GeoRSS in Google Maps.

 

Fig.8: Metadata records extent as KML displayed in Google Earth

 
Extensions:

To basic MIcKA application the following modules can be connected:

• CatClient – catalogue service client. It enables to search data in configuration-enabled list of connected catalogues or user entered catalogues. Accessible web services (WMS, WFS) can be displayed directly in the connected map viewer. CatClient can be installed also separately without basic system MIcKA. It is elementary and the most important component of metaportal / geoportal. There are two versions available. Both can be modified according to the user needs.
• WMS Viewer – display of map compositions from available services. It is based on HSLayers open source and provides full modern viewer functionality (OWS support, tiling, querying, editing, multiple projections support, microformats support, large scheets printing etc. )
• Micka - Lite – is an application with simple user interface that contains configuration-enabled form for metadata acquisition in INSPIRE profile and ISO 19139 format. Metadata is possible to store on local disk or send through CSW into MIcKA catalogue.
• Metadata Extractor – enables automatic mining of metadata from various sources (texts, images, voice files, web pages, etc.) and their insert into metadata storage using CSW-T.
• Download Manager – batch download of data from data storage for defined territory on the basis of information contained in metadata.

The system MIcKA can be further integrated with other applications. The system is suitable not only for metadata for spatial data management but basically as a tool for central management and evidence of various types of information (documents, data, applications, services, etc.)