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11 th International Symposium for GIS and Computer Cartography for Coastal Zones Management(www.icoastalatlas.org). The strategic aim of ICAN is to share experiences and to find common solutions tocoastal web atlas development (e.g., user and developer guides, handbooks and articles on best practices,information on standards and web services, expertise and technical support directories, education, outreach, andfunding opportunities), while ensuring maximum relevance and added value for the end users (Wright et al.,2010). ICAN now counts over 50 member organisations including the IODE and the ODINAfrica community. Itis via ICAN that ODINAfrica became aware of MIDA and expressed an interest to use its technology as part ofthe development of national atlases within the African Marine Atlas project.MIDA is based on open source technology and the GIS data layer handling is principally implemented usingPHP and MapServer’s MapScript/PHP module. MapScript provides a scripting API (Application ProgrammingInterface) to MapServer which enables a programmer to extend/customise MapServer’s default functionality.This core technology was implemented in an early version of the African National Coastal and Marine Atlasesbut was seen as somewhat inflexible and outdated. Therefore the IODE funded an upgrade of the technologyand thus SmartAtlas was developed.Key features of SmartAtlasThe InterfaceThe client-side interface was implemented as a Rich Internet Application (RIA) in a modular way that makesit flexible and easily customisable. Particular attention was paid to cross platform browser compatibility. It isbased on the latest AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) frameworks(www.w3schools.com/ajax/ajax_intro.asp) and APIs, notably ExtJS (www.sencha.com/products/extjs) andGeoExt (www.geoext.org/). The mapping interface illustrated in Figure 1 includes four areas:1. Banner: A customisable HTML banner that contains the atlas title, sub-title, organisation, logos,personalised menus, etc.2. Layer Area: a resizable, collapsible/expandable area that contains three views of layers organised indifferent tabs:1.[Base] Built-in base layers, such as Google maps and Open Street maps2.[Overlays] Atlas layers3.[Selected Layers]: contains the list of active layers, sorted by layer depth, with the possibility ofchanging the layer order by simple drag and drop, and layer transparency using a slider.3. Map: GeoExt-based map with support for Web Map Services (WMS) and commercial map services. Themap supports tile caching, thereby allowing quick map pan and zoom. In addition to the classical navigationcontrols (zoom in-out, pan, full extent, feature information, etc.), the mapping interface included tools foradding features, drawing, measuring, printing, and previous and next in history. The map may be visualised infull screen by collapsing the layer and information areas.4. Information Area: A resizable, collapsible/expandable area that contains information about the selectedlayers.On the server side, SmartAtlas uses Minnesota MapServer to serve the GIS Data layers.Metadata SearchSmart Atlas integrates Catalogue Services for the Web (CSW) (Nebert and Whiteside, 2005) functionality.The atlas can be configured to connect to metadata catalogue servers (e.g. Geonetwork (geonetworkopensource.org),ESRI ArcServer (www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisserver)) so that users can search for datalayers within the atlas or other metadata stores included in the search, through the distributed CSWs.The search itself can be done through a simple or advanced search. Users can simply enter free text in a boxand hit the search button or do an advanced search using more detailed criteria like controlled vocabularykeywords which support a more standard search based on keywords published by standardisation organisations.Users can also select a geographical extent for the searched metadata records. Participating metadata servercatalogues can be selected by the user to be validated and included in the search.Different visualization methods are used to present metadata record search results. These are SummaryMetadata Record, Full Metadata Record and FAQ Metadata Record viewed in a FAQ style where basicquestions/answers about the metadata record are presented.The metadata also provides a link to either download the datasets associated with it or overlay these datasetson the mapping area through a Web Map Service (WMS) (De la Beaujardière, 2004) for further processing. Thisis designed to enhance spatial information exchange, and promote sharing between different organisationsthrough instant search on local and distributed geospatial catalogues.176
11 th International Symposium for GIS and Computer Cartography for Coastal Zones ManagementFigure 1. Smart Atlas View Services. This example shows bathymetry and other features for Namibia.Implementation and useAs part of ODINAFRICA a series of national consultation meetings were held in order to determine userrequirements in relation to national and regional needs for coastal information systems and required data. Basedon the outcomes of this process the broad requirement parameters for national Atlases were put in place. Thetechnical developments of SmartAtlas itself took place on a phased basis during 2012. After each release theuser community tested the software and provided feedback to the developers on bugs found and improvementsto be made to enhance user interaction. This interaction was invaluable in ensuring mutual understandingbetween the developers and the users. Two workshops were held in Nairobi and one in Windhoek, Namibia withrepresentatives from the various national and regional atlases in order to demonstrate use of the software andcollect feedback during the hands-on implementation exercises. During these workshops folder layouts, legends,symbols and units were standardised. Hands-on training was provided on how to create mapfiles, including thecreation of complex legends and symbols to be used in the final atlas.Each new SmartAtlas version incorporated additional user requests to ensure a final product that was tailormade to the specific requirements of the users. During the development period some national and regionalatlases were presented by national atlas team leaders to the user communities to receive further feedback toensure a final product that caters to the needs of different users (e.g. managers, scientists, tourism operators). Asof May 2013 it is expected that at least 15 national and 4 regional atlases will be published. These will bepresented at a regional symposium and exhibition in Maputo, Mozambique, which will bring together a widerange of potential users. Furthermore the national teams will review their national atlases, with relevant nationalstakeholders and the feedback will be used to improve the atlases. Key stakeholders are providing concretesupport to Atlas sustainability. For example, the Benguela Current Commission has shown great interest and hasoffered to host the regional atlas once they have appropriate structures in place.DiscussionThe original African Marine Atlas project has demonstrated effective capacity building for marine datamanagement and product development in Africa through the training of a core group of GIS practitioners andhaving them develop atlas products. The project has also been effective at increasing access to data on theAfrican marine environment through the establishment of a spatial data service. An additional positive outcomehas been the networks and teams that have been built up through this work. This has allowed progress towardsthe development of national marine atlases which will provide higher resolution data applicable and relevant at a177
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CoastGIS Conference 2013: Monitorin
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Sponsors
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Steering Committee Secretariat main
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Santos Basin, BrazilA.F. Romero, R.
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Coastline development and associate
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Visual resource management system f
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Use of Terrestrial-LiDAR for quanti
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Community beach monitoring: utilisi
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ResultsMetadata11 th International
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Coastal vulnerability index to glob
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generating probabilities contours f
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maps, the most critical conditions
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Statistical and spatial toolbox for
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Global oceans and marine planning
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Analysis11 th International Symposi
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Building scenarios and visualizatio
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Using a 3D physics-based visualizat
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Documenting situated tsunami risk p
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SeaSketch11 th International Sympos
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A structured model to enable coasta
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Developing and testing approaches f
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A dynamic GIS as an efficient tool
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GIS spatio-temporal modeling of hum
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ResultsCollected data11 th Internat
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The use of GIS and geospatial techn
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Ocean Radar for Monitoring of the C
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Geophysical investigations of marin
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A semi-supervised learning framewor
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Simulation of maritime paths taking
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COINAtlantic: Sharing through open
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Implementation of the marine data i
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