This thesis aims to define the concept of a marine cadastre through an analysis of institutional and legal aspects of Australia’s current marine based management system. It also aims to investigate the applicability of current legal, institutional and administrative land based spatial management arrangements, including the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) and cadastre, to the administration of current spatial rights, restrictions and responsibilities in the marine environment. (For complete abstract open document)

The fragmentation of administrative boundaries is a serious problem in the analysis of social, environmental and economic data. This research focuses on the development of a coordinated approach to the design of administrative boundaries that endeavours to support accurate decision making. Around the world, administrative boundaries have been structured in an uncoordinated manner, limiting data exchange and integration between organisations. The solution proposed in this research adopts the hierarchical reorganisation of administrative boundaries to enhance data integration and data exchange within the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) framework.The SDI is an initiative intended to facilitate access to complete and consistent data sets. One of the most fundamental problems restricting the objectives of the SDI is the fragmentation of data between non-coterminous boundary systems. The majority of administrative boundaries have been constructed by individual agencies to meet individual needs. Examples of the proliferation of different boundary systems include postcodes, census-collector districts, health districts and police districts. Due to the lack of coordination between boundary systems, current technologies for analysing spatial data, such as geographic information systems (GIS), are not reaching their full potential. A review of the current literature reveals that, until now, little has been done to solve this problem.The prototype developed within this research provides a new mechanism for the design of administrative boundaries. The prototype incorporates two algorithms. These are based on HSR theory and administrative-agency constraints and are implemented within the GIS environment. Such an approach is an example of the potential that is available when we link spatial information theory with the SDI framework and disciplinary knowledge.

The process of decision making is best undertaken with the consideration of as much information as possible. One way to maximise the amount of information that is being used in the process is to use metadata engines. Metadata engines can be used to create virtual databases which are a collection of individual datasets located over a network. Virtual databases allow decisions to be made using data from many different data bases at many different locations on a network. They shield the user from this fact. From the users point of view they are only using data from the one location. This thesis investigates some of the concepts behind metadata engines for Internet based Spatial Data Infrastructures. The thesis has a particular emphasis on how metadata engines can be used to create virtual databases that could be of use in the planning and decision making processes. The thesis also investigates some current spatial data technologies such as SDIs, data warehouses, data marts and clearing houses, their interoperability and their relationship to metadata engines. It also explores some of the more recent spatial data applications that have been developed in the context of metadata engines and Spatial Data Infrastructures.

Cartography is the science and art of making maps and thematic cartography is a subsection that deals with the production of thematic maps. A thematic map portrays the distribution of features, incidents or classifications related to a specific topic. With the rapidly increasing volumes of data, thematic maps allow users to efficiently analyse data and identify trends quicker. A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) focuses on making data available and ensures data interoperability through a geoportal and associated web services for discovery, display, editing, and analysis. Implementations of web service standards by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), and the ISO/TC211, Geographic information/Geomatics enable the display, query and custom visualisation of spatial data in a geoportal. In the past, sophisticated cartographic methods have been mainly available on desktop applications, but with the advances in web mapping technology these methods have become increasingly popular on the Web. Currently, producing thematic maps using web services is a manual process that requires quite a lot of custom programming. The orchestrations of standard web services automate the process to produce thematic maps in a geoportal. It is preferable to use standard web services as opposed to customised programming; the standards provide flexibility, interoperability, and standard protocols, to name a few benefits. The goal of this research was to determine how standard OGC web services could be orchestrated to produce thematic maps within the geoportal of an SDI. To achieve this goal, an orchestrated thematic web service, named ThematicWS, was constructed from existing implementations of individual standard OGC web services, which are monolithic and interchangeable. The thematic cartographic process for producing choropleth and proportional symbol maps was investigated to model the process and obtain a set of steps. Experiments were performed to determine which existing web service standards could be used in the process. ThematicWS was developed using existing implementations of the following standards: WFS to retrieve the attribute data, WPS for the wrapping of custom functionalities (statistical processing and SLD generation), and a WMS to produce the thematic map image. The 52° North and ZOO project frameworks’ orchestration capabilities were evaluated for to determine the suitability for producing thematic maps. The evaluation showed that orchestration is possible in both frameworks. However, there are limitations in both frameworks for automatic orchestration such as the lack of semantic information and poor usability of the framework. The use of WPS services to wrap custom functionalities and to provide a standard interface has proved to be useful for the orchestration of standard web services. ThematicWS was successfully implemented based on standard web service implementations using both workflow scripting and workflow modelling. The orchestrated ThematicWS can be called and consumed by a geoportal of an SDI to produce thematic maps according to user defined parameters. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / Unrestricted

The INSPIRE initiative requires that every European member state establishes a national SDI and related web services. Among these a WFS must be implemented to query spatial data. Therefore several Quality of Service specifications must be fullled by this web service, among these are performance, capacity and availability. In this study work a WFS will be implemented for Nature SDI plus. In this European project the WFS will provide spatial data from several data specications of ANNEX I and III. The main object is to test the conformance to the INSPIRE specification. Therefore load and performance tests will be performed.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of West Florida, 2009. / Submitted to the Dept. of Computer Science. Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 45 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

In the past decade efforts to develop spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) have migrated from the initial “top-down” national approaches to “bottom-up” and cross jurisdictional efforts at the sub-national level. Although national SDI developments are fundamental to building the SDI culture and policy, it is sub-national and local SDI development that will deliver the immediate benefits to citizens and the community. In countries which have highly decentralised federations of states such as Australia, United States and Canada, the challenge is how to co-ordinate the literally thousands of often small local government jurisdictions which are important contributors to state and local SDIs. In recent years, a number of co-operative spatial data sharing partnerships between local and state government have emerged in various countries around the world. These partnerships are relatively new initiatives that have been established to facilitate more effective sharing of spatial data between organisations, but also as a mechanism to contribute to SDI development. To maximise the benefits from these partnerships it is essential to understand the factors that contribute to their successful operation and sustainability. Therefore, the focus of this research is to understand these collaborative arrangements so that future data sharing initiatives can be improved and sustained.

The development of a Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure (Regional SDI) is much more challenging than the development of a National SDI initiative within a nation. This is mainly because of the voluntary nature of cooperation at a multi-national level and participation in a Regional SDI initiative. As a result, despite considerable interest and activities, the development of an effective and comprehensive Asia-Pacific Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure (APSDI) is hampered by a lack of support from member nations which results in this initiative remaining only an innovative concept. Based on this situation, the aim of this research is to design an improved conceptual model for Regional SDI and an implementation strategy. It is proposed that this problem can be partly addressed by increasing the level of awareness about the nature and value of SDIs; improving the SDI conceptual model to better meet the needs of nations; and by identifying key factors that facilitate development by better understanding the complexity of the interaction between social, economic and political issues.

Geographic data is a hallowed element within the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) discipline. As geographic data faces increased usage in distributed and mobile environments, the ability to access and maintain that data can become challenging. Traditional methods of data management through the use of file storage, databases, and data catalog software are valuable in their ability to organize data, but provide little information about how the data was collected, how often the data is updated, and what value the data holds for an organization. By defining geographic data as an asset it becomes a valuable resource that requires acquisition, maintenance and sometimes retirement during its lifetime. To further understand why geographic data is different than other types of data, we must look at the many components of geographic data and specifically how that data is gathered and organized. To best align geographic data to the asset management discipline, this thesis will focus on six key dimensions, established through the work of Vanier (2000, 2001), which seek to evaluate asset management systems. Using a conceptual narrative linked to an environmental analysis case study, this research seeks to inform as to the strategies for efficiently managing geospatial data resources. These resources gain value through the context applied by the inclusion of a standard structure and methodologies from the asset management field. The result of this thesis is the determination of the extent to which geographic data can be considered an asset, what asset management strategies are applicable to geographic data, and what are the requirements for geographic data asset management systems.

Die Zusammenführung von Geodaten auf Basis homologer Objekte ist ein wichtiger Teilprozess zur Wissensgenerierung aus verfügbaren Geoinformationen. Forschungen im Bereich der digitalen Geodatenfusion gibt es bereits seit Anfang der 80er Jahre. Das Aufgabenspektrum umfasst dabei die Aktualisierung, Veränderungsdetektion, Informationsanreicherung und Integration verfügbarer Datensätze. Gleichzeitig vollzieht sich seit Ende der 90er Jahre ein Paradigmenwechsel hin zum Aufbau dienstebasierter Geoinformationslandschaften auf Basis serviceorientierter Architekturen (SOA). Dieser wird insbesondere durch die Entwicklung einer Geodateninfrastruktur (GDI) im öffentlichen Sektor forciert und bildet einen Schwerpunkt der aktuellen Forschung im Bereich Geoinformatik. Innerhalb dieser interoperablen Strukturen kann ein entscheidender Informationsmehrwert durch die Kombination thematisch verwandter Ressourcen geschaffen werden. Die Fusion von Daten wird daher einen zentralen Bestandteil zukünftiger Entwicklungen im Bereich Web-basierter Anwendungen darstellen. Zur Bereitstellung von Geodaten in einer GDI hat das Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) bereits zahlreiche Standards veröffentlicht. Darüber hinaus eröffnet die Entwicklung des Web 2.0 weitere, oftmals Community-gestützte, Möglichkeiten zur Bereitstellung von Geodaten außerhalb standardisierter GDI. Die Verarbeitung dieser Geodaten kann durch die Einführung des OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) realisiert werden. Diese Schnittstellenspezifikation ermöglicht die Verlagerung von Geoprozessierungsfunktionalitäten in eine GDI und trägt somit zur Ablösung monolithischer Geoinformationssysteme (GIS) durch verteilte dienstebasierte Strukturen bei. Für die Umsetzung komplexer Prozesse wie einer Geodatenfusion ist die Verfügbarkeit, Interoperabilität und Verkettung beteiligter Dienste von entscheidender Bedeutung. Nach der Einführung in Grundlagen von GDI und Geodatenfusion werden in dieser Arbeit Systemarchitektur und Bestandteile einer dienstebasierten Geodatenfusion konzipiert. Im Anschluss erfolgt die Beschreibung einer proof-ofconcept Implementierung wesentlicher Bestandteile unter Nutzung des 52°North WPS-Framework. Gegenstand der Implementierung ist die Fusion von Straßendaten der Modelle ATKIS (Amtliches Topographisch-Kartographisches Informationssystem) und OSM (OpenStreetMap) durch einen Feature- und Attributtransfer. Die Metadatenverarbeitung, Generalisierung und Evaluierung im Kontext einer dienstebasierten Geodatenfusion stellen weitere Teilaspekte dieser Arbeit dar. / The conflation of spatial data is one important task concerning the generation of knowledge from available geo-information. Research in this domain has been carried out since the early 80s and incorporates updating, change detection, enhancement and integration of spatial data. At the same time a paradigm shift leads towards service-oriented Architectures (SOA) in the field of geoinformation science. In the public sector this change is promoted by the developement of spatial data infrastructures (SDI). Especially whithin these interoperable structures, the combination of thematically comparable ressources can be used to enhance available spatial information. The conflation of data in general represents a core component of future research on web-based applications. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has already published various standards for spatial data dissemination. In addition, the Web 2.0 developement offers the possibility of user-generated spatial data beyond standardized SDI. The conflation of institutional- and community-provided datasets can be realized by the introduction of the OGC Web Processing Service (WPS). The WPS interface offers geoprocessing capabilities within SDI and thus helps distributed serviceoriented environments to replace monolithic Geographic Information Systems. Availibility, interoperability and chaining of services are crucial for implementing complex processes, such as conflation. After an introduction to the fundamentals of SDI and conflation, a servicebased architecture for geodata conflation will be developed within this thesis. The proof-of-concept implementation is realized using the 52°North WPS and exercises the conflation of street data. For this purpose, the data models ATKIS (Authoritative Topographic Cartographic Information System) and OSM (OpenStreetMap) were applied to perform a transfer of attributes and features. Other important aspects of this thesis related to service-based conflation include the processing of metadata, generalization and evaluation.