The national atlas as a metaphor for improved use of a national geospatial data infrastructure

Abstract

Geospatial Data infrastructures have been developed worldwide. Geoportals have been created as an interface to allow users or the community to discover and use geospatial data offered by providers of these initiatives. This study focuses on the development of a web national atlas as an alternative means to geoportals, when accessing a Geospatial Data Infrastructure (GDI). From usability studies undertaken during this study, it was apparent that interaction methods and information presented in many geoportals to help user review and make sense of the search results are far from optimal. The virtue of maps and graphics in order to stimulate visual thinking and to provide effective communication before and after 'a search' in current geoportals have not yet been considered essential. As a proposed solution, a national atlas metaphor was developed. The prospective use of the atlas schemata includes the prominent role of maps in the atlas and the organizational approach of the atlas were explored to transform design ideas into a working prototype of an atlas interface metaphor for improved accessibility of the GDI, called Aim4GDI. The Aim4GDI applied the atlas information structure (built as the realization of an adaptation of the atlas schemata) in order to organize thematic maps, images, graphics and information resources related to the GDI including metadata summaries. Metadata summaries are aggregated metadata of geospatial resources in the GDI such as offline data, WMS, and feature services (WFS). The Aim4GDI combines the metadata and query language for the Semantic Web with cartographic design templates in managing and visualizing metadata summaries. This prototype enables users to search and browse geospatial resources through developed visual methods. The table, thumbnail, bull's-eye, and Parallel Coordinate Plots (PCP) views are the visual methods that can help users indicate, compare, and associate the search results. The visual methods that are offered to help users browse and make sense of the geospatial resources include the topic directory and a map viewer, thumbnail, PCP, and in-focus views. In support of browsing interactions, the developed information structure is used as a narrative structure for providing an interactive storytelling presentation to users while browsing. To further demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, an extension of the atlas metaphor to support collaboration efforts via the GDI was developed. The usefulness of the visual methods of the Aim4GDI to help users search, browse, and collaborate with each other using geospatial data offered in the GDI were confirmed in a series of use assessments. It can be concluded that a national atlas metaphor is essential not only to represent a synthesis of knowledge of physical and geographic elements that characterize a country, but also to improve the discovery and use of geospatial resources offered via a GDI. Although this study focused on the use of a national atlas metaphor in the context of the national Dutch GDI, the results of this study are also applicable in order to help other countries advance the role of their national atlases in the world of GDI.