GeoConference is a new tool for collaborative assessment and decision-making. It fuses geospatial information from multiple sources, including framework geoinformation provided by CGDI web services and ad hoc or situational information. It is an important aid for improving the delivery of geospatial information and expertise. This new tool for spatial knowledge building is useful in many domains, including environmental management and planning, resource exploration and exploitation, and the planning and development of extensive infrastructure facilities such as reservoirs, electric transmission lines and roads.
GeoConference works with the location neutrality of the Internet, so that people in remote communities have the same access to and view of geoinformation as those in major centres, and can participate as equal partners in meetings without the expense and time of travel. It provides observers in distant locations the opportunity to question and discuss the interpretations and proposals from centres of decision, based on what they know and see of their local situation.
In emergency management, as Civil Security Québec is demonstrating with its operational trials, GeoConference improves the cost-effectiveness and the quality of operations at all stages of the emergency management cycle (mitigation, preparation, response and recovery). In Québec at least, geodata conferencing is expected to be critical part of improved public safety.
GeoConference permits geomatics specialists to communicate and discuss their geoinformation and expertise without traveling to meetings. It provides a channel through which they can support decision-makers in a real-time, question-and-answer format. The georeferenced workspace allows geospatial experts to combine their georeferenced products with information from other specialists, from field observers, and from standardized geoinformation sources:
► Cascading Web Map Services (such as provided by CubeWerx’ CubeSERV software), provide access to enormous quantities of geoinformation for use in the geoconference.
> For example, GeoConference uses WMS to access the entire Canadian National Topographic Data Base (NTDB) as rendered geoinformation from the WMS maintained by the Centre for Topographic Information in Sherbrooke, Québec. The NTDB is the data behind the 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 Canadian national map series.
> GeoConference exploits the SLD features of WMS version 1.1.2+, which allows conference participants to access and choose among symbology options for WMS layers.
► Shapefile format is one of the most widely used ad hoc standards in the geomatics industry. GeoConference provides users with control over the symbology applied to Shapefile layers viewed in the map workspace.
► GeoTIFF format is supported by most remote sensing image processing software and by the OGC Web Coverage Service. The format conserves georeferencing information and is extremely flexible, allowing multiple bands, multiple bit depths, tiling, compression, colour tables, etc. When accessing GeoTIFF, GeoConference can perform many on-the-fly manipulations:
> Selection and combination of 8, 16 or 32-bit bands, with assignment of bands to the R, G, and B display channels;
> Several image enhancement operations;
> Image filtering (four common filter types are available).
The new geodata conferencing service components, in conjunction with other CGDI services, will help the remote sensing sector of the geomatics industry to develop operational applications of its products and services. It will make imagery and RS expertise more accessible to other sectors.