NRAAH

Requirement #1: Enter latitude and longitude points in the web application and have them appear on a map, and allow rule-based validation on points entered into the spatial database.

The Marine Environmental Data Service is finalizing a web-based application that allows subject matter experts from the National Registry of Aquatic Animal Diseases to insert locations where samples have bene collected (latitude and longitude). Once a location is recorded, test results for any number of diseases based on samples obtained at the test location can be recorded. Initially, the location was entered as text, but NRAAH staff needed facilities to display information on a map or through any mapping services. MEDS did not wish to develop this web map capability, given that such capabilities existed in DFO’s GeoPortal.

The project had several constraints:

• Security of the data;
• Rules-based validation based on spatial criteria;
• Auditing and synchronization between NRAAH and spatial data collections;
• Spatial expertise.

NRAAH developers came up with the following solutions:

• The current NRAAH application is stored in an Oracle9i database at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The point data stored in the spatial data collection must be synchronized with the NRAAH database. Although NRAAH developers wanted to host their own data, they decided it was more efficient to leverage GeoPortal’s capabilities to manage their spatial data and disseminate it on the Web.
  
  However, appropriate reporting between applications could not take place, due to the limitations in the web feature service response. A transactional WFS was therefore considered and eliminated. Since there was a tight coupling between the NRAAH and the GeoPortal spatial data collections, a database link was established on the DFO intranet. Complex interactions between the databases were handled using PL/SQL packages.
  
  
• For visualization, the data was set up on an internal web map server for viewing on the DFO intranet using an OGC-compliant viewer developed for the GeoPortal (GeoBrowser).