Spatial decision support system using web GIS (Emphasis on integration of spatial and non-spatial modules)
Student name: Mr George R. Ghugloth
Guide: Mr V.S.P.Sinha
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: ESRI India (NIIT Technologies Limited)
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Chandramohan Adhikari
Abstract: A web GIS application needs to be dynamic having a strong interconnectivity
between the spatial and the non-spatial aspect of the application. A web GIS
application has to support the data being changed in non-spatial forms, in the
form of external business applications. These data changes that are incorporated
should reflect on the spatial platform and this can be achieved by a number of
methods, with the help of technologies that include ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE,
Geodatabases, external databases and the use of server side scripting to form a
dynamic link between the server housing large databases and the client side
application. The requirement was to create an application that supports field
operations done at the village level, which included collecting information
relating to sectors like education, healthcare, basic infrastructure, electricity,
water etc, obtaining them through surveys, and maintaining them in databases,
and providing a web platform that is supported spatially for decision support.
Therefore the project to be developed saw the need for effectively combining an
existing non-spatial application that worked with questionnaire data to be made
available onto a spatial platform, supported by an effective dynamic
environment, working as a spatial decision support system (SDSS). A prototype
application which fulfills this purpose was created using Adobe Flash Builder 4,
along with ArcGIS server 9.3 and ArcSDE used to create a dynamic spatial
environment. The application was made available on the web page through the
localhost url made available through IIS (Internet Information Services). Then a
prototype application, built in Adobe Flex 3, was built for demonstrating the
dynamic interconnectivity to a database, maintained in MySQL, freely available
with WAMP Server, using effective Server Side Scripting done in PHP, to
connect to pages from the database available dynamically, with the use of HTML
and JavaScript.
Keywords: Spatial Decision Support System, dynamic interconnectivity, spatial
& non-spatial integration
