Building a spatial data infrastructure in Bavaria using Open Source software

Wolfgang Stoessel
Office Spatial Data Infrastructure Bavaria, Bavarian Surveying and Mapping Agency
Munich, Germany

Abstract

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) are being set up nowadays everywhere. Very shortly expressed it means "easy access and use of spatial data". Accessing geo information using web service is a very smart and cost efficient way, enabling many work processes to be streamlined.

Some of the main components of the Bavarian SDI will be

• WMS services (WMS)
• WFS services (WFS)
• Catalogue services (CSW)
• Metadata information system (MIS)
• Security aspects and access control
• License, business and distribution models
• ePayment solution

The geodata made accessible by SDI are the

• reference data as orthophotos, topographic maps, cadastral data, landscape models and terrain models
• user and thematic data of all the different administration units within Bavaria.

To achieve interoperability the use open standards as provided by OGC, ISO, W3C and others is compulsory. The use of Open Source software and the independence of hardware and operating systems is a political demand. Up to now we have quite a lot of experience in the LINUX-operating system, using it for desktop applications and for running server and web applications.

An integrated spatial data base is planned. It will be separated from the production unit and is designed for storing and delivering spatial data as reference and user data. All owners of the data are in charge of their data as far as quality, actuality and so on is concerned. The storage on a server farm is handled in a centralized way. The choice of database will be open source database PostgreSQL / PostGIS. We carried out many test and used it in real time web applications and found it as a very good solution for all kind spatial data: raster, vector data and thematic data. Realising the integrated spatial data base is not only a big technical challenge but a political and administrative one too.

For the WMS services the UMN map sever is a very good choice. For WMS services tests are carried out currently with the open source products "geoserver", "degree" and UMN.