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     2005 May — Vol. XIV, No. 3

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EOM April 2005 Cover Image - Click for Table of Contents

EOM May 2005 > Departments > Understanding Technology

Geospatial Portals: Broadening the Boundaries of Portal Technology

Chris Andrews

Every geospatial professional believes fundamentally that one of the best features that geographic information system (GIS) software offers is the friendly, intuitive map interface that allows users to quickly visualize and access data. We also know through trial and error that there is a huge difference between adequate map interfaces and excellent map interfaces. The best interfaces allow users to access data and maps without realizing, or caring, that they are using GIS at all. The worst mapping interfaces will be clunky and difficult to maneuver. Good GIS user interface designers know intuitively how to allow a user to access data through a map.

However, ask a geospatial professional what a portal application is and they will typically not have a good definition at all. Portals, often referred to as Web portals for their typical implementation as websites, allow organizations to publish data, reports, and applications from one central location. Organizations may offer portal access to their customers, their employees, or both. Public, private, and non-profit organizations may all implement portals that offer users one-stop-shopping for information about a specific business or information domain. Effective portals offer personalized reports and information along with dynamic content that encourages a user to re-visit the site. I recently visited my health insurance provider's website and found myself reading an article about exercise and lifestyle long after I had verified my doctor's information. I had been kept on their site by an effective portal strategy that incorporated my personalized data with articles and links that were likely to be of interest to me.

Web portal concepts and technology have grown out of the non-GIS side of Web technology, thus the concept that map-related user interfaces can provide a good interface to data outside of the GIS firewall has been slow to take hold. The integration of good portal design with user-friendly map interface design is a natural fit if the business domain has some geospatial component. Portals often customize access to data and applications based on a user's role or user-level access privileges, which is a common concept to GIS application designers. A geospatially-enabled portal can be defined as a site that is maintained by a single organization or company that offers public or internal users access to maps, information, reports, applications, and feedback pertaining to a geospatially-‌related domain or business function.

If we recognize that GIS tools may be an enhancement and not a central feature of a site, then we implement geospatial portals in many business domains that only cursorily require map information. One of the best examples of this is the Great Britain Historical GIS Project's "A Vision of Britain through Time". The site uses a simple map interface to quickly offer public users access to mounds of historical data about the districts and population of Great Britain through the last two centuries. The site is easy to use, offers tons of interesting data, and appears to be updated regularly. British history buffs must surely visit the Vision of Britain site often.
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Geospatial portals may also concentrate on a mapping-related domain. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Global Environment Outlook (GEO) portal offers quick access to data about socioeconomic statistics, fuel emissions, and approximately 450 other environmental variables. With just a few button clicks the user has access to GEO data, maps, and graphs. New data sets are added frequently and the public can download data.

Screenshot of the UNEP GEO Site
Figure 1: Users of the UNEP GEO portal have quick access to data, charts, and maps available for more than 450 environmental variables. The site features a user guide and frequent data updates, and can be viewed in French or English. Click on image to see enlarged.

The concept of integrating a map interface and spatial search capability with a Web portal contains the potential to open up a new horizontal implementation of GIS across public and private sector information domains. Better definitions and examples of portals will help demonstrate to clients or managers that portal technology can improve organizations' efficiency and outreach by making enhanced information readily available on the Web. The lack of geospatial portals on sites serving organizations as diverse as airlines, telecoms, and county governments points to an open opportunity in the geospatial marketplace. Going forward it will be interesting to watch how the open source and commercial GIS software vendors compete to meet the needs of this space. End of Article

The author thanks Jaap van Woerden and Stefan Schwarzer of UNEP for their comments and suggestions.

About the Author

Chris Andrews has been an advocate for standardizing and expanding GIS technology for the past eight years, programming and listening to customers in a variety of environments from private industry to the Kennedy Space Center. He is currently employed as Director of GIS Solutions at Idea Integration in Denver, Colorado, and may be contacted at chris.andrews@idea.com.

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