Processing spatial data on the internet

With the enabling Information Technology, disseminating every kind of information through the Internet became an enforcing condition for information providers. Now, it is more than being fashion and fun. Serving information on the Internet is a demand from the consumer as a commercial necessity. Internet allows all levels of society to access spatial data and even interactive mapping facilities that are available through the Web. Furthermore, Internet reshapes conventional characteristics of accessing, sharing, dissemination, visualization and analyzing conventions of spatial information handling. With today’s information technology support, user requirements determine remote geo-data processing as a need. In this paper a description is given of an application aiming at providing spatial data processing functions on the Internet is implemented using topographic data. In this framework, an architecture with the capability of services such as mapping, analyzing spatial data and dynamical visualization of results through the Web is designed for the users who reach the Internet with an ordinary Web browser. The architecture is implemented as a client/server model by using ESRI Map Objects, Map Objects Internet Map Server (IMS), Visual Basic and HTML. A Generalization model for Top10 vector data of the Dutch Topography Service (TDN) is built based on spatial data coding structure. Generalization is achieved by thematic feature selection operations considering graphical density in the generalized views. Although the model should not be seen as a substitute for full cartographic generalization, its simplicity makes it applicable. Generalization operations are activated as the user zooms in/out. This operation is named ‘dynamic generalization’.