DEVELOPING A PROTOTYPE GEOPORTAL FOR ZIMBABWE

A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the Bsc Honours in Geoinformatics and

Surveying

BY

MUREFU MIKE (R096318A)

SUPERVISORS

MR. S. TOGAREPI

MISS. J. USEYA

MAY 2013

DEPARTMENT OF GEOINFORMATICS AND SURVEYING

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

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DEDICATION

This project is dedicated to my mother, a paragon of love, determination and courage.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Foremostly I extend my profound gratitude to the supervisors of this project, Mr. S. Togarepi and

Miss. J. Useya. It takes a book to itemize everything you helped me with, a book which I hope to

write in the near future but for now, “Thank you for everything.”

To all the personnel of the Geoinformatics and Surveying department, thank you for providing

an environment and materials for which a project of this nature could be realized.

I also thank all the organizations that helped this project in every way. Of special mention is

Saveteck Solutions who permitted me to do this project.

Lastly I offer special gratitude to my family. I just cannot thank you enough but do know that I

always appreciate you especially when I seem not to be doing so.

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ABSTRACT

In Zimbabwe geospatial data sets are isolated amongst different organizations and individuals.

As a result geospatial data users are unaware of the availability and location of important

geospatial data sets. On the other hand the producers of geospatial data face difficulty in

publishing their geospatial data to the consumers. Moreso, similar data sets are being created

many times by different organizations, a situation which is retrogressive as well as economically

burdening. Taking into consideration that geospatial data plays a vital role especially in decision

making, the above painted scenario is negatively affecting the nation by depriving the decision

makers with sound and up-to-date data. The solution to this problem is a geoportal. A geoportal

is online based platform that enables for search, discovery, access, share and publishing of

geospatial data. In a time where internet use is increasing in Zimbabwe, the geoportal is the

befitting solution. It avoids the sequestration of geospatial data through the provision of a

common gateway to all geospatial data. A geoportal also facilitates for easier searching and

sharing of geospatial data. The provision of comprehensive metadata services by the geoportal

also enables users to ascertain whether the data sets meet their needs. It also helps avoid

duplication of data thereby saving money which could have been wasted. Finally a geoportal

enables for publishing of geospatial data by producers over the internet thereby directly reaching

the intended users and also at the same time gaining value for their data through purchases that

might occur as a result.

This document explores in detail the development of a prototype geoportal for Zimbabwe. A

research was carried out through the use of questionnaires to establish how geospatial data is

shared or exchanged between organizations and the geospatial metadata standards that are being

used. The research was also meant to establish if there are any metadata interoperability

challenges. Using free and open source software a prototype geoportal was then developed. The

prototype enables one to search, discover, access, share and publish geospatial data over the

internet. The geospatial data is published using the ISO 19139 metadata standard, a standard

derived from ISO 19115, which has been adopted in Zimbabwe.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................................4

ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................5

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................6

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................8

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................8

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................9

1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY ............................................................................................... 10

1.2 PROBLEM DEFINITION AND JUSTIFICATION ......................................................... 12

1.3.1 MAJOR OBJECTIVE ............................................................................................... 13

1.3.2 MINOR OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................. 13

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................. 13

1.5 REPORT STRUCTURE .................................................................................................. 14

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................... 15

2.1 METADATA: DESCRIBING GEOSPATIAL DATA ..................................................... 15

2.1.1 GEOSPATIAL METADATA STANDARDS ........................................................... 16

2.2 GEOSPATIAL METADATA STANDARDS IN ZIMBABWE ....................................... 18

2.3 GEOSPATIAL DATA CATALOGUE: MAKING DATA DICOVERABLE ................... 18

2.8 OVERVIEW OF SOME OPEN GIS CONSORTIUM (OGC) DEFINED WEB SERVICES

.............................................................................................................................................. 23

2.9 OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE WHICH CONSTITUTE A GEOPORTAL ...................... 24

2.9.1 GEONETWORK OPENSOURCE ............................................................................ 24

2.9.2 ESRI GEOPORTAL SERVER .................................................................................. 25

2.9.3 GEOSERVER ........................................................................................................... 25

2.9.6 OTHER SOFTWARE ............................................................................................... 26

JAVA RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................. 26

NOTEPAD ++ ................................................................................................................... 26

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 27

3.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ......................................................................................................... 27

3.3 INSTALLATION OF SOFTWARE ................................................................................. 29

3.4 TOMCAT USERS ........................................................................................................... 29

3.5 CUSTOMIZATION OF GEONETWORK‟S APPEARANCE ......................................... 30

3.6 SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE ..................................................................................... 31

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3.7.1 USING GEONETWORK ADMINSTRATOR SURVIVAL TOOL (GAST) TO

CONNECT TO THE DATABASE .................................................................................... 32

3.9 STARTING AND RUNNING THE APPLICATIONS WITH TOMCAT ........................ 33

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, AND ANALYSIS ............................................................................ 34

4.1 RESULTS ....................................................................................................................... 34

4.2 ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 37

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................... 38

5.1 CONCLUSSION ............................................................................................................. 38

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................. 38

REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 39

APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................... 41

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE ....................................................................................... 41

APPENDIX 2: GEOPORTAL HOMEPAGE ......................................................................... 44

APPENDIX 3: ADVANCED SEARCH ................................................................................ 45

APPENDIX 4: SEARCH RESULTS ..................................................................................... 45

APPENDIX 5: VIEWING METADATA ............................................................................... 46

APPENDIX 6: MAP VIEWER .............................................................................................. 46

APPENDIX 7: WEB MAP SERVICES ................................................................................. 47

APPENDIX 8: CREATING NEW MAPS ............................................................................. 47

APPENDIX 9: USER ACCOUNT ADMINSTRATION ........................................................ 48

APPENDIX 10: CREATING METADATA .......................................................................... 48

APPENDIX 11: PUBLISHING METADATA ....................................................................... 49

APPENDIX 12: MANAGING METADATA ........................................................................ 49

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Geoportals and SDI .................................................................................................... 10

Figure 2: Basic usage of catalog services and related SDI elements from a user point ................ 18 Figure 3: Interaction of web map client with catalogue and map servers .................................... 20

Figure 4: Geoportal Architecture ............................................................................................... 21 Figure 5: The roles of the geoportal ........................................................................................... 23

Figure 6: Data and Process flow diagram ................................................................................. 28 Figure 7: The edited tomcat-users.xml file................................................................................. 30

Figure 8: Software Architecture of the prototype Geoportal....................................................... 31 Figure 9: zimgeoportal „geonetwork‟ context file for apache tomcat .......................................... 32

Figure 10: geoserver context file for apache tomcat ................................................................... 33 Figure 11: The geoportal homepage .......................................................................................... 36

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Color scheme used in customizing GeoNetwork‟s appearance………………………30

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter serves to preface the scope of this project. It highlights the background study and

the problems which were identified to motivate a project of this nature to be carried out. It is also

the task of this chapter to underscore the objectives which this project sought to achieve.

Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) refers to the technologies, policies and institutional

arrangements that facilitate the availability of and access to spatial data. The SDI provides the

basis for spatial data discovery, evaluation, and application for users and providers within all

levels of government, the commercial sector, the non-profit sector, the academia and by citizens

in general,(GSDI, 2009)

SDIs are a keystone for the development of a nation. There is a lot of economic potential that is

locked away in spatial data holdings and this potential is realized by making the data widely

available through an SDI, (Makanga et al., 2008).

An SDI hosts geographic data and attributes, sufficient documentation (metadata), a means to

discover, visualize, and evaluate the data (catalogues and Web mapping), and some methods to

provide access to the geographic data. Beyond this are additional services or software to support

applications of the data. SDI also includes the organizational agreements needed to coordinate

and administer it on a local, regional, national, and or trans-national scale. Although the core SDI

concept includes within its scope neither base data collection activities or myriad applications

built upon it, the infrastructure provides the ideal environment to connect applications to data

thereby influencing both data collection and applications construction through minimal

appropriate standards and policies,(GSDI, 2009).

While an SDI is the overarching environment formed by the conflux of several geospatial data

providers each of which granting access through specific web services, a geoportal provides

means to give humans some level of interactive access to these data resources, including web-

based viewers and metadata-based discovery tools, (Davis et al., 2009), see Figure 1.

A geoportal is a website that presents an entry point to geographic content on the web, or more

simply, a website where geographic data can be discovered, (Tait, 2005).Pichler et

al(2007)defined a geoportal as a door or gateway to a collection of information resources,

including data sets, services, cookbooks, news, tutorials, tools and an organized collection of

links to many other sites usually through catalogs.

Geoportals organize content and services such as directories, search tools, community

information, support resources, data and applications. They provide capabilities to query

metadata records for relevant data and services, and then link directly to the on-line content

services themselves. They can also control commercial usage of services by facilitating the sale

or purchase of data and services, (Maguire et al., 2005).

Maguire et al (2005)also classifies geoportals into two groups; catalog geoportals and application

geoportals. Catalog geoportals are mainly concerned primarily with organizing and managing

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access to geospatial information and Application geoportals provide online, dynamic geographic

web services.

Figure 1: Geoportals and SDI

(Adapted from Davis, C. A., et al. (2009))

1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY

In April 2005, 83 countries had established National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)

Clearinghouses on the internet. This development indicates the large extent to which nations are

prioritizing and formalizing NSDI initiatives. There is an obviously evident lagging behind of

formal NSDI activity in Africa although there is a lot of informal activity that will contribute to

the formal NSDI once governments are fully willing to participate in and take ownership of

NSDI initiatives, (Makanga et al., 2008)

In this endeavor, Zimbabwe has not been left behind. The initial attempts for a NSDI for

Zimbabwe started with the formation of the Land Information Systems/Geographic Information

Systems (LIS/GIS) committee in the mid 1980‟s. The committee aimed at harmonizing the

collection and distribution of geospatial data. The LIS/GIS committee also managed to run a

newsletter publication called ZIMGIS. The committee was later rebranded to ZIMGISA and later

to the National Spatial Data Framework (NASDAF). The NASDAF phase saw the introduction

of workgroups notably the Metadata working group which was geared mainly towards

harmonization of geospatial data. NASDAF also focused on getting executive support through

awareness and a proposed university or individual research program. It was also the aim of the

NASDAF to develop inventories of spatial data holdings and also of the various stakeholders,

(Zimbabwe NSDI, 2011).

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In a joint study that was carried out by the University of Zimbabwe and Midlands State

University it was established that;

i. There was no formal SDI in Zimbabwe.

ii. Some thematic data sets are available from agencies such as the Forestry Commission,

the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Agricultural and Extension

Services (AGRITEX), the Environment and Remote Sensing Institute (ERSI) and the

Central Statistics Office (which provides socio-economic data). Each of these data sets

was produced in an arbitrary standard, which makes it very difficult to combine data sets

from different agencies.

iii. Efforts were underway to create digital databases through conversion of existing maps

into digital format. Some of the organizations involved were the Department of the

Surveyor General, Forestry Commission, Natural Resources, National Parks, and

Ministry of Health. However, it was still difficult for potential users to establish the

datasets that are existing and if these can satisfy their requirements.

iv. The Surveyor General‟s Department was at that time developing an Integrated GIS

database that was being funded by a Swedish agency. The system could be technically

sound but it lacked a vision of becoming a component of a larger nationally coordinated

system, (Mavima et al., 2001).

The year 2004 saw the launch of the Zimbabwe Spatial Data Infrastructure (ZSDI) whose effort

was to encompass all aspects of SDI. This saw the development of three major working groups

namely The Education, Training and Publicity Work Group, The Legal and Policy Work Group

and lastly The Standards Work Group. It was also recognized that for these initiatives to be

sustainable, they had to be recognized by policy thus a need for a push towards the national

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy formulation. The ZSDI also managed

to register some successes which included among them;

i. Receiving financial aid from the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI).

ii. Conducting a workshop in June 2004 with almost 50 participants.

iii. Holding an annual ZSDI conference in Harare, in November 2004.

Despite these successes, mass exodus of some influential members (especially due to the

relocation of SADC-RRSU to Botswana) led to this effort‟s collapse in 2005. The Survey

Institute of Zimbabwe (SIZ) in 2007 rebranded its Aerial Survey Discipline to the current Spatial

Information Management (SIM) Discipline to resuscitate the SDI efforts in the country and in

2010 an NSDI sub-committee was set up as part of SIM. This subcommittee drafted and

submitted a paper which was largely received by the Ministry of Information and

Communication Technology, (Zimbabwe NSDI, 2011).

In July 2011 a workshop for an NSDI for Zimbabwe on mapping the way forward was held. In

the group discussions that occurred, the Standards and Metadata group consensually affirmed

that there was need to synthesize the standards that are already in existence, a need for workshop

on international standards that have been set and a need to create a portal for metadata for

Zimbabwe, (Zimbabwe NSDI, 2012).

Sequential to the 2011 workshop, another Zimbabwe NSDI workshop was held in June 2012. It

was proposed at the gathering that a national geoportal be put in place. This will be an online

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platform for geospatial data discovery, access, sharing and publishing. It was also settled that the

metadata on the geoportal should meet the following expectations:

i. Data source, for example, topographical map, Global Positioning Systems (GPS),

satellite image.

ii. Data author (name, qualification, organization).

iii. Applications of data (use).

iv. Quality checks (conforming to specific standard geographic specifications (spatial

reference system).

v. Date of data production.

vi. Editions/edits made, how, when and by whom?

vii. Data format.

viii. Geometry information e.g. point, polyline, polygon.

ix. Extent of data (Min, Max X, Y).

x. Date of data collection.

xi. Price/conditions of access to data.

It was also noted that some of the organizations dealing with spatial data standards were

International Standards Organization (ISO) and Open GIS Consortium (OGC) and locally there

is the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ), (Zimbabwe NSDI, 2012).

In Africa, SDIs are being implemented, although in some instances they are done so using a

different name, (Makanga et al., 2008). In South Africa they have implemented what they call a

National Spatial Information Infrastructure (NSIF). The framework deals in core data sets from

Administrative and Cadastral Boundaries, Elevation, Land cover, Hydrographic data, Services

and Utilities and Digital Orthophotos. As of 2008 international metadata standards were being

developed. There is a web-based Spatial Data Discovery Facility (SDDF) which connects spatial

data users with spatial data sources. This facility contains metadata,(Onah, 2009)

1.2 PROBLEM DEFINITION AND JUSTIFICATION

Geospatial data and resources in Zimbabwe are sequestered across various organizations and

individuals. In most cases the availability and location of vital geospatial data are generally

unknown. Due to this geospatial data consumers have difficulty in discovering, finding and

accessing important datasets. As a result, similar datasets are captured several times by different

organizations, a scenario which is retrogressive and not cost effective. To compound the problem

the geospatial data resident with the various organizations or individuals, does not meet

conventional metadata standards, therefore causing lack of interoperability in datasets and

difficulty in data sharing. More so, there is no geoportal in Zimbabwe which is an online

platform for discovery, access, sharing and publishing of geospatial data. Considering the

importance of geospatial information in decision-making of organizational, national and

international issues, this scenario is negatively influencing development at various levels in

Zimbabwe. In a moment where internet use in Zimbabwe is increasingly getting popular and

where many are appreciating and understanding the leverage it brings with, a geoportal is a

befitting solution to this problem. It will provide a platform that will link both the consumers and

providers of geospatial data and force stakeholders to harmonize the standardization of their

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geospatial data, hence capture metadata that will facilitate discovery and interoperability of the

datasets. To this end, geospatial data consumers will discover, find and access resources they

need and the adage that says “capture once utilize many times” will become a reality. On the

other hand it avails the geospatial data providers with the floor of publishing their metadata and

consequently gaining value from their data through the contacts and purchases made via the

geoportal. The geoportal ensures that metadata is according to conventional standards, hence

providing an environment conducive to sharing and interoperability of geospatial datasets. The

geoportal also plays a critical role in national development as a gateway to geospatial

information necessary for decision making, such as but not limited to disaster management and

infrastructural development.

1.3 OBJECTIVES

1.3.1 MAJOR OBJECTIVE

1. To develop a prototype geoportal for search, discovery, access, sharing and publishing of

geospatial data in Zimbabwe.

1.3.2 MINOR OBJECTIVES

1. To establish how geospatial data is currently being shared/exchanged between

organizations and the geospatial metadata standards they are using.

2. To establish geospatial metadata interoperability challenges between organizations.

3. To design and implement a prototype geoportal using open source software packages.

4. To validate the prototype geoportal.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions which guided the project are as follows:

1. How best can a platform for accessing, discovering, sharing and publishing of

geospatial information be developed?

2. How is geospatial data being shared or exchanged between organizations and

individuals?

3. Which metadata standards are currently being used to document geospatial data?

4. What challenges are being faced by organizations and individuals in interoperability

of datasets?

5. What are the available open source software packages required to develop a

geoportal?

6. What are the formats for metadata standards, and which ones can be used and how

can they be implemented for Zimbabwe?

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1.5 REPORT STRUCTURE

This report is organized in the following manner:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This is an introduction of the project done.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

It is a review of all the literature that guided and shaped this project.

Chapter 3: Methodology

The chapter is a delving into the methods that were used to bring the project to reality.

Chapter 4: Results, Analysis and Recommendations

The analysis of the project and any recommendations that can be made to improve the project

in future are the focus of this chapter.

Chapter 5: Conclusion

This is a closing of the report.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter is a comprehensive outline of the literature that influenced and aided in the

success of this project.

2.1 METADATA: DESCRIBING GEOSPATIAL DATA

Society and government recognize the importance of geospatial data, but its effective use has

stayed limited by poor cognition of the existence and location of data, poorly documented data

collections, and data dissonances. Given that the geospatial data is dynamical in nature, it can be

concluded that describing the data is very vital. For a community centered on the concept of data

sharing, data coupled with its documentation (metadata) is way more prized that undocumented

data, (ITC, 2007).

Metadata commonly referred to as “data about data” describe the lineages of and monitors the

changes to data. The term is used to describe the summary information or attributes of a dataset.

In the geospatial fraternity metadata is defined as the What, Who, Where, Why, When and How

of the data, (GSDI, 2009).

Some of the gains that emanate from the use of metadata are:

i. Organization and maintenance of an enterprise‟s investment in data and provision of

information on the data holdings in catalogue form, (GSDI, 2009).

ii. Avoidance of duplication of effort by ensuring the organization is aware of the existence

of data sets through coordinated metadata development, (GSDI, 2009).

iii. Consumers easily locate all available geospatial and associated data relevant to an area of

interest or concern, thereby improving the quality of their analysis and uses, (ITC, 2007).

iv. Enhancement of the data management procedures of the geospatial community via the

metadata collection, (GSDI, 2009).

v. Advancement of the availability of geospatial data beyond the traditional geospatial

community with the use advertising of descriptive metadata, (GSDI, 2009).

vi. Advertising and promotion by the data providers of the availability of their data, (ITC,

2007)and potential link to on line services (e.g. text reports, images, web mapping and

ecommerce) that relate to their specific data sets, (GSDI, 2009).

vii. Increased revenue and value from the data in the long run, (ITC, 2007).

There are three levels of metadata based on how it is used which are:

a. Discovery metadata

GSDI (2009) defines discovery metadata as the least amount of information that needs to

be provided to communicate to the inquirer the nature and content of the dataset.

Discovery metadata enable users to find the datasets that carry the type of geospatial data

they are interested in. Data providers avail this type of data to make known the contents

of their data holdings, (ITC, 2007). This implies discovery metadata underscores the

matters of “who has what data and from where?” Who: defines the originator, data

supplier and possibly intended audience of the data. What: describes the title, resolution

and description of the dataset. Where: delineates the geographical extent of the data

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contents based on latitude / longitude, co-ordinates, geographical names or administrative

areas, (ITC, 2007).

b. Exploration metadata

This level of metadata permits consumers to do a deeper analysis of the discovered data

collections and to ascertain if or which of the data is utile to their aims. Exploration

metadata guarantees that data is used correctly and sagely. It addresses the issues of

“why, when and how was data collected?” Why: defines the reasons for data collection

and its purported uses. When: establishes the date that the data symbolizes, when the data

was produced and the modification sequence, if needed. How: demystifies the

instruments, routines and sources used to bring forth the data and how the data is

structured,(ITC, 2007).

c. Exploitation metadata

Exploitation metadata accords consumers to decide how to obtain the data that they

surmise can meet their needs. This kind of metadata ensures that the existing data can be

accessed, transferred, loaded, interpreted and used in consumers‟ end applications.

Metadata of this genial also admits details on contact person, the price of the data and

copyright, (ITC, 2007).

The prototype geoportal which was developed incorporates and provides a platform for all the

levels of metadata. Discovery metadata is mandatory and though highly recommended it the

choice of the data producer depending on the type of the dataset to provide with exploration and

exploitation metadata.

2.1.1 GEOSPATIAL METADATA STANDARDS

In order to make metadata readable, perceivable and functional by consumers from different

fields, standards are essential for the provision of a common nomenclature and to define how to

document geospatial data, (ITC, 2007).

Currently three main metadata standards subsist that are of global ambit and usage, (ITC,

2007)and that provide details for all the levels of metadata aforementioned, (GSDI, 2009).

The Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)

This was made in the United States of America(USA) by the Federal Geographic Data

Committee (FGDC) in 1994, (ITC, 2007) and revised in 1998, (GSDI, 2009). It is a national

spatial metadata standard developed to corroborate the development of the National Spatial Data

Infrastructures. The standard has also been embraced and applied in the United States, Canada,

and the United Kingdom through the National Geographic Data Framework (NGDF) and its heir

the Association for Geographic Information (AGI). It is also in use by the South African Spatial

Data Discovery Facility (SDDF), the Inter-American Geospatial Data Network in Latin America,

and also in Asia, (GSDI, 2009)

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CEN Pre-standard

In 1992 the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) formed the Technical Committee (TC)

287 with a mandate for geographic information standards. A household of European Pre-

standards were embraced in 1998 including the 'ENV (Euro-Norme Voluntaire) 12657

Geographic information - Data description - Metadata'. CEN TC 287 was reconvened in 2003 to

address the development of European profiles of International Standards Organization (ISO) TC

211 standards. A number of national and regional initiatives have also formulated metadata

standards. These include initiatives managed by The Australian and New Zealand Land

Information Council (ANZLIC) and two completed European Commission financed projects

(LaClef and ESMI) now being imbibed by the INSPIRE project. These initiatives have taken

similar approaches in promoting a limited set of metadata (described as "Core Metadata" or

"Discovery Metadata") that organizations should use, as a minimum, to improve the knowledge,

awareness and accessibility of the available geospatial data resources, (GSDI, 2009).

ISO 19115:2003 and ISO 19139:2007

Promulgated in 2003, the ISO 19115 standard is for the implementation and documentation of

metadata. Its aim is to provide a clear procedure for the description of digital geographic datasets

so that users will be able to determine whether the data in a holding will be of use to them and

how to access the data. The standard also enables dataset cataloguing making it possible for data

discovery, retrieval and reuse. The benefits stemming from the use of this standard include

promotion of proper use and retrieval of geographical data, (ISO, 2003). The ISO 19139 standard

of 2007 is derived from the ISO 19115 standard and is designed to provide a spatial metadata

eXtensible Markup Language (smXML) encoding through a common XML specification for

describing, validating and exchanging geographic metadata. It is intended to promote

interoperability, and exploit ISO 19115‟s advantages in a concrete implementation specification,

(ISO, 2007). Both standards are of relevance to GIS application systems and producers/suppliers

of geographic data, ISO (2003) and ISO (2007). In North America, work is beginning to create a

North American Profile of Metadata based on ISO 19139 for Canada, the United States, and

Mexico. This will allow for the compliance testing of metadata files using XML, (GSDI, 2009).

General Metadata Standards

Other standards exist in the broader topic of metadata that do not particularly apply to geospatial

information.

The Dublin Core is a metadata element set meant to alleviate discovery of electronic resources. It

was primitively conceived for author-generated description of web resources and has attracted

the attention of formal resource description communities such as museums, libraries, government

agencies, and commercial organizations.

The Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) and the Vector Product Format (VPF) Digital

Exchange Standards (DIGEST) were formulated to allow the encoding of digital spatial data sets

for transfer between spatial data software. Both of these standards corroborate the admittance of

metadata elements in an exchange. Recently they have considered corroboration for standardized

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encoding of relevant geospatial metadata standards in their export or archival formats, (GSDI,

2009).

Though some standards for metadata are used locally such as the Standards Association

Zimbabwe and the Department of the Surveyor General standards, (Zimbabwe NSDI, 2012),

international metadata standards were assimilated in the development of the prototype geoportal.

2.2 GEOSPATIAL METADATA STANDARDS IN ZIMBABWE

According to Paradzayi (2005) and Chiwozva (2006) Zimbabwe has adopted the ISO 19115

standard. The implementation and use of this standard is monitored by the Technical Committee

(TC) MS 76 which is a cooperation of the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) and

Zimbabwe NSDI. In order to avoid duplication and save money, effort and time the committee

monitors any progress (and changes) by the ISO TC 211 which is the overarching body

responsible for designing any geographic information standards, (Chiwozva, 2006).

2.3 GEOSPATIAL DATA CATALOGUE: MAKING DATA DICOVERABLE

The rendering of discovery and access services for geospatial data is referred within the

geospatial realm as "catalogue services", (GSDI, 2009). Princeton University (2012) in its

dictionary the WordWeb defines a catalogue/catalog as a complete list of things usually arranged

systematically.

The gateway to the catalogue and its user interface permit a consumer/user to query distributed

collections of geospatial data via their metadata descriptions. This geospatial data can either be

“data” or services available to interact with geospatial data, (GSDI, 2009). Figure 2 below shows

the basic interactions of various individuals involved in the publicizing and discovery of

geospatial data.

Figure 2: Basic usage of catalog services and related SDI elements from a user point

(Adapted from GSDI (2009)

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A user interested in locating certain geospatial information uses a search user interface,

completes a given search form, specifying queries for data meeting particular attributes. The

search request is then transported to the Catalogue Gateway and poses the query to one or more

catalogue servers. Each catalogue server administers a compendium of metadata entries. There

are commands within the metadata entries instructing how to access the spatial data being

described, (GSDI, 2009).

2.4 GEOSPATIAL DATA VISUALISATION: WEB MAPPING

Web or internet based mapping furnishes with the capabilities to enable discovering and

visualizing of geospatial information referenced from catalogue service systems. A catalogue

service that provides only references to raw geospatial data would be of use to only geospatial

information systems experts. It is through making map displays of geospatial information that

casual users are able to interact with and see spatial data that was previously only available or

useful to the experts.

At a minimum web mapping integrates the following actions:

i. A client poses requests to one or more Service Registries to discover Universal Resource

Locators (URLs) of Web Map Servers containing desired information. The Service

Registries are based on the Open Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Catalogue

Services Specification.

ii. Service Registries return URLs and also details about methods by which the discovered

information at each URL can be accessed.

iii. The client locates one or more servers containing the desired information, and evokes

them at the same time.

iv. As directed by the client, each Map Server accesses the information requested from it,

and renders it suitable for displaying as one or more layers in a map composed of many

layers.

v. Map Servers provide the display-ready information to the Client (or Clients), which then

display it. Clients may exhibit information from many sources in a single window.

Figure 3 depicts a situation of a client accessing a Catalogue which actually implements a

Service Registry to discover data and web mapping services and then requesting and displaying

maps from different servers, (GSDI, 2009).

20

Figure 3: Interaction of web map client with catalogue and map servers

(Adapted from GSDI (2009))

2.5 GEOSPATIAL DATA ACCESS AND DELIVERY

From the consumers‟ standpoint access to geospatial data involves a sequence that goes from

discovery to evaluation, to access and finally to exploitation. Discovery (find, locate)

necessitates the use of services such as metadata catalogues to find data of particular interest

over a specific geographic realm. The evaluation process involves detailed reports, sample data

and visualization (e.g., in the trending form of web mapping through formats such as gifs or

simple vector) to help the consumer ascertain whether the data is of interest. Access incorporates

the order, packaging and delivery, offline or online, of the data (coordinate and attributes

according to the form of the data) specified. Finally exploitation (use, employ) is what the

consumers do with the data for their own missions, (GSDI, 2009).

2.6 GEOPORTALS

A geoportal is developed using three distributed GIS SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)

elements namely;

1. Website

This presents or acts as the user interface to the geographic application or portal.

2. Web services

They enable to publish geographic functionality as a web service;

3. Data Management software

This provides a managed relational environment for both raster and vector geographic

content.

21

Figure 4 below key outs these various components of a geoportal, their relationships to one

another, the enabling technologies and standards with which they are implemented, and finally

the key functions implemented in a distributed GIS and used by a geoportal application.

Figure 4: Geoportal Architecture

(Adapted from Tait, M. G. (2005)

Components: identifies the three major components in a geoportal architecture

Elements: defines the functional elements of each component in a geoportal architecture

Environments: refers to the information technology standards used to implement each element of

the architecture (HyperText Markup Language, HyperText Transfer Protocol, eXtensible

Markup Language, XML Style Sheets, JAVA Server Pages, ActiveX Server Pages, .NET –

Microsoft‟s web services technology, Simple Object Access Protocol, Web Services Description

Language, Web Map Service, Web Feature Service, Geographic Markup Language, Standard

Query Language)

Functions: identifies the specific capabilities implemented in each element of the architecture.

A geographic web site is evolved and deployed using standard web development tools, and is

comprised of two constituents; the web site framework and the functional tools. The web site

framework presents the geoportal via a graphical user interface to the user. The second

constituent is the functional tools that accord access to GIS functions such as geocoding,

gazetteer linkage, and mapping and query functions. These tools do not engraft the functionality

they present, but rather serve as a proxy to functionality which runs as geographic web services.

Geographic web services publish geographic content and functionality. Information technology

(IT) standards, such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol

(SOAP), and Web Services Description Language (WSDL), are utilized to corroborate the

deployment of geographic web services. Additionally, the geographic industry has published

geographic web services standards, which layer on top of some of these IT standards.

Organizations such as the Open GIS Consortium (OGC), International Standards Organization

(ISO) and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) are examples of groups whose work

supports the definition of geographic web service standards. Distinctive geographic web service

22

functionality that is published in a geoportal includes: map rendering; feature streaming; data

projection; geographic- and attribute-based queries; gazetteer/place name searches; metadata

query and management; and data extraction, (Tait, 2005).

Geoportals furnish with functionalities for searching, mapping, publishing and administrating of

geospatial data.

a. SEARCH

Search functions are collections of building block tools which are executed in sequential steps.

The first step is to locate a place through one of the several methods including a place name

search using a gazetteer tool, an address search using a geocode tool, or simply selecting a

location from a list. Once a place is identified, a second step in the search process is the executed

which is to search for a particular set of features or objects that are usually the focus of the

geoportal. In many cases searches allow both geographic and attribute criteria for searching. The

geographic search can use geographic content directly or content metadata.

b. MAPPING

Though it is not mandatory for geoportals to provide map visualization functionality, it is usually

incorporated to enhance the search process. For an application like MapQuest, the map is the gist

of the web site. In other applications, such as a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) geoportal, a

map enables the user to fully peruse published content. Additional functions such as pan, zoom,

and feature identify capabilities to aid the user in more thoroughly evaluating the published

content are usually integrated in the mapping functionality. Finally, the ability to view multiple

map services in a fused or single map image is also often employed.

c. PUBLISHING

The publishing process involves the addition, deletion, and modification of metadata content.

Depending on the sophistication of the website, publishing can be manual, through a web page

interface, or automated through a web service interface (metadata harvesting).

d. ADMINISTRATION

The administration functionality is simply an extension of the publishing functionality whose

additional capability is to review or approve metadata content submitted for publishing on the

portal web site. Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) portal requirements have prescribed that

administrative privileges should be granted to certain administrators so that they can edit and

validate published content. Additionally, administrators are responsible for publishing site-level

versus content-level metadata. Site metadata is used to support the portal web site presentation,

(Tait, 2005).

The developed prototype geoportal employs all of the functionalities mentioned to deliver online

access, discovery, sharing and publishing of geospatial data capabilities.

23

The diagram below provides a graphical view and summary of the above mentioned

functionalities which are performed by a geoportal.

Figure 5: The roles of the geoportal

Adapted from (Pichler et al., 2007)

2.7 OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

Lately a change has been detected amongst the program advanced users and developers which

has been called Open Source. It is type of approach whereby the users themselves propose

operations; they report errors and put forward solutions in the shape of a source code, so that the

user community takes advantage of the common work. The software tools related to Geographic

Information and Geospatial solutions through the implementations of the OGC Web Service

specifications have not been an exception in this movement. This is no surprise to the user

community, since for a few decades there have been projects such as Grass Proj and more

recently Gdal, MapServer, Geotools, GeoServer, PostGis, Deegree and GeoNetwork, all of

which have used a similar approach, (Manso et al., 2005).

2.8 OVERVIEW OF SOME OPEN GIS CONSORTIUM (OGC) DEFINED WEB SERVICES

Following are descriptions of OGC web services critical in the implementation of a geoportal.

Web Map Service (WMS)

This is a human interaction and processing service enabling access to dynamically generated

images through a simple interface (GetMap). These images are defined by their size (lines *

columns) and by their image format. Images are generated from a set of grid or vector layers of

geographic information framed in a given temporal, vertical and geographic enclosure (BBox),

24

whereon a priority order has been established and whereto a set of styles is applied, defined to be

used by default or, quite the opposite, it is the user who establishes it. That information

demonstrates itself in an image whose Coordinate Reference System (CRS) may be chosen by

the user. WMS may also provide a description of the structure and types of data associated to the

features (DescribeFeature). Another capability of this service consists of the delivery of

information associated to a feature coming from a layer that has been drawn on an image

(GetFeatureInfo).

Styled Layer Description (SLD)

This is a specification defining an XML encoding schema whose aim it is to allow setting

visualization rules and characteristics of geometric elements (points, lines and surfaces) and their

attributes. It enables to individually or collectively define colors, widths, filling styles and

family, sizes and styles of font to be applied on the texts.

Context

This is an XML encoding schema whose aim it is to allow storage of the necessary information

to reconstruct somewhere and sometime a setting whereon the sources of the present layers, their

order and style, the spatial dimension, the coordinate system, etc. shall be registered. In short, it

allows reconstructing of a snapshot taken by another person somewhere, sometime(Manso et al.,

2005).

2.9 OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE WHICH CONSTITUTE A GEOPORTAL

2.9.1 GEONETWORK OPENSOURCE

GeoNetwork opensource is a standard based and decentralized spatial information management

(cataloguing) system, designed to enable access to geo-referenced databases and cartographic

products from a variety of data providers through descriptive metadata, improving the spatial

information exchange and sharing between organizations and their audience, using the capacities

and the power of the Internet. The chief aim of the software is to increase collaboration within

and between organizations for reducing duplication and enhancing information consistency and

quality and to improve the accessibility of a wide variety of geographic information along with

the associated information, organized and documented in a standard and consistent way.

The main characteristics of the software include:

i. Instant search on local and distributed geospatial catalogues.

ii. Uploading and downloading of data, documents, Portable Document Files (PDFs) and

any other content.

iii. An interactive Web map viewer that combines Web Map Services from distributed

servers around the world.

iv. Online map layout generation and export in PDF format.

v. Online editing of metadata with a powerful template system.

vi. Scheduled harvesting and synchronization of metadata between distributed catalogues.

vii. Groups and users management.

viii. Fine grained access control.

25

The metadata standards employed in GeoNetwork opensource are the ISO 19115:2003 which

was approved by the international community in April 2003 as a tool to define metadata in the

field of geographic information and the FGDC, a metadata standard adopted in the United States

by the Federal Geographic Data Committee. GeoNetwork opensource also supports the

international standard Dublin Core for the description of general documents. This ISO Standard

exactly defines how geographic information and related services should be described, providing

mandatory and conditional metadata sections, metadata entities and metadata elements. This

standard applies to data series, independent datasets, individual geographic features and feature

properties. Despite the fact that ISO 19115:2003 was designed for digital data, its principles can

be shipped to many other forms of geographic data such as maps, charts, and textual documents

as well as non-geographic data. The underlying format of an ISO19115:2003 compliant metadata

is XML. GeoNetwork uses the ISO Technical Specification 19139 Geographic information -

Metadata - XML schema implementation for the encoding of this XML, (GeoNetwork

Opensource, 2011)

2.9.2 ESRI GEOPORTAL SERVER

In lieu Esri Geoportal Server could be used to implement the geoportal. According to

www.esri.com , this is an open source product that enables discovery and use of geospatial

resources including datasets, rasters and Web services. It supports standards-based clearinghouse

and metadata discovery applications.

2.9.3 GEOSERVER

GeoServer is an open source software server written in Java that enables users to share and edit

geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data

source using open standards. It is the reference implementation of the Open Geospatial

Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Service (WFS) and Web Coverage Service (WCS) standards, as

well as a high performance certified compliant Web Map Service(WMS). GeoServer forms a

core component of the Geospatial Web, (GeoServer Organization, 2011).

2.9.4 TOMCAT APACHE

Tomcat is the most commonly used open source servlet engine. It is the de facto standard by

which other servlet engines are measured. Powerful and flexible, it can be used as a standalone

web server or conjoined with other server such as Apache or Internet Information Services (IIS)

to run servlets or Java Server Pages (JSPs), (Brittain et al., 2003).

2.9.5 POSTGRESQL

PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) based on

POSTGRES, Version 4.21, developed at the University of California at Berkeley Computer

26

Science Department. POSTGRES initiated many concepts that have been adopted in some

commercial database systems, (The PostgreSQL Global Development Group, 2008).

2.9.6 OTHER SOFTWARE

JAVA RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT

The Java Runtime Environment (JRE), also known as Java Runtime, is part of the Java

Development Kit (JDK), a set of programming tools for developing Java applications. The Java

Runtime Environment provides the minimum requirements for executing a Java application; it

consists of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), core classes, and supporting files,

(searchsoa.techtarget.com, 2013).

NOTEPAD ++

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.

Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by General Public License (GPL).

Based on the powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure

Win32 (Application Programming Interface) API and Standard Template Library (STL) which

ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size, (Notepad-plus-plus.org, 2013).

27

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter delves into, in a detailed manner of the operations that were carried out in order to

develop a prototype geoportal for Zimbabwe which is a catalog geoportal.

3.1 QUESTIONNAIRE

Consequent to the objectives stated previously in chapter 1, a questionnaire was prepared. This

questionnaire sought to establish how data is currently being shared in organizations and the

standards they use to document geospatial metadata. In addition the questionnaire was meant to

establish the existing interoperability challenges between the geospatial datasets from different

organizations. Each of the copy of the questionnaire was emailed to various geospatial data

stakeholders in Zimbabwe for their responses. The stakeholders were selected from a list of

participants at Zimbabwe NSDI meetings. The results of the questionnaires were then analyzed

using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.0. Appendix 1 shows a copy of the

questionnaire.

28

3.2 DATA AND PROCESSES FLOW DIAGRAM OF THE GEOPORTAL

Figure 6: Data and Process flow diagram

Adapted and modified from GSDI (2009) and Nebert (2009)

29

3.3 INSTALLATION OF SOFTWARE

The following software were installed. The operating system used was Windows 7 Professional

Service Pack 1.

i. Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.7.0

1. The jre.exe file was downloaded from www.oracle.com

2. The downloaded executable was then run using the default settings.

ii. GeoNetwork version 2.6.4

1. The geonetwork-install-2.6.4.exe was downloaded from www.geonetwork-

opensource.org

2. The executable was invoked to run as an administrator.

3. A language selection screen popped up and English was selected by clicking OK.

4. “Next” was clicked in the new window to advance to the License Agreement.

5. The “accept” option was selected and then “Next” was clicked.

6. In the new window the installation path was changed by browsing to the path

c:\geonetwork and then clicked “Next”.

7. A message confirming installation path pops up and “OK” was clicked.

8. The “Next” option was selected for all upcoming screens until the installation

finished.

iii. GeoServer version 2.1.1

1. The geoserver.war file was downloaded from www.geoserver.org

2. The war file was the unzipped into the path c:\geonetwork\web replacing the

embedded geoserver 2.0.1 war file.

3. Though replaced the geoserver 2.0.1 was kept at bay for future use.

iv. Apache Tomcat version 7.0.30

1. User Account Control (UAC) settings were disabled.

2. XAMPP 1.8.1.exe was then installed.

v. PostgreSQL version 8.3 with PostGIS version 1.5

1. The postgresql.exe file was first installed using the default settings

2. The postgis.exe was the installed next.

vi. Notepad ++

The executable http://notepad-plus-plus/org was installed using the default settings.

3.4 TOMCAT USERS

The tomcat-users.xml was edited using notepad++ to add the roles of manager and administrator

of the gui (graphical user interface), manager-gui and admin-gui respectively. The figure below

shows the edited xml file.

30

Figure 7: The edited tomcat-users.xml file

3.5 CUSTOMIZATION OF GEONETWORK‟S APPEARANCE

Customization of GeoNetwork appearance was be done in 3 main steps:

1. Editing the geonetwork.css in the path (c:/geonetwork/web/geonetwork/geonetwork.css)

using notepad++. The web pages colors were changed by replacing them with new

HTML colors. Generally the color scheme which was used in customizing all the web

pages is depicted in Table 1 below:

Web page section Color HTML Color

borders green #008000

background orange #FFA500

text black #000000

Table 1: Color scheme used in customizing GeoNetwork‟s appearance

The other css file which was also customized is Calendar-blue2.css, containing the color scheme

of the calendar and it was changed to orange background and black text color using the HTML

colors.

2. Replacing the old images with new ones.

3. Editing of XML and XSL files using Notepad++ which are:

i. …/geonetwork/WEB-INF/config-gui.xml

ii. …/geonetwork/xsl/banner.xsl

iii. …/geonetwork/xsl/res.xsl

iv. …/geonetwork/xsl/metadata-license-annex.xsl

v. …/geonetwork/loc/en/xml/strings.xml

vi. …/geonetwork/loc/en/xml/about.xml

…/geonetwork denotes the path; C: /geonetwork/web/…

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3.6 SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

The diagram below illustrates the architecture of the software making up the prototype geoportal.

Figure 8: Software Architecture of the prototype Geoportal

Notes on Figure 8:

i. Apache Tomcat, GeoNetwork and GeoServer function on a machine which is Java

enabled.

ii. Apache Tomcat acts as the web server and also as the servlet container for GeoNetwork

and GeoServer applications.

iii. GeoNetwork provides catalogue services of metadata and the user interface/gateway to

the geoportal.

iv. GeoServer acts as the Web Map Server containing shapefiles (map layers) and it is

embedded in GeoNetwork. Geoserver can also be accessed through its own graphic user

interface for administration of the shapefiles.

v. PostgreSQL is connected to GeoNetwork and acts as the Database Management System

to Geonetwork of metadata and other necessary information.

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3.7 CONNECTION OF GEONETWORK TO THE POSTGRESQL DBMS

The following was first done in PostgreSQL DBMS.

a. Using the pgAdmin III interface, a user, „geonetwork‟ with full administration privileges

was created, with the password as „geonetwork‟.

b. A database, „geonetwork‟ was next created with the user, „geonetwork‟ as the owner.

c. Finally a schema, „geonetwork‟ was created in the „geonetwork‟ database.

3.7.1 USING GEONETWORK ADMINSTRATOR SURVIVAL TOOL (GAST) TO

CONNECT TO THE DATABASE

i. GAST was started up using the path Start-> All Programs-> GeoNetwork opensource-

>GAST.

ii. In the GAST window DBMS was selected under the Configuration panel.

iii. The DBMS pull-down list was changed from „Embedded‟ to „PostgreSQL‟. At this point,

the connection details of the PostgreSQL DBMS were entered. The PostgreSQL DBMS

was installed on Port: 5432 and at server (address): localhost. Since the database

“geonetwork” had already been created in the previous steps, and the user account

“geonetwork” with a password already set.

Having connected GeoNetwork to the installed DBMS, even after the “geonetwork” database has

been manually created, it still needed to be initialized so that the appropriate tables, default

settings/accounts etc. are created in PostgreSQL. This was accomplished through the Database ->

Setup panel route in GAST. Just clicking on Setup was enough to initialize the database, after

which GeoNetwork would be ready for its first use.

3.8 TOMCAT CONFIGURATION

Context files for Tomcat which “point” to the actual GeoNetwork and GeoServer installation

directory were created. The files were created with Notepad ++, and contained the following

instructions in figures 9 and 10.

N.B: Since the hub of the geoportal is geonetwork, the context file pointing to geonetwork was

named, zimgeoportal.

Figure 9: zimgeoportal „geonetwork‟ context file for apache tomcat

33

Figure 10: geoserver context file for apache tomcat

3.9 STARTING AND RUNNING THE APPLICATIONS WITH TOMCAT

i. Tomcat server was started by running the catalina_start.bat in C:\xampp folder as an

administrator.

ii. When the server indicated that it has started, a URL; http://localhost:8080 was typed in

Mozilla Firefox web browser.

iii. Clicking on „Manager App‟ prompted for a password and username.

iv. The username and password for the role of manager-gui from the tomcat-users.xml

highlighted earlier were used. The Tomcat Web Application manager was then opened

showing all the applications running in tomcat among them the zimgeoportal

(geonetwork) and geoserver applications.

v. The GeoServer 2.0.1 that was replaced contained some important map layers, world and

gboundaries required for map viewer, search and metadata sections of GeoNetwork.

Therefore to retain them GeoServer was first opened by clicking on „/geoserver‟ in

Tomcat Web Application Manager. Username, „admin‟ and password, „geoserver‟ were

used to log into geoserver administration. These map layers were then added into the

geoserver and also some shapefiles of the University of Zimbabwe were added for

illustrative purposes especially in geonetwork where they were entered as metadata. To

add these layers new styles were made in geoserver using the Style Layer Directory

(SLD) and XML functionalities.

vi. Browsing back to the Tomcat Web application Manager and clicking on „/zimgeoportal‟,

started the geoportal by opening the main user interface of the portal.

34

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, AND ANALYSIS

4.1 RESULTS

From a sample size of 20 organizations dealing with geospatial data, these are the results which

were acquired from the questionnaires.

Minor Objective 1

To establish how

geospatial data is currently

being shared/exchanged

between organizations and

the geospatial metadata

standards they are using.

Results

75% of the organizations

use both softcopy and

hardcopy to share or

exchange geospatial data.

20% employ softcopy

form only to share or

exchange geospatial data.

The remaining 5% use

hardcopy means to share

their geospatial data.

16% of the organizations

use their own

organizational metadata

standards and the other

84% use national metadata

standards which are either

the Standards Association

of Zimbabwe (SAZ) or the

Department of the

Surveyor General (DSG)

standards. There is no

organization using any

international metadata

standards.

35

Of the organizations that

are using national

metadata standards 36%

use the SAZ standards and

the remaining 64% use the

DSG standards.

Minor Objective 2

To establish geospatial

metadata interoperability

challenges between

organizations.

Results

36% use the same metadata

standards as the other

organizations they share or

exchange geospatial data

with. 64% of the

organizations use different

standards from those they

share with. That is 64% of

the organizations have

metadata interoperability

challenges.

36

Minor Objective 3

To design and implement a prototype geoportal using open source software packages.

Result

Below is a depiction of the homepage of the designed prototype geoportal.

Figure 11: The geoportal homepage

Main Objective

To develop a prototype geoportal for search, discovery, access, sharing and publishing of

geospatial data in Zimbabwe.

Results

The appendices 2 to 12 illustrate how the prototype geoportal meets the main objective.

Search – appendices 2 and 3

Discover- appendix 2

Access – appendices 4 and 5.

Sharing and publishing – appendices 9 to 12.

Minor Objective 4

To validate the prototype geoportal.

37

Results

In order to validate the prototype an investigation was made to see whether the prototype meets

the expectations of the Zimbabwe NSDI deliberations of 2012 for a metadata portal, (Zimbabwe

NSDI, 2012). Appendices 5 and 10 show how the prototype meets these expectations.

4.2 ANALYSIS

In carrying out an analysis of this project, it is best to investigate the results gathered in the

undertaking of the project.

The developed prototype geoportal satisfies the roles as spelt out in the major objective. The

searching and discovering roles are fulfilled by the „search‟ panel and „categories‟ section of the

geoportal. The access role is satisfied through the map viewer in the event a consumer is in need

of map layers and also through the contact details and access information in the metadata. Access

can also be done through downloading and linking to the data source‟s web address. The

metadata creation forms which are employed by registered users satisfy the publishing of

geospatial data role by producers/providers through the internet. The results collected through

questionnaires show that a large number of geospatial stakeholders employ the use of digital

(softcopy) medium to exchange/share their geospatial data; hence this will not pose a challenge

to the effective functioning of the geoportal which greatly uses digital data. In circumstances

where such data is softcopy but transferrable through compact discs (CDs), the publisher can

specify how one can get hold of the CD in the metadata section. Many stakeholders use national

metadata standards which are the DSG and SAZ. Officially there are no documents which spell

out these standards, but gatherings from Paradzayi (2005) and Chiwozva (2006) indicate that the

DSG and SAZ standards are the same. The differentiation between DSG and SAZ is a result of

which of the two organizations the stakeholders mainly deal with in the handling and

manipulation of geospatial data. More so, it can be deduced from Paradzayi (2005) and

Chiwozva (2006) that what are referred to as the DSG and SAZ standards, all point to the ISO

19115:2003. This ISO 19115:2003 is the adopted metadata standard.

38

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 CONCLUSSION

The project was able to meet its major objective which was to develop a prototype geoportal for

search, discovery and access, sharing and publishing of geospatial data between/amongst

different stakeholders in Zimbabwe. It is therefore reckoned that the prototype will significantly

simplify access to geospatial data, and in so doing it will help encourage and assist people who

want to use geospatial data concepts, databases, techniques and models in their work. The

prototype will go a long way in facilitating geospatial data sharing hence, avoiding duplication

and offering up to date geo-services with associated metadata about quality and fitness for

purpose. These services, to which it provides access to, provide a value addition to raw data

through encapsulating data in a single user oriented application. In circumstances where the

prototype is used in conjunction with mobile, desktop or server GIS packages it will offer

enhanced capabilities for a wide range of GIS applications.

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

The researcher recommends the following:

1. To adopt ISO 19139:2007 as the metadata standard to be used on the geoportal. Since

Zimbabwe through the DSG and SAZ corroborated by the Zimbabwe NSDI adopted the

ISO 19115 in the period between 2003 and 2006 (basing on Paradzayi (2005) and

Chiwozva (2006)), the researcher assumes that it is because the ISO 19139 had not been

promulgated yet until the year 2007. Besides the fact that it a commonly used

international standard, ISO 19139 inherently supports ISO 19115 from which it is derived

and its use of XML encoding not only does it enhance use of ISO 19115 but help to solve

the interoperability challenges of geospatial data in Zimbabwe.

2. To conduct educational forums on the concepts of metadata and metadata standards

especially guided by questions such as what are they, what is the difference between the

two and why do we need them.

3. To implement the geoportal using a server with high performance specifications in order

to handle the concurrent requests from users.

4. To setup a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Server in order to enable user online

registration. Since the servlet container used was XAMPP‟s Tomcat Apache, use could

be made of also XAMPP‟s Mercury v4.6 SMTP server from Mercury Mail Transport

System.

5. To register the geoportal as a Geonetwork node for easier harvesting of geospatial data

from other Geonetwork nodes.

6. To write a detailed help information file to enable users to effectively use the geoportal.

Also more functions can be incorporated on the website such as the geoportal being the

news hub of geospatial matters in Zimbabwe.

39

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Information for Sustainable Development. Nairobi, Kenya: 11.

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Geographic Data Committee Secretariat.

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http://notepad-plus-plus.org/.

40

15. Onah, C. C. (2009). Spatial Data Infrastructures model for developing countries: Acase

study of Nigeria. Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies: 100.

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Africa GIS 2005. Tshwane (Pretoria) , South Africa: 11.

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GI and GIS Workshop. Porto: 18.

18. Princeton University (2012). WordWeb.

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Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 29(1): 33-47.

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23. Zimbabwe NSDI (2012). Zimbabwe NSDI Workshop report: 19.

41

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE

Geoinformatics and Surveying Department

University of Zimbabwe

Faculty of Engineering

As part of a research project of developing a prototype geoportal (an online platform for

accessing, discovering, sharing and publishing geospatial data) for Zimbabwe I seek to learn of

the answers to the following questions. Your assistance in answering these questions is

profoundly appreciated and most of all, it will play a vital role in the shaping of a prototype that

is representative of the needs of all geospatial stakeholders in Zimbabwe.

NAME: ORGANIZATION:

POSITION: DATE:

CONTACT NUMBER: EMAIL ADDRESS:

YES NO

1. Does your organization or you as an individual use/create geospatial

data?

2. What kind of geospatial data do you use/create? Please indicate with an X where

applicable

Cadastral

Administrative boundaries

Hydrographic

Geologic

Transport/Street network

Agricultural

Other (please specify)

YES NO

3. Do you sell/share this data to/with other organizations/individuals

*** If NO please proceed to question 5.

42

4. How do you sell/share this data? Please use an X to indicate where applicable.

Hardcopy

Softcopy

YES NO

5. Is there documentation (metadata) accompanying this geospatial data?

*** If NO please proceed to question 10.

6. In the list below select all applicable metadata attributes that you capture/that come with

your geospatial data. Please put an X to indicate selection.

Title

Data Author Name

Organization

Contact details

Editions made By who

When

Date of creation/publication

Data quality information

Abstract

Application/Purpose of data

Data Category

Maintenance and update frequency

Spatial/coordinate reference system WGS84

Modified Clarke 1880

Arc 1950

Other (please

specify)

Geographical extent (min X, min Y)

Temporal extent

Geometry information (points, polygon, polyline)

Price/access and use constraints

Data distribution

YES NO

7. Does your organization use any standards to document metadata?

*** If NO please proceed to 10.

8. What type of standards do you use for this metadata? Please put an X to indicate

selection.

43

Organizational

Local (district, township, etc)

National Standards Association Zimbabwe

(SAZ)

Department of the Surveyor

General (DSG)

Other (please specify)

Regional SADC

Other (please specify)

International ISO

FGDC

Dublin Core

Other (please specify)

Not sure

YES NO

9. If local or national, are they applied by all organizations you share data

with?

10. What are the other organizations you share data with?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.

44

APPENDIX 2: GEOPORTAL HOMEPAGE

The

A geoportal user whether registered or not can use the search panel to search for geospatiatial

data. The user can search by specifying through the “What” , “ Where” and “When” options or

make use of advanced search options (refer to appendix 3) . Alternatively the consumer can

search or discover data through the data categories section. Selecting on any category will give

results of available geospatial metadata and in some cases the actual data falling in that category.

Also another way of discovering geospatial data is through the “recently added data” section.

The search results will give metadata of the available geosaptial data and in some instances an

option to download or interact more with data through the map viewer (see appendices 4 and 5).

The metadata provides detailed information on the dataset such as the author, tiltle, abstract,

publication details, acecess constraints and contact details to use when one wants the data. The

map viewer enhances the user experience through the provision of web map services from

different live map services (refer to appendices 6 to 8). Finally a registered user either as an

individual or organization can login into own account. The registered user can create metadata of

his or her own data using the ISO 19139 standard as well as publishing own geospatial data (see

appendices 9 to 11). The registered user can also manage own metadata (refer to appendix 12).

Search

panel

Data

Categories

Recently

added data

Map

Viewer

Login

panel

45

APPENDIX 3: ADVANCED SEARCH

APPENDIX 4: SEARCH RESULTS

46

APPENDIX 5: VIEWING METADATA

APPENDIX 6: MAP VIEWER

47

APPENDIX 7: WEB MAP SERVICES

APPENDIX 8: CREATING NEW MAPS

48

APPENDIX 9: USER ACCOUNT ADMINSTRATION

APPENDIX 10: CREATING METADATA

49

APPENDIX 11: PUBLISHING METADATA

APPENDIX 12: MANAGING METADATA