WAIS through the Web - Discovering Environmental Information

David Crossley Geographic Information Systems Manager
Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN), Canberra, Australia.

This paper was presented at the Second International WWW Conference (WWW Fall 94) Mosaic and the Web - Chicago, USA (17-20 October, 1994).
Also available in A4 Postscript (85 Kbytes).

Contents

1. Introduction
2. About Environmental Information
3. The Need for Directories
4. About Metadata - data about data
5. Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS)
6. ERIN Distributed Spatial Data Library
7. Test Facilities
8. Future Requirements
9. Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

About the author

Appendix A : Example metadata file

Appendix B : Example query screen image - Part 1 - Map

Appendix C : Example query screen image - Part 2 - Region and Theme

Appendix D : Example query screen image - Part 3 - Extent and Servers

Appendix E : Example results listing

Abstract

The Environmental Resources Information Network [ERIN] is setting up a series of information retrieval services that allow ready access to key information about the Australian environment through an easy to use interface. This information is maintained by various custodians over a network.

These services provide access to spatial environmental information and directory systems [ERIN2]. The World Wide Web is an intuitive hypermedia interface to networked information systems. Incorporating Wide Area Information Servers [WAIS] allows powerful discovery and retrieval facilities. WAIS implements a searchable front-end to collections of information held at distributed sites by indexing each word in every readable document. The integration of the two is potent.

Each server on the network has an index prepared using each word in a metadata text file which fully describes each data set. Key structured fields in the otherwise free text are also indexed allowing thematic queries (e.g. marine data sets that relate to reefs). The addition of a map interface allows the query to be spatially restricted to a specific region.

For each data set that WAIS discovers, Mosaic can provide a multiformat response which presents a suite of files that form the complete data set. These files might comprise documentation, an image of the data (such as a map), the actual spatial data, and pointers to further information. Viewing the documentation and the associated files by way of this multiformat response allows the user to be sure that the data set will suit their purpose before attempting to retrieve the actual data set.

This paper demonstrates the integration of the facilities currently available and looks towards future requirements.