Information Rich GIS Dissemination in Disconnected Environments

Information-rich maps are today rendered from powerful back-end servers. For instance, Google maps or Bing maps are web services that are resident on compute capable and energy hungry server class machines. Unfortunately, access to such Internet-resident web services is infeasible in disconnected environments such as a natural disaster. However, it is important to be able to disseminate map based data to route survivors of natural disasters around dangerous zones and provide directions to nearest relief camps during the aftermath of a natural calamity. To this end, this paper presents a software stack (a map stack) that can serve GIS information from low power embedded nodes. The system combines a spatially enabled SQL database, location-based routing, and multi-scale map rendering to serve information-rich GIS data on common handheld devices at minimal energy consumption. The maps are rendered on browsers on off-the-shelf mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. The system also provides a crowd sourced capability where end users can annotate maps with up-to-date information on the scene of the natural disaster. We have prototyped a fully functional map stack on a battery powered Gumstix Overo air platform. We show that the map stack is a highly extensible platform that provides low latency, Center of Advanced Spatial Technology University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Tel.: +1479-575-5126 E-mail: [email protected] Computer Science and Computer Engineering University of Arkansas, Fayetteville E-mail: [email protected] Computer Science and Electrical Engineering University of Maryland, Baltimore County E-mail: [email protected] and low energy dissemination of maps during a natural disaster.