The Integration of Internet GIS and Wireless Mobile GIS

The paradigm of geographic information systems (GISs) is shifting from a closed, centralized GIS architecture, to an open, distributed geographic information services (GIServices) framework. With advances in computer networking and wireless communication technology, GIS is moving toward an integration of GIServices and spatial analysis functions via the internet and wireless communication. Wireless mobile GIS and internet GIS can be combined together to provide ubiquitous GIS power for various users at different locations with different tasks, such as urban planners, cartographers, first responders, bus drivers, realtors, and the general public. The integration of GIServices (including internet GIS and wireless mobile GIS) can synergize information-sharing and facilitate the diffusion of GIS technologies into broader applications and potential users. Online GIServices will encourage multidisciplinary cooperation between the GIS community and other communities, such as the computer science community, the education community, and the geoscience communication (Plewe 1997; Tsou and Buttenfield 2002; Peng and Tsou 2003). For example, Figure 48-1 illustrates a web-based GIS education project developed for the teacher and students at the Hoover High School in San Diego. The map shows the location of fast food restaurants and the overweight population nearby the high school from the census data set. High school students and teachers can use the online mapping tools to create a community-based project regarding the obesity problem. One unique potential of this application is that the high school students might utilize handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) units to record the locations of fast food restaurants on the streets and then combine these points into the web maps (Figure 48-1). (NSF–ATE) program (project website: http://geoinfo.sdsu.edu/hightech). Besides this education example, other disciplines and communities can also adopt integrated internet GIS and wireless mobile GIServices for providing better services and functions, such as disaster management, homeland security, tourism, and natural resource conservation. Recent developments in advanced network computing technologies, such as web services, grid computing, and semantic web provide a promising future for the next generation of internet GIS applications. Traditional GIS, designed as isolated islands, will become increasingly less attractive, and may disappear altogether. The reusable and interoperable open and distributed GIServices will broaden geographic information uses into an increasingly wide range of online geospatial applications. New wireless communication technology, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G cellular systems, and WiMAX, also will transform GIS into wireless mobile GIS, which can provide ubiquitous access of geospatial information from portable devices or mobile phones …