THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB MAPPING SYSTEM AND ITS

APPLICATION

Balqies Sadoun, Omar Al-Bayari and Samih Al-Rawashdeh

Surveying and Geomatics Engineering Department, College of Engineering

Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Al-Salt 19117, Jordan

Keywords: Web mapping, Neogeography, Mapsever, e-based systems, Web 2, AspMap, Tracking systems.

Abstract: Recently, there is increase interest in web mapping applications due to the increase use of mobile

application, GPS, and digital mapping. The change in the web-based communities, applications and

services, from Web 1.0 “read” only technologies to Web 2.0 “read”, “write” and “build” technologies

opened a new heaven for public usage and applications. Neogeography (also called Volunteered Geographic

Information), came with the increase interest in online mapping and in using geospatial technologies in

diverse applications. The development started by mashing up various web resources to create maps. This

has improved the web mapping/GIS services despite some difficulties. The open source initiative came

(Minnesota Mapserver, GDAL/OGR, GRASS GIS and PostgreSQL/PostGIS packages), in order to offer a

technically competitive and open-source alternative solution to the commercial software for web mapping

and GIS system applications. GIS and mapping software companies have developed certain development

kits that could be used to build a complete GIS and web mapping applications at a very low cost, They also

offer a large wide library to be used in developing GIS applications. In this work, we used one of these

applications (AspMap) in order to develop our web mapping software. AspMap is a set of high-performance

Web mapping components and controls for embedding maps in ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX

applications. AspMap gives the ability to generate maps, thematic mapping, routing, vehicle tracking and

other features that are generated on the server to make maps fully interactive on the client-side. AspMap

provides the functionality needed by the user. In this paper, we present a new web–based system named,

JOFAST, in order to provide desktop navigation (shortest path), tracking, locating land parcels, distance

calculation, map creation, among others. The system is flexible, efficient, easy to use and cost-effective and

it is in use now in the city of Amman in Jordan.

1 INTRODUCTION

The second generation of web-based communities,

applications and services (Web 2.0) are different in

the ways software developers and end users use the

Web (Wikipedia, 2008b). The changes are presented

in the creativity, the collaboration, and the usage of

the Internet and the Web as platforms (O’Reilly,

2005) so the user can generate and distribute the web

contents. Neogeography is becoming popular and it

is utilizing various web resources to create maps

(Wyngaarden and Waters, 2007). This came due to

vast amount of public interest in online mapping and

using geospatial technologies in different domains.

A mashup is a website or web application that

uses contents or services from many sources to

create a new service (Wikipedia, 2008a). Map

mashup has great potential to improve and facilitate

the development of the future web mapping/GIS

services such as participatory GIS and e-government

services, navigation and tracking. However, issues

related to privacy and ownership protection are still

to be solved.

Developing a mashup in general faces many

difficulties (Li and Gong, 2008). These include

difficulties in integrating the local data into new

applications and the way to use it; protection of

intellectual property and consumer privacy versus

fair-use and the free flow of information (Merrill,

2006). Other kinds of problems concerning security

measures in mashups and the integration of map data

sources and services with other types of data sources

and services.

What is a mashup? Ramsey stated in (Ramsey,

2006) that “most mashups make use of a base map, a

Sadoun B., Al-Bayari O. and Al-Rawashdeh S..

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB MAPPING SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION.

DOI: 10.5220/0003684900220028

In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business (ICE-B-2011), pages 22-28

ISBN: 978-989-8425-70-6

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

geocoder, and a Web interface.” Pietroniro and

Fichter (Pietroniro and Fichter, 2007) defined a Map

mashup as a way to combine map data source or

service with added information, often geo-

referenced to the map data in order to create a new

map.

The statistics of various mashups created up to

April 2008 shows that the map-based mashup

accounts for around (39%) of all the registered

mashups. With the decrease of requirements for

programming skills and the increased number of

mashup editors and creation tools, creating map

mashups have become easier to develop.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) (OSI - Open

Source Initiative) for GIS Software such as

Minnesota Mapserver, GDAL/OGR, GRASS GIS

and PostgreSQL/PostGIS packages, offer a

technically competitive and open-source alternative

solution to the commercial software. The OSI is

growing in popularity in order to provide the

solution to web mapping services using open source

GIS software (Song et al., 2004). The OSI allows

using, modifying and redistributing the software

freely. It breaks the cost barriers to using the public

spatial data and the GIS tools in building a large-

scale GIS system. As long as people have problems

to solve and the spirit to share their solutions, open

source will continue to grow and contribute to the

geo-informatics community (Ramsey, 2002). The

development of OSI software needs to control the

interaction between OSI software, the performance

of the integrated system and the function limitations.

The Mapserver is not a full-featured GIS system, but

provides enough core functionality to support a wide

variety of web applications and can handle a huge

Geodata base (Raghavan et al., 2002).

There has been an increase interest in Web

mapping application in recent days due to the many

features of Web mapping such as increase use of

mobile application, GPS, and digital maps.

Most of the available GIS software has already

modules for web mapping. Moreover, these software

packages offer the possibility to develop web

application using their developing kits. Open source

program allows the creation of the web applications,

but there is no support for such applications.

Other GIS and mapping software have developed

a certain development kits, which could be used to

build a complete GIS and web mapping applications.

Such development kits have low cost and offer a

large wide library to be used in developing a GIS

application. We used one of these applications, the

AspMap, to develop our web mapping software

system.

AspMap is a set of high-performance, Web

mapping components and controls for embedding

maps in ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX

applications. AspMap gives the ability to generate

maps, thematic mapping, routing, vehicle tracking

and other features that are generated on the server in

order to make the maps fully interactive on the

client-side. AspMap provide the functionality you

need to turn the occasional visitor to your site into a

regular user. It provides functionality to a local

government web site, a real estate web site, a

navigation website, a vehicle tracking web site, or to

a location-based services.

2 WEB MAPPING

Web mapping is the process of designing,

implementing, generating and delivering maps on

the World Wide Web. While Web Mapping

primarily deals with technological issues, Web

Cartography additionally studies theoretic aspects

such as the usability of web maps, the evaluation

and optimization of techniques and workflows, the

social aspects, and more. Web GIS is similar to web

mapping, but with an emphasis on analysis,

processing of project specific geodata and

exploratory aspects. Web maps are often a

presentation media in web GIS. With time web maps

are increasingly gaining analytical capabilities.

These days both web mapping and web cartography

have to deal with interactivity, usability and

multimedia issues.

The use of the web as a distribution medium for

maps is a major advancement in cartography and

opens many new opportunities (real-time maps). A

first classification of web maps has been made by

Kraak (Kraak and Brown, 2001). He distinguished

static and dynamic web maps and further

distinguished view-only and interactive web maps.

Cartography was restricted to special groups,

requiring expensive and complex hard, software,

skilled cartographers and geomatics engineers. The

cheap and easy transfer of geodata across the

Internet have allowed the integration of distributed

data sources and opened new opportunities to non

specialized general public to join the web mapping

world. Hence, educating the general public about

geographic analysis and cartographic methods and

principles should be a priority.

In this work, we present a website based on

AspMap for GIS applications such as navigation,

tracking and map creation. We provided the website

with Amman city streets network and satellite image

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB MAPPING SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION

to allow low cost navigation, Tracking and many

other functions such as maps, shortest path, and

parcel location, for the city of Amman are provided.

The created website can provide more added

functions for city planning services. Many other

important byproducts such as GIS database for the

Jordanian roads network, Amman streets network

were implemented for the sake of the website

application. The database attributes for the

application (shortest path, navigation, tracking, etc.)

are based on NAVTEQ Data. NAVTEQ has

developed exceptionally rich attributes to give life

and intelligence to its database. Navigation uses

special attribute data for effective navigation. In all,

204 attributes are organized into 14 categories I

order to describe the essential qualities of a map,

which are needed to provide useful map display, and

enable route planning and guidance for tourist

information or to advanced driver assistance

systems.

We also used the low price handheld GPS

receivers to collect POI to be update the existing

data.

3 THE METHODOLOGY

The methodology includes two important parts

which are the GIS and website creation as described

below.

GIS Creation:

We start by building a GIS for the city of Amman so

that it will be posted on our website for the public

utilization in navigation, tracking and parcel locating

using ARC GIS professional 9.2 software. The

flowchart in Figure 1 illustrates the methodology for

the design of the GIS data model. Data collection of

all types such as shape files, database tables, satellite

images, digital maps, and paper maps, was needed in

order to be utilized in creating the needed layers

(TIN, Raster….etc.).

The data used has info about: (a) Amman

topographic map (scale 1:50000) paper map, (b)

Amman satellite image and (c) NAVTEQ

data.

Next, we built a GIS system as follows.

- Scanning: “Conix“ scanner 200dpi resolution and

(jpg) Format was used at first. After the maps

registration, we found large RMS values and

distortion caused by the lens of optics, hence, we

rescanned the maps using 400dpi resolution, and got

satisfying results RMS (1-3 m).

- Registering: The coordinates system of maps is

JTM, but our project is based on UTM coordinate

standard, so we transformed the control points (grid)

from JTM to UTM using the GeoMedia

Professional.

- Digitizing: We used the ArcGIS (ArcMAP) in the

digitizing process to create the needed layers.

- Editing: This is meant to edit errors occurred due

to digitizing process.

- Adding attribute Data to Each Layer: Here, we

added the following attributes: (a) Jordan

governorates boundaries, (b) ID; Governorates

names, (c) Sub-districts boundaries, (d)ID; Sub-

district names, (e) Jordan roads network, (f) ID;

Jordan roads network names, (g) Amman streets

Network, and (h) ID; Amman streets network

names, length, speed limit, ramp, etc.

- Creating the Road Network: By using GIS (Asp

map) and the needed attribute data we created the

road network (see Figure 2) for the website and the

application of navigation and tracking. AspMap

always loads the road network into memory before

doing any calculations.

Figure 1: Flowchart of the GIS Methodology.

- Output Layers: The created GIS had four basic

layers which are: Jordan Governorate Layer, Sub

district Layer, Jordan Roads Network Layer, and

Amman Streets Network layer

Data Acquisition

Scannin

and Editin

Registration and Projection

Digitizing

Adding Attribute data

Build Road Network

Jordan Road Network layer (line)

Jordan Government layer (polygon)

Jordan sub-Gov. layer (polygon)

Out put

ICE-B 2011 - International Conference on e-Business

Figure 2: Jordan Roads NetWork.

4 WEB MAP (JOFAST)

CREATION

This is the second and important part of our work.

We designed a web site and name it (JOFAST), for

Navigation and Tracking applications. The purpose

is to serve interested groups, in their geomatics

applications at a low cost in a low income country.

We tried to provide our website with some

needed and available navigation and tracking

functions, in addition to locally needed functions

such as parcels location. In the following we will

present the different functions:

- The Shortest Path Function: For this procedure,

we need to select the start point, the end point (using

drop-down menu), the unit distance (Miles,

Kilometers), the strategy to find Route by typing

(Quickest, Shortest), and optional select projection

type. Then we click on “find route.” Figure 3

presents the obtained results. If we click on (view)

this road will be displayed on the map (Figure 4).

-Tracking: Vehicle tracking and navigational

systems have brought GPS applications to the life of

the public. Automatic Vehicle Locating System

(AVLS) (Al-Bayari and Sadoun, 2005), Vehicle

Tracking and Information System (VTIS), and

Mobile Asset Management System (MAMS), offer

an effective tool for improving the operational

efficiency and utilization of vehicles. Simple

Tracking systems present the concept of tracking

systems and works as a simulator to demonstrate to

users the meaning of a tracking system and how it

works along with its advantages and effectiveness

(Figure 5).

Figure 3: Summary of the Quickest Route Report.

Figure 4: The Shortest or Quickest Route Map.

Our tracking function operation can be summarized

as follows. (1) Auto-refresh which means updating

the location of the car every interval chosen by the

user. (2) Interval to receive location update info

which means the update time used to receive

location of a car (0.5 sec) means receive location

info by (SMS or GPRS) every 0.5 sec. Our tracking

system is based on the dynamic layer (GeoEvent

function). A GeoEvent

is a moving object. Examples

include vehicles, aircrafts, and satellites systems. If

the user wishes to track and display on the map.

Then the GeoEvents in the Animation Layer may be

refreshed without reloading the map image. The user

can utilize the animation Layer and GeoEvent

objects to track and display the location of a vehicle

in real-time.

JOFAST is our designed website system (Figure

9) for desktop Navigation systems (shortest path);

Tracking Systems (simple tracking) and Parcel

Searching for the city of Amman in addition to data

for the entire world published using AspMap. The

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB MAPPING SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION

dynamic website, which is connected with an access

database, has ability to publish video. It has been

used by several groups in Amman.

Figure 5: A Simple Tracking System.

Figure 6: JOFAST Website.

Website Requirements:

The major Software requirements are: Operation

system, Windows XP service pack 3 Minimum

configurations, Pentium, 2.2 GHz, 1GB RAM,

Window Server 2003, Frameworks 3.5 and File

System. Hardware requirement is any local area

network. The website has the ability to define the

shortest path, display a map with multiple layers

(cities, roads, rivers and boundaries) and display

locations stored in a database in addition to

navigation and tracking functions.

Functions of the website include the followings.

- Desktop Navigation: Figure 7 presents the

navigation system in Amman as an application

(Shortest path). This webpage includes the type of

projection used; Asp Map provides a large number

of projections.

Figure 7: The Desktop Navigation.

- Tracking System:

The system is based on receiving the signals from

satellites by GPS receivers fixed on the vehicle and

connected by a GSM modem. The mentioned

hardware sends the acquired data by a Short

Message Service (SMS). The SMS carries certain

information about the geographic position of a

certain vehicle to the control center. Figure 8,

presents a tracking system as a simulator on the web

site (simple tracking).

Figure 8: The Complete Tracking system.

Asp Map allows you to display locations of

moving objects without reloading the page or the

map image (ASP Map uses AJAX to update the

locations). The locations should be updated in a

Refresh Animation Layer event handler. After the

Refresh Animation Layer event handler is executed,

further processing of the page will be stopped and

the locations will be sent to the browser. To track the

location of a vehicle, you need to set the Enable

Animation property of a Map control to True

position. Use the Animation Interval property to set

ICE-B 2011 - International Conference on e-Business

an update interval. Add an event handler for the

Refresh Animation Layer event. Add the current

location of a vehicle to the Animation Layer object

of the Map control. You can display the previous

movements of the vehicle as a line using the Path

property of the GeoEvent class. If the current

location of the vehicle is outside the map, you can

move the map to a new position using the “Center

At method.” After that, you can set the “Need

Refresh Map” property of the Refresh Animation

Layer Args class to True. This way, the map image

will be refreshed without reloading the page. Auto-

refresh means update location of the car every

interval you choose. The tracking system uses

dynamic layer (GeoEvent function). A GeoEvent is

a moving object you wish to track and display on the

map. Examples of geoevents are vehicles, aircrafts,

and satellites. GeoEvents in the Animation Layer

may be refreshed without reloading the map image.

The user can use Animation Layer and GeoEvent

objects to track and display, for example, the

location of a vehicle in real-time.

Figure 9: Publish World maps.

- Parcel Searching

Parcel searching for Amman area means that the

website has the ability to search for any parcel and

label it in Amman area. If we selected, for example,

the parcel number 011200900000296 and click find,

the system will zoom into the parcel target and

display information about this parcel; see Figure 10.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Web mapping and related technologies are

developed to enable the normal public to get into the

web mapping technologies with simple formation in

Figure 10: Parcel search in Amman.

cartography and programming skills. This paper

presents a system for web mapping based on

AspMap component. The map service is a WMS

compliant map server that uses a technically

competitive solution to serve a large-scale GIS

database on the Web. This successful development

shows us once more how easy to develop software

for local service. JOFAST is a web site (started

2009) to provide different services such as

navigation, tracking, parcel searching in the city of

Amman and Map creation services in a cost-

effective manner.

REFERENCES

Wikipedia, 2008b. Wikipedia page on "Web 2.0",

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 (accessed 25

Apr 2008).

T. O'Reilly, 2005. An article on O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Website "What Is Web 2.0: design patterns and

business models for the next generation of software”,

http://www.oreilly.com (accessed 20 Apr 2008).

R. Van Wyngaarden, and N. Waters, N., “An unfinished

revolution: gaining perspective on the future of GIS”,

GeoWorld, 2007(9), pp. 22–25.

Wikipedia, 2008a. Wikipedia page on "Mashup (web

application hybrid)", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Mashup_%28web_application_hyb rid%29 (accessed

25 Apr 2008).

S. Li and J. Gong “Way of Providing Web Mapping/GIS

Services”, The International Archives of the

Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial

Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B4. Beijing

2008.

D. Merrill, “Mashups: The Newew Breed of Web App: An

Introduction to Mashups,” IBM Developer Works,

2006. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/li-

brary/xmashups.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB MAPPING SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION

P. Ramsey, “Mashing up the Enterprise,” Geospatial

Solutions, 2006. http://www.geospatialsolutions.com/

geospatialsolutions/author/authorDetail.jsp?id=34062

E. Pietroniro, and D. Fichter, “Map Mashups and the Rise

of Amateur Cartographers and Mapmakers,” ACMLA

Bulletin, 2007(127), pp. 26–30.

OSI - Open Source Initiative, http://www.opensource.

org/licenses/

X. Song, Y. Kono, and M. Shibayama, “The Development

of Web Mapping Application Using Open Source GIS

Solution”, Proceedinsg of the International

Symposium on Geoinformatics for Spatial

Infrastructure Development in Earth and Allied

Sciences, 2004.

P. Ramsey, “Open Source GIS Fights the Three-Horned

Monster,” GEO World, 2002. http://www.

geoplace.com/gw/2002/0208/0208gis.asp

V. Raghavan, P. Santitamont, S. Asumoto, and K. Honda,”

Implementing Web GIS Applications using Open

Source Software,” Proceedings of Map Asia 2002,

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/technology/gis

/techgi0062pf.htm

Menno-Jan Kraak, and Allan Brown,” Web Cartography –

Developments and Prospects,” Taylor & Francis, New

York, 2001.

[O. Al-Bayari, and B. Sadoun, “New centralized automatic

vehicle location communications software system

under GIS environment”, International Journal of

Communication System, Vol. 18, No. 8, pp. 833-846,

2005.

ICE-B 2011 - International Conference on e-Business