Geographical Web Map Services

Geographical web map services allows us to provide maps contents, independently of the uses client GIS software. The map content is requested in a HTTP post - the content is returned as map image or a XML document, back to the client. The two most used web map service are:

WMS World Map Service

WFS World File Service

WMS and WFS follows the geographical web standards of the OGC (Open Geographical Consortium).

Most open source GIS desktop client can request a WMS or WFS services.

The geographical map server UMN-MapServer is capable to request WMS and WFS service from other map server, and to provide WMS and WFS as service to the client. In this way, we can set up a cascading geographical web service, provided and used by several GIS organisations, how wants to collaborate on geographical information.

NASA provides there satelit images as WMS service to the public, in hope that third parties adds new geographical content to the images, and provide it to other people.

Also authorities, as the Kanton Soleturn, adobes the same strategy.

We believe that for manyt organisation and firms, GIS can only be manageable, if they conciel to share and collaborate geographical information with third parties. There for, it is important to set up a geographical web service, witch conforms the open to public standard, as define by the OGC.