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A22 - GeoBrowser@A22

Research Area:

3D Geovisualisation, Geovisual Analytics and LBS

Status:

In progress

Project leaders:

Raffaele de Amicis

Proposed start date:

2009-11-01

Proposed end date:

2010-07-30

Description:

The project is bringing to the development of a networked infrastructure capable to make a wide range of geo information available to the operators of a major Italian motorway. In doing so, the system is supporting a number of open standards from ISO and OGC. Unlike current SDIs which address relatively static data in time slices, similarly to traditional GIS, the system developed allows to manage true dynamic data available, through geo-referenced sensors along the motorway.

Linking existing systems and networks to achieve a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained infrastructure capable to improve management of the motorway system is the main objective of the project. The networked platform being developed has extended the traditional concept of SDIs with an unprecedented volume of real-time geo-referenced sensor data, along the road with high spatial and temporal resolution

TECHNOLOGICAL FOCUS

At the client side, a 3D Geobrowser based on WorldWind technology from NASA, is deployed as Java WebStart™ application will be used by motorway operators as available within the enterprise portal. As soon as the client starts up it shows the list of available layers. Each layer represent an independent set of information, this can be vector-based geographical information, high-resolution airborne imaging of the area surrounding the motorway, LIDAR data, real-time images from road cameras, real-time sensor data and, last but not least, all related documents present within the enterprise portal, available as Microsoft SharePoint services, which are related to a specific segment of the motorway. This way the 3D client becomes the single point of entry to access the wide range of information available to the different motorway operators. The user can use a slider to filter the information related to a motorway segment of interest, based on the road kilometer index (e.g. from km=54 to km=64). As soon as the user confirms the two filtering parameters a WFS (Web Feature Service) query is automatically created based on the layer visible and the segment of relevance and it is sent to the central repository. The information available from the enterprise database, deployed as Microsoft SQL Server, is then extracted and sent back to the client via WFS protocol. The operator can also click on the web-link pointing to any additional documental information available through the SharePoint services. Similarly the operators can use the client to access a wide range of real-time information available through the motorway sensor network. This includes information such as structural sensors (e.g. to monitor tensional condition of a bridge), traffic sensors, or weather sensors used to assess dangerous meteorological patterns (e.g. fog, ice, etc). Sensor information are automatically made available through the middleware and then broadcast to the clients. As soon as the user selects the sensor, a 3D pie is rendered to show the information sent by the sensor. The user can then select one of the segments of the 3D pie and trigger a chart which retrieves historical data available from the database, for instance to identify potential dangerous patterns.