Following on from the successful launch in September of last year of the S-Map Online web mapping web site, the Informatics team recently unveiled a new and free online mapping tool which will make it easier for businesses, government, researchers and the public to better understand the natural environments that underpin New Zealand’s economy and society.
Our Environment Home Page
Our Environment (http://ourenvironment.scinfo.org.nz) is a new web mapping tool which provides easy access to information on New Zealand’s land environments and land resources. Based on “Google Maps” style navigation the mapping tool makes it easy to search, view and query environmental information. Using Our Environment users can
- Use interactive maps to learn about their local environment and regional variations.
- Select particular data themes such as vegetation, land suitability or surface rock type to view as maps.
- View detailed information from a particular data theme.
- Obtain further details about a particular theme (metadata).
- Create high quality, custom PDF maps for printing.
Our Environment uses data from nationally significant databases such as the Land Resource Inventory System (LRIS), the Land Cover Database (LCDB) and other national datasets and is designed to support applications at local, regional and national scales. Further data themes and features will be added as time goes by.
The Our Environment Mapping Application
The Our Environment mapping application is built using the new geospatial-portal-software platform for visualising geospatial data and for querying datasets. Designed and written by the Informatics team the platform is based on open standards and open source software (including PostGIS, MapServer, Geo Tools, MapCache (formerly mod-geocache) and Open Layers). Taking an across Landcare view of the future requirements for delivery of environmental science data through rich data visualisations, the platform has been designed so that it can be used, and extended if required, to roll out portal applications with a location-based focus. S-map Online was the first such portal, Our Environment is the second. Other Landcare datasets have been already identified as being suitable for delivery through new instances of the web mapping application.
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