XML Web Services Support for the Geospatial Information

XML Web Services: Support for the Geospatial Information One-Stop Brand Niemann, US EPA Hakan Andersson, Qsent, Inc. Chris Tucker, Ionic Enterprise, Inc. September 6, 2002 1

New Product-Oriented Activity • CIOC Guidance: – Evolve Architecture & Infrastructure Committee (AIC) to meet needs of Agencies as they implement e-Gov and Enterprise Architecture mandates. – Integrate OMB and CIOC architecture efforts. – Increase emphasis on producing usable products for Federal agencies. • Architecture & Infrastructure Committee (AIC) restructuring: – Management: • Co-Chairs: Debra Stouffer (EPA CTO) and John Gilligan (Air Force CIO). • Advisor: Norman Lorentz (OMB CTO). – Focus Areas: • Enterprise Architecture Policy, Guidance, and Structures. • Emerging Technologies. • Architecture Components. 2

New Product-Oriented Activity • Emerging Technologies: – Area Leads: • • • XML – Owen Ambur (FWS) & Marion Royal (GSA) XML Web Services – Brand Niemann (EPA) Directory Services – Martin Smith (USITC) Universal Access – Susan Turnbull (GSA) PKI – Judy Spencer (GSA) – Tasks: • Evaluate technology and define strategy. • Foster pilot efforts and share best practices. • Transition to other organization for operational support. 3

New Product-Oriented Activity • Emerging Technologies (continued): – XML standards-based process (e. g. W 3 C, OASIS, OGC, etc. ): • Define community vocabulary and produce XML documents (e. g. Schema, etc. ). • Produce 2 -3 successful pilot implementations. • Provide final recommendations to OMB. – Some examples of current pilots: • E-Initiatives: – – Geospatial Information One-Stop (G 2 G). Recreation. Gov (G 2 C). Small Business Compliance One-Stop (G 2 B). E-Records Management (IEE). • Other federal: – XML Registry and Repository (XML. Gov). – Directory Listings as XML Web Services (e. g. “Blue Pages”). – Federal Enterprise Architecture Working Group (add an XML Web Services Applications Layer). 4

A Little History • Lead an Interagency Team that received special award for innovation with XML Web Services and Voice. XML from Mark Forman and the Quad Council in March as part of the CIO Council’s Showcase of Excellence at FOSE 2002. • Team was challenged to apply this emerging technology to the e-Gov initiatives, especially the Geospatial Information One. Stop. Met with John Moeller on April 4 th. • Scheduled to present “Blue Pages Pilot” to the FGDC Coordination Committee on June 4 th, but re-scheduled now to September 5 th. Presentation to the Geospatial Applications and Interoperability Work Group* and First. Gov on August 20 th. • Selected to lead new XML Web Services initiative within the restructured CIO Council’s Architecture & Infrastructure Committee (AIC) to provide direct “product oriented” support in implementing XML Web Services in the e-Gov and Enterprise Architecture initiatives. *See http: //gai. fgdc. gov/ and http: //130. 11. 44. 140 5

What are XML Web Services? • XML is a standard for preserving and communicating information – encoding, tagging, and internationalizing – that will be everywhere. • Web Services provide communication between applications running on different Web servers that will bring the Internet to its new level. • XML Web Services are applications running on different devices that communicate XML data using XML messages. • XML Web Services for geospatial data use the Open. GIS Consortium’s GML (Geography Markup Language) and OWS (Open Web Services) standards and specifications. • Web Services can and should be interoperable across multiple vendor tools and platforms in the enterprise (see http: //www. ws-i. org/Community. aspx). 6

Why are XML Web Services Important? • The e. Xtensible Markup Language became a World Wide Web Consortium (W 3 C) standard in 1998 as the universal format for structured documents and data on the Web (http: //www. w 3. org/XML/). • XML “future proofs” content against periodic technology changes. • The CIO Council created the XML Working Group in 2000 to facilitate the efficient and effective use of XML through cooperative efforts among government agencies, including partnerships with commercial and industrial organizations (http: //xml. gov/). • GAO report to Congress urges government to adopt XML (http: //www. gao. gov/new. items/d 02327. pdf). • XML Web Services is what OMB’s Mark Forman is encouraging in the E-Gov Initiatives and especially for the “collect once, use many” knowledge management projects like the Geospatial Information One-Stop. 7

Business Case for XML (GML) • OMB’s Mark Forman (E-Gov 2002, June 26, 2002): – Mark was asked about the reported redundancy in state-federal geospatial data activities and he responded that the states especially have complained about the costs involved, namely $10 B total ($6 Federal and $4 State) and that about half of that ($5 B) is wasted due to duplication of effort! • EPA’s CIO Kim Nelson (GIS Day, November 8, 2001, and ORD Science Meeting, May 1 -2, 2002: – Everyone needs to think about how to geographically reference all of the data that we use and collect, so that we can share each others' resources. We have 100's of geo-spatial data products and resources. We need to develop data collection standards which will enable us to link and cross-reference these and other newly acquired resources. • Publish, Find, and Bind: – Publish a description of the Web Services (WSDL) in a Directory (UDDI) so others can Find it and Bind their interface or Web Service to it to link, chain, or integrate them together. 8

What are Some Geospatial XML Web Services? • Federal Spatial Statistics • EPA Geospatial Data Index • Interagency Land. View Census-EPA Population Estimation • EPA-State Content Network and EPA-CDC Environmental Health Tracking Network • Universal Access to Geo-referenced Web Content • “Blue Pages” Pilot 9

What are Some Geospatial XML Web Services? EPA-State Content Network and EPA-CDC Environmental Health Tracking Network 10

What are Some Geospatial XML Web Services? Universal Access to Geo-referenced Web Content http: //www. voicexml. org/, http: //www. w 3. org/Voice/ 11

Some New Initiatives • See a future with commercial and non-commercial XML Web Services linked, chained, and/or integrated together with the advantage to the government of not having to replicate databases and infrastructure to build and maintain certain databases and services (author components once and use them many places): – Qsent: • Verify EPA Facility Location Data and Perform Emergency Notification and Data Collection with Voice. XML. – Ionic Enterprise: • Land. View 6 – OGC Conformant Web Client Application and Distributed Geo. Data Services (FY 2003). • GML and SVG Standards for the EPA State of the Environment Report/Environment Indicator Initiative and EPA Situation Room Dashboards (collaboration-integration with DOI/USGS under discussion). • Spatially Enabling the EPA with the OGC XML Standards and the OGC Spatial Web Registry Service (WRS). 12

Some New Initiatives Qsent’s Features • Over 145 million residential, business and government listings (99+%). Every record verified through phone installation and account activation with credit history. – 250, 000 to 500, 000 updates daily – Four searches methods • U. S. Residential – search for an individual • U. S. Business and Government – search for business or government agencies • Reverse Lookup – search by telephone number • U. S. All – search all directories at once – Geographic searches • City Surround – expand search incrementally from city center (lowest ZIP) • Neighborhood Search – search by neighborhoods using ZIP+4 13

Some New Initiatives Qsent’s i. Q 411 Applications: Interactive, Integrated, and Batch • i. Q 411 Interactive is a web-based directory information service that provides real-time, daily updated, definitively accurate data for residential, business and government listings for the U. S. and Puerto Rico. • i. Q 411 Integrated provides real-time system integration using the industrystandard XML API to send and receive XML messages and data. • i. Q 411 Batch provides off-line processing via automated FTP services for accurate appending and validation of phone numbers and address information. 14

Some New Initiatives Qsent’s Verification: Existing EPA Location Data • Qsent matched 15 of the 25 records (60%) using our standard business search • A more thorough analysis of the data would yield better matches. 15

Some New Initiatives Qsent Information Gathering, Alerts, & Emergency Notification 16

Some New Initiatives Qsent Emergency Notification Affected Area Simulated Contamination From Umatilla Army Depot 17

Some New Initiatives Qsent Emergency Notification Geo Notification Set Simulated Contamination From Umatilla Army Depot 18

Some New Initiatives Qsent Emergency Notification Initial Calls Complete Simulated Contamination From Umatilla Army Depot 19

Some New Initiatives Qsent Emergency Notification All Calls Complete Simulated Contamination From Umatilla Army Depot 20

Some New Initiatives SVG (XML for Interactive Graphics) • Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML vector graphics standard (W 3 C) that enables them to be processed efficiently, robustly, and in an automated fashion and enables scaling, panning, highlighting, etc. • Graphical applications that are currently realized using bitmap graphics will start using SVG. The scope of SVG use will expand it will displace the use of bitmap graphics in many areas, prime examples of which include mapping and GIS applications. – Source: Interactive Graphical Visualization with SVG, Chapter 12 in XML and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002, 500 -543. 21

Some New Initiatives SVG (XML for Interactive Graphics) Printable Map (user controls whether map layers are hidden or visible) http: //www. adobe. com/svg/demos/printmap/main. html 22

Some New Initiatives GML and SVG • GML makes it possible to renders legacy and third -party data and services interoperable – minimizing the coupling between components. • GML enables multi-source, multi-sensor fusion. • GML can be converted to SVG on-the-fly. 23

Some New Initiatives GML and SVG IONICTM Portrayal Engine V 1. 1 Web Edition

Some New Initiatives Spatially Enabling the EPA with the OGC XML Standards including OGC Web Registry Service Imagery = Coverage Server IONIC Worldview es vic r -Se eo Base. Map = Feature Server e. G lin On RDBMS / GIS / ‘non-GIS’ = Features Servers Objects GML/XML Rendering Raster = Map Server Topo = Map Server Network = 25 Feature Server

End Users ( B 2 C or B 2 B ) EPA OGC Web Registry Service Enviro. Facts DB State and NGO Resources 1 2 EPA Air. Data EPA STORET EPA USGS Census Do. T Other Federal Air. Now GNIS Gazetteer TIGER & STF National Trans. Atlas GIS or DB 26

End Users ( B 2 C or B 2 B ) EPA OGC WRS Cascading WFS/WMS Enviro. Facts DB State and NGO Resources 1 3 EPA Air. Data EPA STORET EPA USGS Census Do. T Other Federal Air. Now GNIS Gazetteer TIGER & STF National Trans. Atlas GIS or DB 27

Some Next Steps • FGDC Coordination Committee, September 5 th. • Federal Solutions Architect Working Group Retreat, September 10 th. • CICO AIC Meeting, September 12 th. • Universal Access Workshop and Federal Architecture Work Group Meeting, September 17 th. • EPA GIS Workgroup Meeting, September 23 -26 th. • Fed. Web 2002 Fall Conference, October 28 -29 th. • OEI National Meeting, November 5 -6 th. • EPA GIS Day, November 19 -20 th. 28