Developing lightweight, data-driven exploratory geo-visualization tools for the web

This paper details efforts to development a set of prototype, web-based geo-visualisation tools. The focus is on design and implementation of lightweight tools that can run in standard web browsers and access data, stored in a remote database. The web geo-visualisation tools incorporate several standard exploratory spatial data analysis methods, including linked brushing and interactive animation. These tools are constructed using Macromedia Flash, a commercial software application that produces content for the web using a publicly available file specification called SWF. The advantages and disadvantages of Flash for geo-visualisation arc discussed. One advantage is that it supports links to remote databases. Accordingly, the use of XML as the communication syntax for the geo-visualisation too1-to-database link is discussed. Two solutions to dynamic database access have been implemented, one using a stand-alone Java server and the other using Java servlet technology; the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed.