GEO Web Portal Solution – ESRI.doc

GEO Web Portal Solution – ESRI Introduction The ESRI candidate for the GEO Web portal (/Portal) is based on the use of proven out-of-the-box technologies that are put together to provide the core capabilities of a solution for the GEO Web Portal and and Clearinghouse that can be extended to include capabilities that go beyond the minimum requirements for the GEOSS Web Portal. GIS portals organize content and services such as directories, search tools, community information, capacity-building resources, documents, models, data, and applications. They provide capabilities to query metadata records for relevant data and services, and link directly to the online sites that host content services. The content can be visualized as maps and used in geographic queries and analyses. Our recommendation that GEO approaches its development of the GEO Web Portal and Clearinghouse using a Services Architecture as indicated in the diagram below: This SDI Services Architecure provides an integrated platform that can address the following objectives: Provide a means for cataloguing, discovery, and access of geospatial resources, including but not limited to data and services. Provide a means for GEO and others to control access to these data and services. Provide an application development platform using open Application Programming Interfaces (API) to commercial partnering entities, the science community, and GIS professionals. Provide an environment for authoring data and services that integrates seamlessly with existing geospatial business processes of GEO member-, partner-, and user-organizations. Applied Technologies The following sections provide a brief description of the technologies ESRI has applied in support of the GEO Web Portal proof-of-concept. ESRI GIS Portal Toolkit Central component in our implementation is the ESRI GIS Portal Toolkit version 3.1, a technology and services solution for realizing local, regional, national, and global spatial data infrastructure (S