CANTERBURY PLUGFEST:

Geospatial Interoperability Works!

Maurits van der VlugtMercury Project Solutions

Richard Murcott | Geospatial Standards Leader New Zealand Geospatial Office

Overview

Background

Data Sharing Challenges

Solution: a Plugfest!

Should you consider hosting one yourself?

Kyle Dow, Senior Data Analyst, Corporate Data Team, CCC

2010-11 Christchurch Earthquakes

4 Sept. 20107.1 magnitude

22 February 20116.3 magnitude

- 185 dead- NZ’s costliest disaster

Post Feb 2011 – Recovery Period

Council Systems Intact!

Data Sharing Council EM Agencies Civil Defence Utilities Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Environment Canterbury (ECAN) Etc…

Initially: Sneakernet…

Photos: Kyle Dow, Senior Data Analyst, Corporate Data Team, CCC

Kyle Dow, Senior Data Analyst, Corporate Data Team, CCC

Next step: Interoperable Supply

Wait: Death by Acronym!

WFS:

Web Feature

Service

Kyle Dow, Senior Data Analyst, Corporate Data Team, CCC

Next step: Interoperable Supply

Kyle Dow, Senior Data Analyst, Corporate Data Team, CCC

WFS for Data Supply Works

Kyle Dow, Senior Data Analyst, Corporate Data Team, CCC

Next step: Receiving Data?

?

? ?

?

Same Issues, but… Christchurch City holds

Authoritative Data, e.g… WasteWater Building Status

Construction partners manually submit data in variety of formats

Time & Money wasted on data loading & management

WFS has no capability to receive updates through interoperable web services

Transactional Web Service: WFS-T

WFS: Geometry & Attributes - “Read Only”

WFS-T: As WFS + “Create, Update, Delete”

CCC + Partners struggled to successfully enable WFS-T

OGC compliance of their Software? Schema harmonisation? “Too hard” basket?

Image: http://villagescribe.com.au

What they needed: Transactional Interoperability between

recovery partners: CERA, CCC, SCIRT ESRI, Integraph OGC Standards (NZGO SDI Cookbook)

Practical, short-term solution (can’t wait)

Focus on issues with existing (OGC) standards interfaces, notably WFS-T

Immediate results that will accelerate recovery & reconstruction efforts

Solution: WFS-T Plugfest

Short Duration

Collaborative

Hands-on

Independent Facilitation & WFS-T Architect

“Just Make it Work”

Image: http://www.ispcs.org

Two Use-Case scenarios

Set-up Data and Services

Implement end-to-end Interoperability

Live Demo

All in 3 days!

Photo: Maurits van der Vlugt

Technology AgnosticOrganisation Technologies

CCC Intergraph GeoMedia Pro

Intergraph GeoMedia WebMap

SCIRT ESRI ArcGIS Server

ESRI ArcGIS Desktop

Safe Software – FME

WFS ‘Pump script’

CERA Benoli Silverfish

ESRI GeoDatabase

WFS ‘Pump script’

InsureCorp* Pitney Bowes Software MapInfo Professional

* fictitious name to protect any commercial interests

Before and After

Before

* Data submitted to CCC on

paper, email, disk

* Significant effort & resource

strain for data entry

* Doesn’t Scale

After

* “Set and forget”

* Significant time & resources

savings

* Submitters choose their own

technology

Lessons Learned Interoperability works!

WFS: Mature COTS WFS-T Servers: Mature COTS WFS-T Clients: Maturing

WFS/WFS-T Schema Sensitive Good Community Schema is important

Submitting to WFS-T requires scripting or Client plug-ins

Conclusions

Plugfest model is highly effective to achieve hands-on practical interoperability

Demonstrated viable solution architecture with immediate business benefits

Achieved in 3-day Plugfest, what would have taken weeks (effort) or months (elapsed) otherwise

DO Try T

his at H

ome!

Photo: Andy Coote

THANK YOU

More Information:http://www.geospatial.govt.nz/christchurch-plugfest-2012-report

Maurits van der Vlugt

Maurits.vandervlugt@mercuryps.com.au

Twitter: @mvandervlugt

Richard Murcott

rmurcott@linz.govt.nz