LOADING AND PRE‐PROCESSING DATA

Partners or potential end‐users upload their data in a common container, i.e. disk drive, accessible via FTP protocol from any network. The shared disk space is mounted on a Debian Linux machine where the NEWFOR‐WebGIS is hosted. The following are recommendations for the preparation and formatting of the data:

I. use georeferenced GeoTIFF for raster data and georeferenced shapefiles for vector data;  

II. make  sure  that  the  coordinate  reference  system  (CRS)  is  included,  either  by  hard‐coding  in  the  file  itself (e.g. in the GeoTIFF file) or as ancillary files (e.g. the *.prj file in the shapefile model);  

III. raster files should not have, when possible, pixels with null values, and if it is necessary to have null  values in the file then make sure that they are correctly defined in the file itself; 

IV. raster files should not have pixels with outlier values, to avoid low contrast when applying the default  linear  colour  scale  stretch  over  the  values  (e.g.  a  raster  file  representing  canopy  height  values,  thus  with a value distribution from ~0 to ~50, with a single outlier pixel with value 500, will be represented  in black and very dark grey colour, and the single outlier pixel with white colour). 

Once in the shared disk space, the data are processed to be integrated in the NEWFOR‐WebGIS SDI with a highly automated method which loops over all the folder tree‐structure which have

I. read the CRS – coordinate reference system;   II. define the extents, i.e. the bounding box, in a standard CRS (geographic – WGS84);    III. calculate the minimum and maximum values for raster data, in order to apply a correct colour scale  stretch;  IV. if not present, create overview‐pyramids over raster files for improving loading speed when viewing.  The custom executable was developed in C++ and uses the GDAL/OGR library to extract all the above information from each file and create an index in Mapserver’s mapfile format which will be used for visualization and processing. An exception over raster data is when the data are made up of multiple files which mosaic to the whole area. In this case, a VRT format (see GDAL documentation at http://www.gdal.org/gdal_vrttut.html) was created to index each file in a single reference. The final result is a spatial data infrastructure with linked datasets with a common structure in Mapserver’s mapfile. User interaction via the web‐portal allows the server to trigger processing steps which can be easily replicated in innovative modules. The Mapserver mapfile created as described in the previous section is then used to load all the data in the menu and provide the user with tools to view it and access its data. Contact: Francesco Pirotti, TESAF, Italy. [email protected]

3.5.3 CRITICAL NODES AND FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

Pros: very high potential accessibility for end‐user; even alone, it can be used as a “training” platform for approaching to the new technologies or for dissemination strategies of information

NEWFOR‐WebGIS is a container of data and of tools which improve accessibility and analysis. It adds value to existing data by sharing it with a larger audience, where potential users access data from a single share point, and can load their own data, boosting a collaborative mechanism. Sharing data in an open manner is an aspect that will increase in the future, in many fields of application, and will give in return more possibilities and push towards standardization of formats, avoiding losing information when moving and copying data.

Future development of NEWFOR‐WebGIS can be divided in the following streams:

I. improving  data  management  using  a  database  management  systems  (DBMS),  preferably  PostgreSQL  enabled with PostGIS spatial library; 

II. leveraging the Open Geospatial Consortium services which are compliant with latest guidelines from  the European community (INSPIRE);  III. adding more advanced catalogue services to follow up on the previous point and allow searching with  meta‐keywords;  IV. adding more modules to enhance ETL (extract transform and load) from/to third party software which  requires  input data from NEWFOR‐WebGIS.  The main direction of further development will also depend on feedback from users which will highlight possible improvements of existing functionalities and provide insights for adding functionalities. This process is one of the advantages of a collaborative network which is what the NEWFOR‐WebGIS encourages in the first place.

Since the logistic planning strategy of the wood chain from forest to sawmills is based on different steps and tools, the constraint and difficulties are almost the sums of all limitations found earlier in this manual. The lack of an harmonization of the definitions and rules at the Alpine Space is a huge problem, not only among Countries, but even inside national boundaries between different Region. A complete LiDAR data coverage of the Alpine Space along with forest road network databases based on a common classification would greatly boost the use of these new technologies also in the mountains forests.

3.6 FURTHER EXPERIENCES