About UASL: History | In the News | Design & Architecture
The UASL Project is currently in development. Information on these pages will be updated accordingly. If you have any questions or comments please email Bob Harris boss@cast.uark.edu
UASL:
The name UASL refers o a massive (multi-terabyte) Oracle database holding a
wide range of geospatial data sets in an OGC-compliant interoperable form.
There are extensive vector (e.g. roads, soils, CAD, etc.) raster (e.g.
imagery, elevation) and 3D (e.g. LIDAR, high density survey) data in the
system. The software runs on an LUNIX multi-blade DELL system.
GeoSurf:
The user can query the database with geographic and metadata constraints to
find data layers of interest. These layers can then be downloaded to the
user's machine. GeoSurf allows the user to specify geographic clip
boundaries, projection, and data format (e.g. Arcview Shape, MapInfo, etc.)
and packages the data layer as specified. Publicly accessible data in UASL
will remain accessible for download via the new GeoSurf system. Access to
GeoSurf is available here http://rhea.cast.uark.edu/GeoSurf/GeoSurfServlet.
GeoSurf's implementation uses a Java Applet, a collection of Java Servlets
and several third-party products. The Java Servlets are running in a Java 2
Enterprise Edition Servlet environment. Data is converted and re-projected
using the Feature Manipulation Engine (FME), from Safe Software, which was
also used to load much of the data. GeoGateway software (PCI GeoMatics) is
used to re-project raster data and was used to load much of the raster data.
FTP:
A number of the various data sets, especially imagery, is available via
traditional FTP. Access to the FTP option is available here http://www.cast.uark.edu/UASL/raw_DOQ/index.html.
Direct connect access:
All vector data in UASL will be stored in Oracle SDO geometries and all
raster data in GeoRaster. The great majority of geospatial client software
support "direct connect" capabilities to both of these data types and this
will allow all these software to access the same data. Unfortunately, ESRI
clients are currently unable to directly access SDO or GeoRaster. For
selected vector layers we will support a connection for ESRI clients to the
SDO geometries via SDE. Selected raster data sets will also be in the
database in ESRI SDE binary where specifically required to support
applications or student/faculty research projects. This option will be kept
to a minimum. Note that NOT all of the data sets will be exposed via ESRI's
SDE.
Direct connect capabilities will generally be limited to uark.edu domain
clients. Clients external to the domain may be supported, but on a
case-by-case application basis. In addition to the security levels of
access, each layer will also be assigned different levels of "exposure."
For example, all the campus-level access available data will be accessible
via direct connect client with appropriate security permissions - these
clients include Leica Geosystems, PCI, AutoDesk, Intergraph, MapInfo,
RedSpider and others. For directions on direct connection options go here (link - text from Bob/John or...)
OGC Services:
Much of the data in UASL is accessible via WMS, WFS and other OGC services.
Information on the OGC services supported by UASL are here. (James to
provide text on what is available, how to access, listings etc.)
Online Mapping:
Online Mapping is another web-based access point for UASL. This project uses ESRI's ArcSDE and ArcIMS 3.0 products as the basis for a soils mapping and analysis system. GeoMedia (Intergraph), ER Mapper (ER-Mapper) and ArcInfo 8 (ESRI) were used to create seamless data sets and manipulate the data before loading. At present, this project is limited to soils data but its capabilities will be expanded in the future. Visit the Online Mapping link for applications.
