Graphic File Formats for Web Virtual Globe

In this paper various graphic formats were reviewed as resources for web virtual globe. Interactive spherical visualization (ISV) platform called “Orbus” was considered as an example of a graphic resources repository for web virtual globe. Various raster and vector static and dynamic cartographic layers can be set as resources of applications of this type. Such data should fulfill requirements for high informativeness with a minimum disk volume. In this paper traditional formats used for geodata storing, as well as becoming popular formats that can be adapted to work with geodata were explored. As a result of the analysis of the characteristics of common raster formats, the optimized raster format WebP (in the lossless specification), as well as the associated WebM media container, were selected as the most efficient. As a result of analysis of the characteristics of common vector formats, conclusions about their limitations in visual design of the virtual globe were made.

Participatory Rural Spatial Planning Based on a Virtual Globe-Based 3D PGIS

With the current spatial planning reform in China, public participation is becoming increasingly important in the success of rural spatial planning. However, engaging various stakeholders in spatial planning projects is difficult, mainly due to the lack of planning knowledge and computer skills. Therefore, this paper discusses the development of a virtual globe-based 3D participatory geographic information system (PGIS) aiming to support public participation in the spatial planning process. The 3D PGIS-based rural planning approach was applied in the village of XiaFan, Ningbo, China. The results demonstrate that locals’ participation capacity was highly promoted, with their interest in 3D PGIS visualization being highly activated. The interactive landscape design tools allow stakeholders to present their own suggestions and designs, just like playing a computer game, thus improving their interactive planning abilities on-site. The scientific analysis tools allow planners to analyze and evaluate planning scenarios in different disciplines in real-time to quickly respond to suggestions from participants on-site. Functions and tools such as data management, marking, and highlighting were found to be useful for smoothing the interactions among planners and participants. In conclusion, virtual globe-based 3D PGIS highly supports the participatory rural landscape planning process and is potentially applicable to other regions.

A Tile-Based Framework with a Spatial-Aware Feature for Easy Access and Efficient Analysis of Marine Remote Sensing Data

Marine remote sensing (MRS) data provide an important tool for advancing global change research. However, the existing product service practices are insufficient for meeting the needs of a full-experience online application. This paper introduces a framework named SatANA, which is unified by a data tiling method with a spatial-aware feature, for integrated and intelligent improvements in visualization, storage and computing. The SatANA framework is supported by a hybrid database storage ideal for the cloud storage of massive MRS data. The raw data are displayed and roamed on a virtual globe through the Internet as tiles, enhancing their spatial awareness, that can be intelligently used for visualization result tuning, data storage preloading and distributed computing optimized indexing. To verify its feasibility and effectiveness, we applied this framework to a platform called SatCO2, which is devoted to providing convenient access to and the efficient utilization of MRS data.