- Set-up of the Project Intranet - STATLAS workspace
The Project
Intranet is the STATLAS User Group environment, which has been made available
to all the project partners as a Web based online collaboration tool and
a shared access document repository. It is composed of the following components:
The main component of the system is the "User group meeting"
that provides for conferencing. This program allows the users to share
a common set of resources and communicate in public or as a private team.
The meeting subsystem offers capabilities as a "meeting room"
and a "meeting table" for the distribution of the accompanying
material documents, person to person messaging as well as the possibility
to record meeting minutes.
A document
library is an application that allows partners to upload documents and
their respective metadata. Documents can be organised in subject folders.
The announcement board is the place where partners post messages. Messages
are displayed in a chronological order or by thread.
This environment is accompanied by a mailing list offering contact information
for members of the group.
- Identification of the STATLAS Thematic Content
The identification of the STATLAS Thematic Content has been based on the analysis and evaluation of a number of factors as:
STATLAS objectives,
STATLAS target group and the user community needs, data availability and
data completeness, temporal dimension, level of detail [NUTS0, NUTS1,
NUTS2 & NUTS3]. The above mentioned analysis and evaluation led to
the identification of the STATLAS Themes appearing in the following list
and the identification of the basic set of maps along with their symbolization
alternatives.
- Physical
features and resources: Physical features and Climate
- Land development
and conservation
- Population
- Economy:
Economic accounts, Agriculture, Mining and manufacturing, Tourism, Trade
and flow of goods
- Labor
force: Employment, Unemployment, Labor cost
- Infrastructure:
Transportation, Energy
- Social conditions: Education, Culture, Health
- Description of STATLAS functionality
The Statistical
Atlas of the European Union is based on the concept of producing maps
"on demand".
Within this concept, users are able to interactively select and combine
base and thematic data to produce maps to suit their own needs. Two versions
of STATLAS will be developed, a guided "non-expert" module and
an "expert" module. The non-expert module will contain authored
maps demonstrating accurate cartographic representation of the statistical
data. The expert module will provide users with cartographic, GIS, and
statistical tools to manipulate and visualize the data in their own way.
In this framework the following functions will be available to the user:
Navigation : STATLAS will utilize navigation techniques common
to current cartographic and GIS applications [zooming, panning, change
of scale Navigation between data topics and map layers.
Queries and Search : All visible map objects can be queried to
provide information about themselves. Inversely, given one or more attributes,
a user can search for map objects.
Cartographic Representation : Dynamic viewing and user interaction,
Selection of level of expertise, i.e., "non-expert" or "expert",
Visualization : Application of innovative visualization techniques
that enable dynamic viewing of geographical information.
GIS/GeoStatistics : Incorporation of advanced statistical analysis
tools
- System Architecture
STATLAS is being developed to run on a number of different platforms, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. System software consists of a collection of reusable and extensible components. The software will use existing standards whenever appropriate. Commonly used GIS and graphics formats will be supported in order to cooperate with existing software. XML will extensively be used for configuration, map and interface description. Based on the above concept and taken into account the functional requirements of the system, the architecture of the system will be as follows (figure 1):
- Software Quality Assurance Plan
The Software Quality Assurance Plan [SQAP] defines the activities performed to provide assurance that the software-related items delivered to the customer conform to the established and contracted technical requirements. The SQAP also describes how the project will be audited to ensure that the policies, standards, practices, procedures, and processes applicable to the project are followed.
The overall SQA activity is planned and managed according to the ESA Software Engineering Standards (ESA PSS-05-0 Issue 1). As specified by these standards, the SQAP is structured according to ANSI/IEEE Std. 730.1-1989 (IEEE Standard for Software Quality Assurance Plans), as adapted to satisfy the requirements of the PSS standards.
The SQAP is intended to ultimately cover all phases in the project's life cycle, from Software Requirements [SR] to Transfer Software Development Life Cycle Phase [TR] and Operations and Maintenance [OM] phases. The SQAP/SR is prepared before the start of the SR phase, with a two-fold purpose:
i) To specify in detail the SQA Plan that is to be followed during the next SR phase
ii) To outline the SQA Activities for the subsequent phases.
According to the PSS standards, a refined SQAP is to be issued in all subsequent phases.
- Conceptual approach to the design and implementation of the STATLAS database and the system prototype
The conceptual approach for the design and implementation of the STATLAS database has been based on the following principles:
- Storage
of STATLAS data (Geometric & Thematic) in an geo-relational DBMS
environment
- Use of
open-source software (PostgreSQL Object-relational DBMS) will extend
standard
database functionalities with geo-relational data types and functions
Advantages:
Centralized data holding [prevents data inconsistency]
, Utilization of SQL for data modelling and complex data queries
, Addition of GIS-functionalities to the application
, Provision of a wide range of data querying and modelling facilities.
At this stage of prototype development, the main concern is programming the STATLAS application to be cross-platform. The goal of this application is to maintain the same GUI for all three platforms: Windows, Mac_OS, and Linux. At the moment the GUI is Windows-based by using standard API functions, which are non-transferable to other platforms. In order to create a GUI for other platforms (i.e., Mac_OS and Linux), separate programming would be needed. Therefore, a platform independent framework for GUI development is sought, which would lead to the creation of identical GUIs for all platforms.
