A distributed geospatial information services sharing technology based on SaaS thought: In the application of biodiversity conservation

Biodiversity conservations are often comprehensive, dynamic and complex problem that require professionals to work in teams while dealing with large and decentralized of project areas. However, the varieties of scattered thematic geospatial information can not be used directly and effectively by users - it impedes rather facilitates collaboration, and increases the project cost. To solve this problems, an implementation method of providing distributed geospatial information services (GIServices) based on SaaS (Software as a Service) thought and the Service-oriented Web Service technology, which is called the Distributed GIServices Sharing Technology (DGISST), is presented as a key technology for the proposed scheme. This paper explores that develops a distributed GIServices sharing platform to provide users with a shared collaboration environment with the DGISST as the core technology. First of all, all the existing geoprocessing function applications, geospatial information data and specialized business models are published as Web services. Different from the traditional WebGIS, this platform not only provides geodata services but also focuses more on providing geoprocessing function services and model services, and offers powerful geoprocessing functions and specialized model functions. Therefore, it is very critical to help users in geodata manipulation online. Secondly, some important concepts such as perfect meta-information system and GIServices application mode are introduced. Therefore, the different particle sizes of GIServices can be called flexibly and simply via Internet. Particularly, it also permits users to mashup their private geodata services with the public geodata services. Then it allows users to combine geodata service and geoprocessing function service (or specialized model service) to meet the different needs. Thirdly, this platform is designed to allow geodata services to be distributed in the Internet and be accessible at client sites. Therefore, to ensure the security of information and data, a multi-user application model is presented as a core module in this platform. This model implements the R-F-RBAC (Role-Function-Resource Based Access Control) model by introducing Centralized Identity Authentication, the RBAC model and Log Management. Through the above work, this platform provides a multi-user geospatial information application environment to meet the needs of geodata manipulation and collaboration for teams. A prototype implementation has been developed to put into use in TNC (The Nature Conservancy) China, satisfying the demands of sharing geospatial information and the daily work.