Designing the Cyberinfrastructure for Spatial Data Curation, Visualization, and Sharing

Abstract

Widely used across disciplines such as natural resources, social sciences, public health, humanities, and economics, spatial data is an important component in many studies and has promoted interdisciplinary research development. Though an institutional data repository provides a great solution for data curation, preservation, and sharing, it usually lacks the spatial visualization capability, which limits the use of spatial data to professionals. To increase the impact of research-generated spatial data and truly turn them into digital maps for a broader user base, we have designed and developed the workflow and cyberinfrastructure to extend the current capability of our institutional data repository by visualizing the spatial data on the web. In this project, we added a GIS server to the original institutional data repository cyberinfrastructure, which enables web map services. Then, through a web mapping API, we visualized the spatial data as an interactive web map and embedded in the data repository web page. From the user’s perspective, researchers can still identify, cite and reuse the dataset by downloading the data and metadata and the DOI offered by the data repository. General information users can also browse the web maps to find location-based information. In addition, these data was ingested into the spatial data portal to increase the discoverability for spatial information users. Initial usage statistics suggest that this cyberinfrastructure has greatly improved the spatial data usage and extended the institutional data repository to facilitate spatial data sharing.