[Geoserver-users] GeoServer and NOAA Raster & Vector Charts

GeoServer GeoServer User
1

Greets:

Brand new to the list as I spend the weekend researching map servers. Here is
the scenario that I am contemplating. A group of us are going sailing down
the eastern seaboard from Canada to the Caribbean and the electronic
navigation system and charts have been acquired. All standard stuff nothing
fancy.

The problem is that in order to view the charts for planning or discussion you
need to fire up the electronic charting system which in general do not
provide good high level overviews. They are good for course planning,
tracking and route planning gps integration etc.

To overcome this problem as there are several of us onboard is to prepare a
map server that displays the NOAA BSB Raster and Vector charts as an overlay
at the appropriate zoom level of the eastern seaboard and caribbean regions.
This allows for both a high level view as well as detailed view in a
standalone application that can be used in addition too the standard
navigation packages which use the same charts. As everyone will have putters
on board and I run linux its simple to create an onboard wireless network.

So before I go down this route and spend copious amounts of time learning all
the details of charts, map servers, java, tomcat, postgis/postgresql etc I
was wondering: first is this even feasible as I see no google data
on "geosever and NOAA BSB raster or vector charts" even though both should be
supported. Secondly is there perhaps a simpler solution to creating a
functional mapserver used primarily for reviewing and displaying data in this
standard format and in a multi user environment.

Thanks for any information or insights that you may wish to share.

Best regards

--
/ch

2

Hi Chris,

Interesting problem!! Unfortunately BSB is a format that geotools/geoserver does not handle. However doing some searching it seems that gdal does:

http://home.gdal.org/projects/bsb/index.html

So you have two choices. You can:

(1) Use MapServer
(2) Convert the files to a format that GeoServer can understand like GeoTIFF. (example on the above page).

Hope that helps. Feel free to keep the questions coming.

-Justin

Chris H wrote:

Greets:

Brand new to the list as I spend the weekend researching map servers. Here is the scenario that I am contemplating. A group of us are going sailing down the eastern seaboard from Canada to the Caribbean and the electronic navigation system and charts have been acquired. All standard stuff nothing fancy.

The problem is that in order to view the charts for planning or discussion you need to fire up the electronic charting system which in general do not provide good high level overviews. They are good for course planning, tracking and route planning gps integration etc.

To overcome this problem as there are several of us onboard is to prepare a map server that displays the NOAA BSB Raster and Vector charts as an overlay at the appropriate zoom level of the eastern seaboard and caribbean regions. This allows for both a high level view as well as detailed view in a standalone application that can be used in addition too the standard navigation packages which use the same charts. As everyone will have putters on board and I run linux its simple to create an onboard wireless network.

So before I go down this route and spend copious amounts of time learning all the details of charts, map servers, java, tomcat, postgis/postgresql etc I was wondering: first is this even feasible as I see no google data on "geosever and NOAA BSB raster or vector charts" even though both should be supported. Secondly is there perhaps a simpler solution to creating a functional mapserver used primarily for reviewing and displaying data in this standard format and in a multi user environment.

Thanks for any information or insights that you may wish to share.

Best regards

--
Justin Deoliveira
The Open Planning Project
jdeolive@anonymised.com

3

On Monday 25 February 2008 08:12:36 pm Justin Deoliveira wrote:

Hi Chris,

Interesting problem!! Unfortunately BSB is a format that
geotools/geoserver does not handle. However doing some searching it
seems that gdal does:

http://home.gdal.org/projects/bsb/index.html

Yup and there is also libbsb

http://libbsb.sourceforge.net/examples.html (neither have been tested)

so in theory the images can be processed into a form acceptable by geoserver.
Perhaps Im incorrect here but I would like to use open layers and not sure if
Mapserver supports it. I do like the front end of geoserver better as is used
by http://sigma.openplans.org Appearance is important when it comes to
mapping software and so I lookled at mapnik. However as Im not a coder, this
is a no go.

Basically I would like to build almost the same application as sigma except
the overlay would be NOAA Raster and Vector charts and with the same type
search facility. Later on if I can get that far, then of course the system
could also be used as a historical record of places travelled, logs and
tracks and waypoints. cribb files etc etc.

All these options are not available with Electronic Charting Systems as there
primary focus is navigation. Some vendors have started playing in this area
but the implementations are poor and require internet access as the primary
focus is to integrate with google services. Such features however require net
access.

So you have two choices. You can:

(1) Use MapServer
(2) Convert the files to a format that GeoServer can understand like
GeoTIFF. (example on the above page).

Hope that helps. Feel free to keep the questions coming.

Thank you I will as all this is quite foreign but extremely interesting to me.
This has been done before btw but with google earth integration.

See http://earthnc.com/

There are several issues however with this service. It is limited to the
continental USA and requires net access. I would like to build something for
personal use that is not limited to the USA and secondly does not require
internet access to be functional. The latter is really the main reason for
going through this exercise as net access is by no means guaranteed at 3
miles offshore or more. Phone data rates are far too expensive and forget
satelite phones. So a standalone system that can be updated when and if net
access is available is the precondition as it serves only a local audience.
ie: the crew..:slight_smile:

Enough of the justifications...back to researching this problem. Just wanted
to put things in context for future questions.

Many thanks Justin for the nod of approval.

--
/ch

4

Yup and there is also libbsb

http://libbsb.sourceforge.net/examples.html (neither have been tested)

so in theory the images can be processed into a form acceptable by geoserver. Perhaps Im incorrect here but I would like to use open layers and not sure if Mapserver supports it. I do like the front end of geoserver better as is used by http://sigma.openplans.org Appearance is important when it comes to mapping software and so I lookled at mapnik. However as Im not a coder, this is a no go.

Openlayers will work just fine with MapServer as well.

Basically I would like to build almost the same application as sigma except the overlay would be NOAA Raster and Vector charts and with the same type search facility. Later on if I can get that far, then of course the system could also be used as a historical record of places travelled, logs and tracks and waypoints. cribb files etc etc.

Serving up the raster data with vector overlays should be straight forward regardless if you use mapserver native support for them or convert and serve them with geoserver.

The names search is not all that special. Its more or less just a wildcarded search against GNIS names. More info here:

http://home.gdal.org/projects/bsb/index.html

All these options are not available with Electronic Charting Systems as there primary focus is navigation. Some vendors have started playing in this area but the implementations are poor and require internet access as the primary focus is to integrate with google services. Such features however require net access.

So you have two choices. You can:

(1) Use MapServer
(2) Convert the files to a format that GeoServer can understand like
GeoTIFF. (example on the above page).

Hope that helps. Feel free to keep the questions coming.

Thank you I will as all this is quite foreign but extremely interesting to me. This has been done before btw but with google earth integration.

See http://earthnc.com/

There are several issues however with this service. It is limited to the continental USA and requires net access. I would like to build something for personal use that is not limited to the USA and secondly does not require internet access to be functional. The latter is really the main reason for going through this exercise as net access is by no means guaranteed at 3 miles offshore or more. Phone data rates are far too expensive and forget satelite phones. So a standalone system that can be updated when and if net access is available is the precondition as it serves only a local audience. ie: the crew..:slight_smile:

Enough of the justifications...back to researching this problem. Just wanted to put things in context for future questions.

Many thanks Justin for the nod of approval.

Cool, yea i think a nice solution based on OS software is definitely the way to go for you. Good luck with the research and please let us know if you have any more questions.

--
Justin Deoliveira
The Open Planning Project
jdeolive@anonymised.com