DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL DATA

INFRASTRUCTURE
CASE STUDY OF FAISALABAD
Submitted to: Dr. Muhammad Asim
Submitted By: Ali Raza (2015-CRP-5)
Muhammad Sajid Iqbal (2015-CRP-33)
Muhammad Ali (2015-CRP-40)
Muhammad Islam (2015-CRP-12)
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 1
SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE...................................................................................................... 1
1.0. HISTORY ......................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Basic Terms Related to SDI ............................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Key Components of a SDI ............................................................................................................... 2
1.6. Examples of SDIs ............................................................................................................................ 7
1.7. Current and Possible Future Developments of SDIs .................................................................... 7
2.0. Housing Schemes Data base:............................................................................................................. 11
3.0. The Attribute table ............................................................................................................................ 12
3.1. The Attributes window ........................................................................................................ 12
3.2. GIS based Web Map: ........................................................................................................... 12
Annexures: ................................................................................................................................................. 16
References:................................................................................................................................................. 17

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Table of Figures
Figure 1: U.S. government open data geoportal data.gov ............................................................................. 2
Figure 2: Key Components of SDI and Publish-find-bind pattern ............................................................... 3
Figure 3: The metadata fragment of geospatial service provided by NOAA................................................ 4
Figure 4: Search examples based on Data.gov ............................................................................................. 6
Figure 5: Attributes Data............................................................................................................................. 11
Figure 6: Attributes of housing scheme ...................................................................................................... 11
Figure 7: Housing Schemes SDI with OSM Base map ................................................................................. 14
Figure 8: Housing Schemes SDI with Satellite Imagery ............................................................................... 14
Figure 9: Housing Schemes SDI ................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 10: Housing Schemes SDI 2 .............................................................................................................. 15

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CHAPTER 1

SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE

1.0. HISTORY
The term spatial data infrastructure (SDI) was coined in 1993 by the U.S. National Research
Council to denote a framework of technologies, policies, and institutional arrangements that
together facilitate the creation, exchange, and use of geospatial data and related information
resources across an information-sharing community. Such a framework can be implemented
narrowly to enable the sharing of geospatial information within an organization or more broadly
for use at a national, regional, or global level. In all cases, an SDI will provide an institutionally
sanctioned, automated means for posting, discovering, evaluating, and exchanging geospatial
information by participating information producers and users.

SDI extends a GIS (Geographic Information System) by ensuring geospatial data and standards
are used to create authoritative datasets and polices that support it.

1.1. Basic Terms Related to SDI

1. Spatial data infrastructure:
The technology, policies, standards, and human resources necessary to acquire, process,
store, distribute, and improve utilization of geospatial data, services, and other digital
resources.
2. Geoportal:
A gateway website through which people can search, discover, access, and visualize the
geospatial resources within a SDI.
3. Metadata:
Documentation about who, when, how, what, why, and many other facets of the data and the
data production process. Metadata can be used for describing not only data, but also tools,
services, and other geospatial resources.
4. Data standard:
A commonly agreed specification on how data should be recorded and described.

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 5. Geospatial interoperability:
The ability of different geographic information systems to share, exchange, and operate
(heterogeneous) geospatial data and functions.
6. Web service:
A Web application that provides standardized application programming interfaces to allow
remote access to data and functions over the Internet.

1.2. Key Components of a SDI

A SDI consists of many components. In addition to the digital geospatial resources, a SDI also
needs hardware, software, people, organizations, standards, policies, and many others to function
properly. Constructing a SDI also needs effective communications between communities, and
negotiations among organizations and even countries to reach agreements. While a SDI has many
components, this chapter will particularly focus on geoportals, metadata, and search functions,
which are three key components of a typical SDI.
1.3. Geoportals
Geoportals are Web gateways that provide one‐stop access to geospatial resources (Tait 2005).
Geoportals are probably the most visible part of SDIs, since they are the main interfaces through
which people can search and find geospatial resources. Figure 1 shows the user interface of
Data.gov, a geoportal for the U.S. government open data. Figure 1(a) is the initial interface of the
geoportal which contains a search bar that allows users to type in some keywords and find relevant
resources.

Figure 1: U.S. government open data geoportal data.gov

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Geoportals are typically developed using Web‐based technologies and off‐the‐shelf GIS software
packages. A database management system (DBMS) is used to store and manage the metadata of
the geospatial resources contained in the SDI. A Web interface, which often contains a map,
enables end users to interact with the system and to conduct searches (Figure 2). When a search is
performed, a HTTP (Hypertext Transmission Protocol) request will be sent to the Web server
which hosts the geoportal. After querying the metadata stored in the database, the geoportal will
then send back the result to the client through a HTTP response. Geoportals are typically designed
to be used by both GIS professionals and the general public.
One important function of geoportals is helping users discover the existing geospatial resources.
This resource discovery process often follows the publish‐find‐bind pattern (Rose 2004, Maguire
and Longley 2005), in which: 1) providers publish the metadata of their data and services to a
geoportal; 2) users perform a search on the geoportal and potentially find the data; 3) users
consume the data and services from the providers. Figure 2 illustrates these three steps.

Figure 2: Key Components of SDI and Publish-find-bind pattern

The resource discovery process heavily relies on the quality of the metadata and the performance
of the search function. In the following, we will discuss these two components.
1.4. Metadata
Metadata provide documentations on the content and the production process of geospatial
resources. Metadata are often called the data about data, and include information such as titles,
descriptions, data categories, the locations and time of the data collection, the data collectors, the
used coordinate systems and map projections, and the data cleaning and processing procedures.

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Metadata can also be used for describing geospatial services by providing information about the
data and functions offered by the services, the input and output, the developers, the development
time, and others. In short, metadata are about all aspects of digital geospatial resources. Figure 3
shows the metadata fragment of a geospatial service provided by the NOAA, which describes the
capabilities (e.g., getting a map based on the served geospatial data) and the data layers provided
by this service.

Figure 3: The metadata fragment of geospatial service provided by NOAA

Metadata are fundamentally important for SDIs. When data and services leave their original data
production context and are integrated into a SDI, metadata provide the primary information based
on which GIS users can understand and use digital geospatial resources. Without metadata or with
only poorly constructed metadata, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for data and services to be
reused. The quality of metadata also determines the result of resource discovery. Many geoportals
rank the relevance of geospatial resources to user queries based on the information contained in
their metadata. Complete and accurate metadata allow geoportals to find and rank geospatial
resources based on locations, time, thematic attributes, data types, published years, data collectors,
and many other conditions explicitly or implicitly specified in the user queries. To ensure the
quality of metadata, standards are established to define the necessary elements that should be
included in metadata. In the U.S., the FGDC is responsible for coordinating the development of
metadata standards, and its Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) has been

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used by many U.S. government agencies to formalize metadata. Since 2010, FGDC has endorsed
a series of international metadata standards (e.g., the ISO 191** standards) to promote Global
Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI).

1.5. Search Function

Search functions are the major means through which users discover geospatial resources in a SDI.
Without an effective search function, relevant geospatial resources in an SDI can hardly be found
by the users. Two types of search functions are often adopted in geoportals: text‐based search and
map‐based search. Text‐based search is similar to Web search engines, in which a user types in
some keywords and receives the results based on the matched text. Map‐based search allows users
to find geospatial resources by interacting with a map, and a user can pan, zoom in and out, and
draw polygons to specify their areas of interest. Using either of these two methods alone has some
limitations. The text‐based search enables general users, especially the users who are unfamiliar
with a GIS, to find geospatial resources in a way similar to how they would use a general search
engine, such as Google. However, it can be challenging to identify the suitable keywords, or the
keywords may not accurately describe the geographic areas that the user is interested in. The map
based search, on the other hand, provides convenience for the users who are already familiar with
a map interface, and allows users to specify geographic locations in a more accurate manner (e.g.,
by drawing polygons). However, not everyone feels comfortable of using a map‐based interface.
Geoportals often offer both search functions to complement the two and accommodate the needs
of different users.
The search functions in SDIs are being improved by researchers. One of these improvements lies
in text‐based search: there is a transition from keyword‐based search to semantic search.
Keyword based.
Search examines the matching between the keywords input by the users and the textual
descriptions of the geospatial resources. Thus, if a user types in “road”, the search function will
not be able to find the resources labeled as “street”. Semantic search aims to match digital
geospatial resources to user queries based on the meaning (semantics) of the queries, and therefore
can Identify relevant data and services even though they are not labeled with the exactly same
words.
Early attempts of semantic search include the use of ontology‐based query expansion (Lutz and

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Klien 2006), rule‐based semantic reasoning (Li, Zhou and Wu 2016), and faceted search, e.g.,
Apache Solr (Hostetter 2006). Despite the existing research efforts, additional work is still
necessary to integrate semantic search into current SDIs. Figure 4 shows examples of searching
“Earthquake” (Figure 4(a)) and “natural disasters” (Figure 4(b)) respectively on Data.gov.
While Earthquake is generally considered as a type of natural disaster, the search of “earthquake”,
however, returned more matching records than the other search, suggesting that the search function
behind is more likely to be based on a simple keyword matching. In addition to text‐based search,
map‐based search is also supported by Data.gov. Figure 4(c) shows a spatial filtering effect by
narrowing down the region of interest to the contiguous United States using the map interface.

Figure 4: Search examples based on Data.gov

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1.6. Examples of SDIs
There are many spatial data infrastructures established at different geographic levels. At the global
level, there is Global Earth Observation System of Systems which combines the efforts from more
than 70 countries to share environmental data. At the continental level, there is Infrastructure for
Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) which enables the sharing of
geospatial information among public organizations across Europe. At the national level, there is
Data.gov which provides access to a large number of United States government open datasets. The
National Map (TNM) is a USGS SDI project which supports easy access and downloading of
topographic information about elevation, geographic names, hydrology, boundaries,
transportation, and so forth.
There are also national SDIs in Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, and other
countries. At the state level, there is Tennessee GIS portal which offers the geospatial datasets,
services, and Web applications related to the State of Tennessee. At the city level, there is New
York City Open Data portal. There are also spatial data infrastructures dedicated to specific
domains, such as disaster response, public health, and climate change.

1.7. Current and Possible Future Developments of SDIs

Spatial data infrastructures heavily rely on computer and information technologies, and are
continuously evolving with the technological advancements. Techniques commonly used in
today’s SDIs, such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) which enables asynchronous
processing to speed up search performance as well as user experience, are not available for the
first generation of
SDIs in 1990s. Similarly, we may see the emergence of new technologies that can improve SDIs
in various aspects, and some of these technologies are already being tested in research labs. For
example, graph databases, such as Neo4j, may be employed to augment the existing relational
databases that have been widely used in SDIs to store metadata. Semantic Web (or the third
generation of the Web) and Linked Data technologies may be leveraged to turn SDIs into local
Semantic Webs (Athanasis et al. 2009). The concept of knowledge graph (Singhal 2012) may be
applied and integrated to SDIs to construct knowledge bases that link the geospatial entities and
concepts contained in the data. Machine learning and data mining methods, such as latent semantic
analysis and labeled latent Dirichlet allocation may help automatically infer and generate high
quality metadata from the content of maps and services (Li, Bhatia and Cao 2015, Hu et al. 2015).

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While there can be lots of possible technological improvements, future SDIs also need the critical
support from people, organizations, and governments. With these important components, a future
SDI will contribute more to the development of the society.
Key Advantages
 Benefits to society through better management of the common environment
 Benefits to public administration, citizens, and businesses through better services
 Benefits through innovation for new services and business, and greater democratic
accountability
 Contribution of the JRC
Key Objectives
1. Define spatial data infrastructure.
2. Describe the major components of a typical SDI.
3. Describe the main functions of geoportals.
4. Define metadata, and describe the types of information that may be included in metadata.
5. Differentiate text‐based search and map‐based search.
6. List some of the widely‐recognized SDIs.
7. Describe the role of standards in ensuring the quality of metadata.
Why we Need it?
Social challenges, environmental issues, and economic downturns all take cooperation to solve.
Working together to map and document the earth helps create a structure for managing knowledge.
Using geographic information system (GIS) solutions from Esri to create a spatial data
infrastructure (SDI) ensures that data and resources are available to the organizations and
stakeholders that need them. From large countries to small nations, everyone benefits from
documented public works and utilities, protected environments and biodiversity, correctly assessed
resources, and completed strategic planning.
Levels
The emergence of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) is closely associated with the efforts of
collecting and producing geospatial data, as well as the advancement of surveying and computer
technologies. In the past decades, a large amount of geospatial data, such as remote sensing images

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and GPS locations, have been collected by government agencies such as the U.S. Geological
Survey
(USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Meanwhile, the fast
development of geographic information systems facilitates the derivation of various data products
from the collected data, such as topographic maps, land cover data, transportation networks, and
hydrographic features. As location‐based services are becoming increasingly popular, vast
amounts of volunteered geographic information (VGI) (Goodchild 2007) has also been contributed
by the general public through smart mobile devices and social media platforms. In addition, the
componentization of GIS brings geospatial services that provide data processing and spatial
analysis functions in the general Web environment. The large number of geospatial data, services,
maps, and others, however, do not ease the use of these geospatial resources. On one hand, it is
challenging to find and access these digital resources which are widely distributed at different
government agencies and websites (Li, Wang and Bhatia 2016). On the other hand, a lot of data
redundancies exist, and money and human resources were wasted in duplicated data collection and
maintenance efforts (Rajabifard and Williamson 2001, Maguire and Longley 2005).
These problems were recognized by governments of the countries around the world, and many
spatial data infrastructures were constructed since 1990s (Masser 1999). In the U.S., a national
spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) initiative was started in 1993 to provide standardized access to
geographic information resources (National Research Council 1993). An official definition of
NSDI, according to the Executive Order 12906, is “the technology, policies, standards, and human
resources necessary to acquire, process, store, distribute, and improve utilization of geospatial
data.”
The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is charged with coordinating the efforts to
develop the NSDI in the U.S. The naming also indicates that SDI is recognized as an infrastructure
similar to other types of infrastructures, such as electricity grids and water supplies, and that it
plays fundamental roles in the socioeconomic and environmental developments of a country. Three
parallel fronts were developed in the NSDI program: 1) a set of data standards for formalizing data
and metadata; 2) a clearinghouse network providing data storage and online access; and 3) a set of
framework data for the entire country, such as administrative boundaries (Longley et al. 2001,
Maguire and Longley 2005).

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Spatial data infrastructure presents a solution to the problems of resource discovery and data
redundancy. It provides a unified platform where people can go and search geospatial data, maps,
services, and other digital resources. As multiple government agencies are sharing their data on
one platform, SDI reduces data redundancy and the extra efforts in collecting duplicated geospatial
data.
From a cost/benefit perspective, SDI allows geospatial data to be collected once and reused
multiple times in different applications. More generally, SDI can be considered as an important
element in the e‐government (Georgiadou, Rodriguez‐Pabón and Lance 2006) and open
government movement to increase the transparency of governmental activities and to enhance
public participation. Better access to geospatial data also stimulates the growth of new businesses
which may not be possible otherwise (Ralston 2004).

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2.0. Housing Schemes Data base:
As much as the database of 7 housing schemes is prepared in which several fields including the area (in
square ft., applicable F.A.R, building height, land use, competent authority which deals with the building
control etc were added in ArcGIS.

Figure 5: Attributes Data

Figure 6: Attributes of housing scheme

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3.0. The Attribute table
When you open an attribute table, the default view of the table is read-only. However, if you start
an edit session, you can manually edit the attributes in the cells of the table. When you are
editing in the attribute table, a blank row is added to the bottom of the table where you can add
new data to the table.

To make automated edits in the attribute table, you can use the Field Calculator or Calculate
Geometry tools to update the table. You can use these tools outside an edit session; however, you
will not be able to undo your calculations unless you are in an edit session.

3.1. The Attributes window

The Attributes window allows you to view and edit attributes of features you have selected. You
can open it by clicking the Attributes button on the Editor toolbar.

3.2. GIS based Web Map:

An ArcGIS web map is an interactive display of geographic information that you can use to tell
stories and answer questions. For example, you may find or create a map that addresses the

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question, How many people in the United States live within a reasonable walk or drive to a
supermarket? This map has layers showing which neighborhoods are within a 10-minute drive or
1-mile walk to a supermarket, and for context, the map has a topographic basemap that includes
cities, roads, and buildings overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery.

Maps contain a basemap, a set of data layers (many of which include interactive pop-up windows
with information about the data), an extent, and navigation tools to pan and zoom. In general, the
basemap and layers are hosted and shared through ArcGIS Online. However, maps can also
contain layers added directly to the map and layers and basemaps referenced externally. Many
maps also contain scaled symbols and other smart styling that reveal data and patterns as you
interact with it.

The map has several zoom levels, each level revealing more detail the closer you get. Click on
any earthquake symbol to learn the magnitude and date of each event. The map also has scaled
symbols, showing the relative magnitude of each earthquake. The background map is symbolized
as well in muted dark tones that set off the bright earthquake symbols. This data, organized with
this combination of symbology, reveals a pattern of earthquakes known as the Ring of Fire.

Maps can be created in a few basic steps and opened in standard web browsers, mobile devices,
and desktop map viewers. They can be shared through links, embedded in websites, and used to
create map-based web apps. When a map is shared, the author decides what to include with the
map. For example, when the map is shared to the general public through Map Viewer, the map
includes options to switch basemaps; view a legend (if the map contains one); view details about
the map; share, print, and measure the map; and find locations on the map. Signing in to Map
Viewer with an ArcGIS account may reveal additional options for adding layers, performing
analysis, getting directions, and so on. Maps embedded in websites and shared through apps
often contain a focused set of tools for a specific purpose, such as collecting information, editing
features, or comparing two maps side-by-side. Web maps can be used across ArcGIS because
they adhere to the same web map specification. This means you can create web maps in one
ArcGIS app and view and modify them in another.

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Figure 7: Housing Schemes SDI with OSM Base map

Figure 8: Housing Schemes SDI with Satellite Imagery

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 Figure 9: Housing Schemes SDI

Figure 10: Housing Schemes SDI 2

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Annexures:

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