Sharing Environmental Maps on the Web: The Austrian EnviroMap System

This chapter describes a system for public dissemination of environmental maps through an interactive Web-based system. This "EnviroMap" system is a platform in which data holders can publish a raster version of their data and data seekers can get acess to these data. For data holders, the system provides a tool for data documentation and upload. Data users can access the data with Web browsers and a Jaca Virtual Machine. The system is based on a raster file format with a predefined map projection and cell size. EnviroMap may serve as a marketplace for environmental maps, where data holders can make accessible an "EnviroMap raster version" of their original GIS data and advertise the availability of their original data. Usability analysis has shown that in order to fully use the functionality more emphasis must be given to a familiar and intuitive user interface for novice users.