Design and implementation of a distributed GIS portal for oil spill and harmful algal bloom monitoring in the marine environment

A web-based distributed system for monitoring and forecasting of the marine
environment has been developed in line with INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation
in Europe (INSPIRE) and Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)
recommendations for a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). This system, called
DISPRO, enables integration and distribution of multi-source data from satellites,
aircraft, and in situ instruments, as well as results from numerical models. Geographic
data and metadata are stored on a set of distributed computer nodes and retrieved and
integrated by a web GIS client by means of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web
Map Server (WMS) technologies. A profile of ISO 19115 was developed for metadata
handling, using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a platform independent
encoding mechanism. DISPRO has been demonstrated in six European coastal zone
and ocean regions in the spring and summer of 2005. The overall positive experiences
of both service providers and end users indicate that the system should be further
developed into an operational GMES service.