Geospatial Analysis in Web Browsers—Comparison Study on WebGIS Process-Based Applications

With the rapid development of internet technologies in recent years, the shift from the desktop to the web platform can be seen within geospatial analysis. While analytical tools, such as buffer or clip, are routinely used in desktop environments, WebGIS deals with geographic information, including...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ISPRS international journal of geo-information 2023-09, Vol.12 (9), p.374
Main Authors: Netek, Rostislav, Pohankova, Tereza, Bittner, Oldrich, Urban, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Cartography
Case studies
Centroids
Cloud computing
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
comparison study
Computer software industry
Data analysis
Data processing
Geographic information systems
geospatial
Geospatial data
Internet
Libraries
Mapping
Performance testing
Performance tests
Spatial analysis
Spatial data
Trends
Turf
Visualization
Web browsers
web service
Web site management software
World Wide Web
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Summary:With the rapid development of internet technologies in recent years, the shift from the desktop to the web platform can be seen within geospatial analysis. While analytical tools, such as buffer or clip, are routinely used in desktop environments, WebGIS deals with geographic information, including geospatial analysis, within the online environment. The main aim of this paper is to perform a comparison and evaluation of vector-oriented online geoprocessing tools in a WebGIS environment, supported by the development of a custom solution for geospatial analysis. The application called GeOnline is developed and tested as a case study to demonstrate the availability of spatial analysis tools within the web browser. It implements the specialized geospatial library Turf.js, which allows using non-trivial geospatial analysis, such as intersect, clip or calculate centroids. It handles client-side processes. Both a functionality comparison and performance testing are carried out, while the paper primarily focuses on data-driven (data-based) analysis and not only on visual-driven (visual-based) analysis. The comparative study evaluates five geospatial tools (ArcGIS Online, GISCloud, CARTO, FOURSQUARE, GeOnline) and summarizes the solutions from different aspects, including the number of supported operations. Finally, performance tests on GeOnline separately and among alternative solutions are performed. While ArcGIS Online is considered the most comprehensive solution on the market, GeOnline performs well compared to alternative solutions.
ISSN:2220-9964
2220-9964
DOI:10.3390/ijgi12090374