To the question of creating an open ecological geographic information system

Abstract

Access to information about the state of the environment is an inalienable right of Ukrainian citizens, so the development and improvement of ways to provide information to the population with environmental data is of high social importance. A valuable source of reliable environmental data that can be used to inform the public are the results of scientific research on the state of the environment, which are produced by the activities of higher education institutions. This article considers the possibilities of using web-GIS services by higher education institutions as a means of communicating environmental information to the general public. Purpose. To create an open geographic information system that should represent the database of environmental geodata obtained in the process of educational and scientific work of students and staff of the Karazin Institute of Environmental Sciences. Methods. Analysis of the stock materials of the Institute of Ecology for the needs of forming a geodatabase, development of the structure of the attributive web-GIS database and testing the functionality of the ArcGIS Online cloud mapping platform service for exporting, updating, storing, searching and visualizing data presentation in web-GIS. Results. A methodical algorithm for the development and creation of web-GIS is proposed and tested, consisting of the following stages: 1) selection of the technological base of development; 2) analysis of materials providing input information; 3) development of the structure of the attributive database of the project; 4) preparation of geodata sets and their publication on the Internet. As a result of the analysis 144 scientific papers were selected, which will form the information basis for the formation of the web-GIS "EcoSpace". The structure of the attributive database of the web-GIS project was developed, consisting of 4 content blocks and 11 types of descriptive data. 3 sets of test data were prepared, which showed successful results of export and visualization of geodata represented by different types of geometric vector primitives (linear, point and polygonal objects). Conclusions. A prototype of the web-GIS "EcoSpace" (https://institute-of-environmental-sciences-data-portal-carto-lab.hub.arcgis.com/) was developed in the environment of the ArcGIS Online Internet service, which can be used to publish information about the state of the environment contained in the results of scientific research of students and staff of the Karazin Institute of Environmental Sciences. The information content of the web-GIS "EcoSpace" has been started, in particular, the results of three scientific projects concerning the state of soil resources of Kharkiv district of Kharkiv region have been entered.