Geospatial services in the Cloud

Data semantics play an extremely significant role in spatial data infrastructures by providing semantic specifications to geospatial data and enabling in this way data sharing and interoperability. By applying, on the fly, composite geospatial processes on the above data it is possible to produce valuable geoinformation over the web directly available and applicable to a wide range of geo-activities of significant importance for the research and industry community. Cloud computing may enable geospatial processing since it refers to, among other things, efficient computing resources providing on demand processing services. In this context, we attempt to provide a design and architectural framework for web applications based on open geospatial standards. Our approach includes, in addition to geospatial processing, data acquisition services that are essential especially when dealing with satellite images and applications in the area of remote sensing and similar fields. As a result, by putting in a common framework all data and geoprocesses available in the Cloud, it is possible to combine the appropriate services in order to produce a solution for a specific need. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.