Application of GML and SVG in the development of WebGIS

Our study deals with two major issues impacting current WebGIS development: interoperability of heterogeneous data and visualization of vector data on the Web. By using the combination of Geography Markup Language (GML), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Web Feature Service (WFS) Implementation Specifications developed by the OpenGIS Consortium (OGC), a strategy of WebGIS is proposed. The GML is used as a coding and data transportation mechanism to realize interoperability, the SVG to display GML data on the Web and the WFS as a data query mechanism to access and retrieve data at the feature level in real time on the Web. A case study shows that the combination mentioned above has enormous potential to achieve interoperability while not requiring considerable changes to existing legacy data. Original data formats need not be changed and could still be retrieved using WFS and transformed into GML in real time. SVG can produce superior quality vector maps on a Web browser.