MapConnect™ Clearinghouse

BroadMap understands the GIS challenges facing States. Our company was founded in part to serve State governments and is familiar with many of the obstacles States face, such as:

• Lack of central responsibility and coordination;
• Duplication of effort;
• Data issues including metadata, data silos and lack of awareness of data holdings;
• Inability to support data sharing;
• Lack of widespread adoption and use by government and citizens.

A successful clearinghouse is critical to a State’s success and will improve the safety, quality of life and economic prosperity for all its citizens. BroadMap’s comprehensive MapConnect™ Clearinghouse program supports State initiatives that are critical to homeland security, emergency response, land use and land management, environmental quality, travel and tourism, transportation, infrastructure planning, natural resources and revenue and taxation.

The program is comprised of four parts:

• Data File Catalog;
• Applications Catalog;
• Print-Ready Maps;
• Common Services.

Data File Catalog:

The Statewide Data File Catalog is the starting and ending point for GIS data providers and consumers in the State. The Clearinghouse accepts and catalogs GIS data and captures metadata through an intuitive and user-friendly interface. The catalog also contains a listing of data by theme and employs several other useful features (as described under “Common Services”), such as keyword search. Note that the Data Catalog can contain both spatial data (e.g., shapefiles) as well as non-spatial data (e.g., tabular data).

Applications Catalog:

The Applications Catalog is a listing of applications and services that can consume data files, web map services and web feature services in the Clearinghouse.

The listing of applications may include links to web applications, downloadable applications and applications that run on the web. Examples of applications include interactive map viewers, interactive applications to perform specific tasks with data (such as editing features) and executables (such as for geocoding, for example). Depending upon permissions, users may update existing applications or create new ones.

Web Map Services and Web Feature Services provide a simple interface for requesting geo-registered map images and geographic features across the web from one or more distributed geospatial databases. Users employ these services just as they would data layers—but without having to download or store the data; just point your application to the map service and it treats it like a data layer within the application

Examples of a web map service or a web feature service include services that provide a single data layer (for example, a provider coverage area or hazardous waste sites) and services that provide a collection of data layers (for example, an aggregation of data layers that also includes symbology, scale and labeling). On login, users may have the option to refresh an existing service or create a new one.

Print-Ready Maps Catalog:

The Print-Ready Maps Catalog is a listing of static maps by data theme. Many data formats are supported, including PDF and JPEG. Registered users can search or browse for maps, load new maps and update existing maps. Users can also choose to include metadata and supporting documentation with their map downloads, which also indicate version and date.

The Print-Ready Maps Catalog in MapConnect™ Clearinghouse provides the ideal repository for collecting, storing and disseminating already-created static maps, ensuring widespread access to information reaching across organization, agency and constituent boundaries.

Common Services:

MapConnect™ Clearinghouse provides both public and secure-access portals. Common portal services incorporate a permissions-based user approach to include: read, contribute, edit, download, delete. The portal incorporates secure dialog/interaction services to enhance its utility (e.g., comment blog, remediation request and knowledgebase). In addition, each of the catalogs is searchable via a drop-down selection list and free-text keyword search. All catalog entries show version, other relevant metadata and supporting documentation.