RESULTS OF AN EVALUATION OF THE ORCHESTRATION CAPABILITIES OF THE ZOO PROJECT AND THE 52^° NORTH FRAMEWORK FOR AN INTELLIGENT GEOPORTAL

Abstract. The aim of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is to make data available for the economical and societal benefit to a wide audience. A geoportal typically provides access to spatial data and associated web services in an SDI, facilitating the discovery, display, editing and analysis of data. In contrast, a spatial information infrastructure (SII) should provide access to information, i.e. data that has been processed, organized and presented so as to be useful. Thematic maps are an example of the representation of spatial information. An SII geoportal requires intelligence to orchestrate (automatically coordinate) web services that prepare, discover and present information, instead of data, to the user. We call this an intelligent geoportal. The Open Geospatial Consortium's Web Processing Service (WPS) standard provides the rules for describing the input and output of any type of spatial process. In this paper we present the results of an evaluation of two orchestration platforms: the 52^° North framework and ZOO project. We evaluated the frameworks' orchestration capabilities for producing thematic maps. Results of the evaluation show that both frameworks have potential to facilitate orchestration in an intelligent geoportal, but that some functionality is still lacking; lack of semantic information and usability of the framework; these limitations creates barriers for the wide spread use of the frameworks. Before, the frameworks can be used for advance orchestration these limitations need to be addressed. The results of our evaluation of these frameworks, both with their respective strengths and weaknesses, can guide developers to choose the framework best suitable for their specific needs.