A Generic Framework for GIS Applications

Geographic information systems (GIS) are becoming more usual due to the improved performance of computer systems. GIS applications are being developed using the three-tier software architecture traditionally used for general-purpose information systems. Even though this architecture is suitable for GIS applications, the special nature and exclusive characteristics of geographic information pose special functional requirements on the architecture in terms of conceptual and logical models, data structures, access methods, analysis techniques, or visualization procedures. In this paper, we propose a generic architecture for GIS that provides support for the special nature of geographic information and conforms with the specifications proposed by the ISO/TC 211 and the OGC. Our strategy to achieve this goal consists of two steps: (i) we analyze the special characteristics of GIS with respect to traditional information systems, (ii) and we adapt the traditional three-tier architecture for information systems to take into account the special characteristics of GIS. Finally, we have tried to apply the architecture that we propose in the development of a complete and complex real-life GIS application using commercial tools in the analysis, design and implementation. We describe this application, and we use it to describe the limitations of current commercial GIS development tools by analyzing the differences in the architecture of the resulting system with respect to our proposal.