Towards a National Atlas of the Netherlands as part of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure

Abstract

This paper is about different worlds, and how we try to unite them. One of these worlds is the world of National Atlases: collections of complex, high-quality maps presenting a nation to the geographically interested. The second is the world of National Spatial Infrastructures: highly organized, standardized and institutionalized large collections of spatial data and services. In the paper, we describe the two worlds and their fundamental differences and we present the theoretical framework in which these worlds could be united. We introduce a test bed we are using to try out the theoretical framework in a real-life use case. In the architecture of that test bed, we introduce a National Atlas Services layer and describe how we have created an Atlas Map Viewer component, using the Open Web Platform. We conclude by commenting on the results thus far and taking a look into future developments.