Incorporating bibliographic information into a spatial data query system for the Savannah River Site

摘要

Over the past two years the Environmental Sciences Section of the Westinghouse Savannah River Company and the University of South Carolina have developed a full-featured spatial data query system for the Savannah River Site. This Environmental Data Atlas, which operates across multiple platforms, is designed to provide scientists with easy access to a wide range of GIS and remote sensing data resources. This paper describes the method that has been developed to extend the Environmental Data Atlas to incorporate bibliographical data. The bibliographic search function was determined by the scientists to be an extremely important enhancement that will enable them to utilize geographic keys to locate obscure references and databases. The method uses a Hot Link function to launch a parsing algorithm by pointing to geographic features. The parsing algorithm efficiently sorts through a list of references based on the keyword associated with the feature. The matched bibliographical entries are formatted into a text file that is displayed in a scrollable window. Any graphics associated with the actual reference can also be scanned and linked to an additional Hot Link. An additional parsing system was used to automatically create the bibliographical database from a comprehensive CD-ROM version of the Environmental Information Document prepared by the Environmental Sciences Section. This extensive digital reference represents a summary of much of the recent ecological information available on the site. The methods used in this system are directly linked to a commercially available software and provide a universal approach to establishing a geographically based document retrieval system.