Integration of heterogeneous data bases for development of a large-scale environmental data atlas for multi-platform PC and workstation users

摘要

Environmental monitoring and restoration at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) requires efficient access to large amounts of diverse spatial data. In order to handle this task the Environmental Sciences Section (ESS) of the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) created an environmental data atlas that would use spatial keys to link all data sources to a common data base. These data include extensive information relating to both environmental and man-made features. The data were available in a multitude of different data structures, coordinate systems and formats. The final database also included multimedia information such as airborne multispectral scanner data, aircraft video, photography, bibliographic data, and scanned map bases. It was important that all of the data be readily accessible on the desktop of scientists regardless of the type of computer system they used. The purpose of this paper is to describe the creation of this extensive digital environmental data atlas.