Figure 1.

Components of the GIS prototype. The prototype system was developed as a series of components. End-users access the system by logging in to the internet GIS client. The internet GIS client connects to the internet GIS server. The internet GIS server contains all of the application logic. It was developed in Java. MapScript, the scripting language for MapServer, was used to implement the GIS functionality. The spatial data are stored in a PostGIS spatial database. PostGIS is the spatial extension to the PostgreSQL relational database management system. Administrators use a desktop GIS application (for instance uDig) to manage the spatial database.