Main factors to consider in design #

Many of the design principles of WebGIS are introduced in chapters such as Chapter 2 (User Experience Design) and Chapter 3 (Optimizing Web Services). The design of an e-government platform particularly needs to consider the following elements:

• Capacity planning: Many government websites target thousands of public and government workers, so scalability is an important consideration. Government websites bear the responsibility and function of performing government functions, so website applications must be able to operate stably and reliably for a long time. If processing failures or information errors occur frequently, the public will lose confidence in the government’s e-government website, and the website will lose its proper meaning. The design of the e-government WebGIS platform also needs to be forward-looking, fully considering the current and future user numbers and business needs.

• Security: Information interactions between the government and the public and enterprises usually involve private information of the public and enterprises, such as personal identification information and financial information, and information involving state secrets needs more security protection. Therefore, security is the main consideration in the design of e-government WebGIS.

• Interoperability: Government departments use a wide variety of software tools, so compliance with industry standards is important for enabling geospatial information interaction across departments and platforms (PMTT,2006).

• Extensibility: The WebGIS application platform should be designed with certain extensibility, leaving room for expansion in terms of adding new functions, supporting new data formats, supplementing and replacing software and hardware modules, and supporting new user groups in the future. Cloud computing and mobile platforms have obvious advantages, and their application prospects are broad and clear. For example, the U.S. government proposed the “Cloud First” principle in 2010, giving priority to cloud platforms in the design of information technology projects, which is useful for designing e-government systems related to WebGIS. It is of great reference significance.

application prospect #

The Web has pushed GIS from behind the scenes of government work to the front, allowing more public, government, business and other departments to use geographical information; at the same time,WebGIS has also had a significant impact on the transformation of government business working methods and cultural habits. However, the potential of WebGIS is far from being fully tapped, and the application of WebGIS platform in e-government still faces many challenges.

Data limitations are the primary challenge in expanding WebGIS applications. Without suitable data, GIS applications are just castles in the air, and no matter how cutting-edge technology is of practical value. Government departments are the most important producers of geographical data and important consumers of geospatial data. The business of one department often requires data from multiple other departments. The solution to this problem requires a city or region to have an overall digital geographical information foundation, related software, hardware and network facilities, namely the basic platform of digital cities and digital regions. On top of this, various agencies share information.

Traditional data replication sharing methods are inefficient, labor-intensive and time-consuming, and require a shift to information sharing and cross-department cooperation methods based on Web services and cloud computing. This will be the cornerstone of a new generation of national geospatial data infrastructure and e-government systems, addressing current barriers to the use of geographical information data between different departments, allowing them to exchange information in a loosely coupled and collaborative environment (Pratt,2009). Vivek Kundra, chief information officer of the United States, pointed out that the maintenance of information infrastructure accounts for a large proportion of the government’s annual information technology spending. Through cloud computing, the government’s spending on information infrastructure can be reduced and the government can invest more money. People are invested in the development of value-added applications (1^11-dra, 2009).

The application of WebGIS in government affairs involves many research directions. For example, how to use social media to get closer to the public? How to collect and analyze spontaneous geographical information on Twitter and Weibo? How to verify the accuracy of spontaneous geographical information? How to develop public participation GIS to encourage the public to better participate in public affairs? How to build collaborative GIS to effectively support remote and simultaneous collaboration? How to use network virtual reality technology for problem solving and decision support, etc., the principles and theories drawn from these research can guide the construction of WebGIS platforms in e-government.