A CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM SUPPORTING GEOSPATIAL COLLABORATION FOR GIS EDUCATION

Abstract. GIS-related education needs support of geo-data and geospatial software. Although there are large amount of geographic information resources distributed on the web, the discovery, process and integration of these resources are still unsolved. Researchers and teachers always searched geo-data by common search engines but results were not satisfied. They also spent much money and energy on purchase and maintenance of various kinds of geospatial software. Aimed at these problems, a cloud-based geospatial collaboration platform called GeoSquare was designed and implemented. The platform serves as a geoportal encouraging geospatial data, information, and knowledge sharing through highly interactive and expressive graphic interfaces. Researchers and teachers can solve their problems effectively in this one-stop solution. Functions, specific design and implementation details are presented in this paper. Site of GeoSquare is: http://geosquare.tianditu.com/