We are developing Web-based GIS/database applications for USDA Oregon Natural Conservation Service, NSF, etc. WebGD applications are useful for those that include important location-based data, such as land parcels, habitat management, transportation, etc.

A WebGD application is a great tool for outreach education. They can be used by students at any levels, from elementary school children to high school students. We have demonstrated them to elementary school children several times. They love to insert geographical features familiar to them, such as schools and fastfood restaurants, on the maps displayed on the Web browsers.

The current WebGD framework supports the following features which are not yet supported by commercial applications.

1. Geographical features, such as the locations of road work and habitats of plants and animals, can be entered, searched, updated, and deleted from standard Web browsers.
2. An application can be created without any programming. The look and behavior of the map interface can be customized with configuration files, and Web scripts for data access can be automatically generated from the description of a database schema. Thus, a WebGD application which costs, say, $200K, when programmed manually, can be created for $20K.
3. A WebGD application can display the maps for different regions in the world with different map projections in order to avoid map distortions.