Project record of De Kustatlas online, Belgium

Information

Type

Project

Name

De Kustatlas online, Belgium

Description @en

Atlas Purpose

• Facilitate communication and awareness-raising
• Provide a contact point for coastal information
• Help implement the European Recommendation on Integrated Coastal
• Integrate planning and coastal policy
• Make coastal indicators visible as policy support instruments

Distinguishing features

• Initially published as a book (Belpaeme and Konings 2004), then developed as a CWA
• Designed simply but effectively
• Uses Flash instead of a web mapping system for its maps
• Available in four languages

Target Audience

• General Public
• Tourists
• Students
• Researchers/Scientists
• NGOs
• Government/Public Bodies
• Commercial/Industry
• Consultancies
• Coastal/Environmental Managers
• Decision Makers

Atlas design and usability

• Focus:
  • Textual content
  • Map content
• Design:
  • Clear navigation and instruction
  • Access text from maps
  • Single point(s) of access to
  • map/data
• Map Page:
  • View limited layers
  • View data by theme
  • Combined legend & layer lists
  • Links to internal pages
• Documentation:
  • Thematic text
  • Metadata

Technology used

• Data Storage:
  • Locally
• Other:
  • PHP/HTML web content
  • Flash for interactive maps
  • Downloads available in pdf/xls/gis format.

Functionality/tools available

• Level:
  • Basic
• Mapping Tools:
  • Zoom, recentre and full extent
  • View by theme
  • Print/Export maps
  • Download geospatial data
• Other:
  • Links to coastal indicators for each topic

Data/cartographic information included

• Geographic Area: Belgium
• Number of Datasets: 33
• Topics:
  • Physical Environment
  • Coastal Habitats
  • Imagery
  • Management
  • Human Impact
  • Infrastructure
  • Industry
  • Culture & Heritage
  • Natural Resources
  • Fisheries, Aquaculture & Agriculture
  • Tourism & Recreation

Data issues

• IPR/Cost:
  • Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
  • Data use restrictions
• Accessibility:
  • Data sourcing and acquisition
  • Poorly managed, inaccessible data
  • Limited GIS-ready data
• Quality:
  • Variable/inconsistent data quality
  • Inappropriate data scales
  • Incomparable regional datasets
• Management:
  • Regularity of data updates
  • Manual upload of data to atlas
  • Resources to source/acquire data

Other challenges

• Funding for site maintenance
• Content balance of science and information
• Product promotion

Start date

2009

End date

2012