Introduction to Web GIS
Making a beautiful map takes considerable effort. If your map is only for illustration, a printed or static digital version may be enough, but expectations have changed.
People now want maps that are engaging, interactive, and accessible from anywhere, on any device with internet. Web GIS can help with that because it combines the power of the browser and GIS tools for capturing, storing, analyzing spatial data, and encouraging exploration to provide deeper insight.
Creating your own web mapping applications can be a rewarding experience, but depending on your goals and company's needs, it can get quite technical.
However, the barrier to entry has lowered significantly in recent years thanks to the rise of various web mapping libraries, cloud services, evolution of the modern web browser, frontend web development frameworks, and artificial intelligence.
In the next few chapters, we'll cover some key considerations for creating your very own successful web mapping application by:
- Choosing a web mapping library that suits your needs
- Deciding on whether to write an app with plain JavaScript or a frontend web development framework and build tool
- Evaluating where to host your prepared data (client-side or server-side)
In fact, this website can be considered a Web GIS application, as it uses various web mapping libraries to display interactive maps and spatial data.
TIP for web development beginners
Before you proceed, make sure you have a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. MDN Web Docs, by Mozilla, are a great resource for learning web development. They cover topics like the Document Object Model (DOM), creating your first website, understanding web standards, asynchronous JavaScript and more. Learning these fundamentals will help you as a software developer or GIS professional better understand the concepts discussed in the following chapters.
TIP for GIS beginners
If you're new to GIS concepts, consider reviewing the previous lessons about projections, different spatial data types, types of maps, scale, and classifying data.