...development of open source geomatic technologie

20 April 2009, 11:23am

With Talend and Camptocamp the Pays des Vals de Saintonge contributes to the development of open source geomatic technologies

PVS relies on the SDI geographic data integration module, developed by Camptocamp and based on Talend Open Studio, to democratise access to local geographic data

Talend the leading provider of open source data integration software and Camptocamp, leader in open source geomatics for geographical information systems (GIS), announced today that the Pays des Vals de Saintonge has developed an access platform to local geographic data letting the cities improve their geospatial management and allowing residents to look at the land registry.

A state-of-the-art geographic information systems department

The Charente Maritime region comprises 9 counties including the Vals de Saintonge. In 2002, the General Council decided to assist its municipalities in implementing geographic information systems (GIS) to capture, manage, analyse and display all types of geospatial information. The aim was, first, to provide a land registry of all administrative and municipal officials via the Internet and, secondly, to enhance the data by adding business-specific information dealing primarily with systems in the public domain—sanitation, water, electricity, trucking routes, social infrastructures, etc.

“The plan is to disseminate geospatial management skills throughout all the municipalities, not only for transparency, but also to ensure geospatial planning consistency,” says Francis Forgeard-Grignon, former President of the PVS who initiated the project and, today, Vice-President of the PVS and President of the group of municipalities in Saint Jean d'Angély. “The goal was to develop a common platform provided consistently to stakeholders across the department allowing them to share costs and letting municipalities, including the smaller ones, improve their geospatial management.”

The Department relied on Charente Maritime’s IT organisation (SI 17) to take the first step, which involved digitising the land registry. “Founded 25 years ago, SI 17 is tasked to democratise the use of computers in small and medium-sized municipalities that have limited means compared to larger cities such La Rochelle, Saintes, or Rochefor,” explains Emmanuel Jobin, GIS Manager of SI 17. “The land registry didn’t exist in digital form and represented 80% of the project. The digitalisation has since been decentralised and the cost assumed by the municipalities. Today 85% of the municipalities have been scanned and all—some 472 municipalities—will be digitised by 2010.”

Different levels of use
The project was meant to meet different usage needs and, eventually, to provide information via the Internet in a simple and secure way. Technical services and project managers would be able to create and modify the data and GIS administrators responsible for training and support would be able to collect and shape it.

A public search was launched for GIS tools to use with the registry data. With each municipality free to choose its own solution, the PVS selected Camptocamp, a European leader in open source geomatics. “The eligibility criteria required that candidates use open source technologies under GPL license, and Camptocamp met those specifications,” adds Emmanuel Jobin. “The other applicants were loosely based on open source components, but not entirely, and not necessarily under GPL license. Camptocamp introduced us to Talend’s data integration solutions, but at that point there were no geospatial-specific Edigéo or Magic (DGI) data integration tools. The PVS decided to finance the Edigéo and Magic connectors to transform this data, which would then be given back to the community under a GPL license so that all municipalities could benefit from them. Camptocamp developed Spatial Data Integrator (SDI), an open source geographic solution based on Talend Open Studio.”

Costs savings & evolution; security & ergonomics

Today the entire geomatic chain relies on open source technologies—from data storage to retrieval—and meets many functional needs. The ergonomics of the system was also improved so that eventually it will be available to citizens and not just local government agents. The Web application also has several levels of security—each municipality has access to its own data and can see the whole picture. A computer will be installed in each municipality, and an Internet connection will make the data easier to access.

According Francis Forgeard-Grignon, one of the main benefits of Camptocamp’s solution is its scalability. “If we decide tomorrow to create 100 GIS integration jobs, the costs would be well below what we’d have to pay with a proprietary solution because we don’t have to buy software licenses. And, since the system is Internet-based, it’s quick and easy to use and we don’t need to send out update CDs, which can be expensive and hard to manage. We are completely in control of how our system evolves.”

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