Uses of Cloud Technologies for Geospatial Applications

Public agencies are increasingly turning to cloud technology to help streamline workflows and allow data sharing among a broader audience. In particular, transportation agencies are beginning to use cloud computing to more easily store, manage, manipulate, analyze, and share geospatial data and business information. Cloud technology can replace traditional data-sharing mechanisms such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites by displaying data in an interactive manner. Even modest efforts to use cloud technology have led agencies to ask fundamental questions about how transportation agencies will conduct business in the future. Great potential exists in using cloud technologies to support geographic information system (GIS) applications, but their use is still evolving. To explore this in more depth, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) interviewed selected agencies and developed case study reports that document these agencies’ GIS and cloud computing initiatives. FHWA also sponsored a peer exchange that brought participating agencies together to discuss their experiences in greater detail. The resulting case studies presented here include: Idaho Transportation Department’s IPLAN; Maryland Department of Transportation’s Miss Utility Tracking System (MUTTS), interactive mobile applications, iMap Application templates, and Enterprise GIS system;Ohio Department of Transportation and Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Location Based Response System (LBRS) programs; Utah Department of Transportation’s UPlan; and Washtenaw Area Transportation Study’s long-range transportation plan deficiency maps and Mi Community Remarks application, and interagency data sharing initiative. This report is expected to support GIS practitioners and decisionmakers to identify examples of noteworthy practices, consider the pros and cons of using cloud technologies for GIS applications, and determine how cloud technology can be best used to support their own business practices.

• Record URL:
  https://www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov/documents/Cloud_Technologies_for_GIS.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/53792
• Corporate Authors:

  Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

  Cambridge, MA  United States  02142

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of Planning, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Fine, Alisa
  • Colton, Paige
  • Bartak, Jaimye
• Publication Date: 2013-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 58p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Applications; Case studies; Cloud computing; Decision making; Geographic information systems; Transportation planning
• Identifier Terms: Idaho Department of Transportation; Maryland Department of Transportation; Ohio Department of Transportation; Utah Department of Transportation
• Geographic Terms: Washtenaw County (Michigan)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01653193
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Dec 4 2017 6:11PM