Weather Client An Evaluation of the SLD Symbolization and Colouring Standard for Weather Data

Abstract

Visualization of weather data on the Weather Information Exchange Model (WXXM) in geospatial systems using the visualization and colouring standard Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD)/Symbology Encoding (SE) is a rather unexplored area. In this thesis, a system named the Weather Client has been developed as a proof-of-concept prototype to evaluate said standards. Issues found during the implementation served as a ground for the evaluation and they were analysed in depth using a modified root cause analysis method. Each issue was evaluated with regard to functionality, usability, maintainability and efficiency. The result is a number of improvement proposals for the SLD/SE standard, an evaluation of the root cause analysis method as well as recommendations to Carmenta AB. The result of the evaluation indicated that the SLD/SE standard show great potential for describing weather data in geospatial systems. However, there are a number of issues that need to be resolved and further investigation is recommended.