Hodsdon

The Gulf of Maine Biogeographic Information System (GMBIS) is the data and online mapping component of the Census of Marine Life's Gulf of Maine Area Program. The mission of GMBIS is to support regional needs for access to biological data from the Gulf of Maine area for research, public policy (management) and education. In addition to OBIS-compliant biological data, GMBIS will provide access to some physical, chemical and geological data to enhance our understanding of biological patterns and their changes through time. The Dynamic Atlas of the Gulf of Maine is an interactive Web-based application designed to help users evaluate what data are available, visualize and combine data layers, and download data. It ties together a number of open source components to accomplish its goals. By utilizing MapServer for dynamic mapping, PostGIS to spatially enable data, and standard JavaScript libraries to facilitate the user interface, the Dynamic Atlas was developed with a minimum of custom programming. One of the challenges of this project was designing a full-featured interface that meets the search and visualization needs of its users while remaining intuitive and uncluttered. To this end, the application makes significant use of dynamic HTML controls, including a tab-based interface, autocomplete input boxes, intelligent date parsing, and expandable/collapsible text sections.