Jurnal Full Paper

Teknologi
WEBGIS BASED DATABASE INFORMATION AND Article history
Received
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DIMS) FOR MALAYSIA, 18 January 2016
Received in revised form
SINGAPORE AND INDIA 8 March 2016
Accepted
Ramani Bai Varadharajana*, Tkalich Pavelb, Mohan sc 18 March 2016

aSchool of Civil Engineering, Linton University College, KTG *Corresponding author

Education Group, Malaysia [email protected]
bPORL, Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI), National University

of Singapore, Singapore
cNatural Resource and Water Resources Division, Indian Institute of

Technology Madras, India

Graphical abstract Abstract

The main aim of the project is to develop a new Database Information and
Management System (DIMS) which is available and accessible online.
Success of any modeling is embedded in using the perfect and adequate
length of data. This is vital for studying or developing a scientific model for
natural processes such as climate change and geo-hazards. Thus a geo-
referenced meteorological, coastal and hydrological database for
decision-making and policy formulation according to climate change
impact has been developed. The objective of this study is to provide the
DIMS that will allow sharing of climate change parameters that has
impacted on the coast of selected countries. The methodology has online
hosting of database combined with rapid data retrieval for both analytical
and modeling functions. The outcome of the Web-GIS based DIMS would
serve as a decision-support tool and aids for development of an integrated
and sustainable management strategies for climate change and geo-
hazards. The project has currently a database relevant to selected stations
along the coasts of Malaysia, Singapore and India available on the project
webpage www.globalclimate-engine.org. The project could be extended
to cover the entire database pertaining to the in-land areas of these regions.

Keywords: Database information; geo-natural resource; geographical

information systems
DIMS Architecture
© 2016 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved

1.0 INTRODUCTION climate change assessment, land use changes, etc.,

for the planning and response to nature and also, man
Natural resource management requires a spatial data -made disasters are some critical concerns in Natural
management with geo-referencing its latitude, resource management on geo-Natural resource
longitude and its elevation. The increasing demand zones.
for analysing complex environmental issues such as Since the demand for sea coast construction and
geographical, hydrological and coastal needs a exploitation of resources are ever-growing globally,
spatial data use. GIS applications are tools that allow firm policies are to be developed. A fine decision-
users to create interactive queries, analyse spatial making tool is needed to have a control on
information, edit data, maps, and present the results exploitation of coasts in terms of land and water to a
of all these operations. Determining and monitoring perfect management on these resource
changes due to the geo-natural resource zone, sea- In other words, a readily accessible database
coast erosion, bio-diversification, eco-system and which is reliable, updated would be suitable for solving

78: 8–6 (2016) 53–59 | www.jurnalteknologi.utm.my | eISSN 2180–3722 |

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any such problem. Since a spatial component is likely duplicated records, filling in missing data and thus a
to be used, an online resource with abundant potential database for significant economic savings
potential for contributing to geo-Natural resource as well as improving efficiency, (iv) Offer efficient data
management should be adopted. Thus the research storage and retrieval options and (v) DIMS also
work’s main objective is to develop a new database provide the ability to model, test and compare
system for coastal areas of the selected countries alternate management scenarios before a proposed
namely, Malaysia, Singapore and India. strategy can be planned and implemented to
practice.
Computer tools such as ARCGIS allows handling of
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW more complex simulations, apply to voluminous
database and also enables compression of temporal
Coastal zone management (CZM) has been an issue and spatial data scales and standards to more
on both the national and European Union (EU) manageable scale dimensions.
political agendas for at least 25 years [1]. Coastal
areas, around a land-sea interface have become 3.1 DIMS – Content Management System
living place for majority of the world's population [2].
Therefore, determining the coastal zone, climate The Database and information system host on
change assessment, land use changes, etc., for the webpage http://www.globalclimate-engine.org uses
planning and response to nature, and also man-made the content management system JOOMLA which is
disasters are some critical concerns in Natural available online [6]. A Content Management System -
resource management on coastal zones. This has CMS is a tool that enables users to create, edit,
made coastal zones to become Natural resource manage and finally publish a variety of content such
pressure highest areas [3]. as text, graphics, video, document and others, whilst
There is an increased potential for holistic defense being constrained by a centralised set of rules,
planning which an international arena has and process and workflows that ensure coherent and
demonstrates how this can produce a need for validated electronic content [7].
improved information systems and the development
of international standards [4]. Impacts at the coast 3.2 Hardware used in DIMS
depend on on-shore topography. Coastal regions
having a gentle topography are more vulnerable The University of Nottingham Malaysia has provided
than those having a steep topography. The east coast with the following VMWARE based system: VMWARE
of India is more vulnerable than the west coast, CPU Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5335 @ 2.00GHz VMWARE
because the former is low-lying and more prone to the Memory 1024Mb. The http://www.globalclimate-
occurrence of cyclones than the latter [5]. The engine.org website is located at /storage/www folder.
detailed review on literatures related to coastal The software is the JOOMLA CMS has been used with
management revealed a need for a perfect the software components as shown in Table 1.
database for a better solution.
Table 1 List of software specifications used in DIMS

Technologies/ PHP 5.1.6

3.0 DIMS METHODOLOGY Software
JOOMLA Content Management
System
DIMS consist of five applications in its development. (i)
IDE Dreamweaver
Capable of handling much larger database, Web Server Apache 2.2.3
integrate and interpret data from a voluminous source Database Server MySQL Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.77
that might be difficult to achieve by manual methods.
Thus, a balanced and coordinated management
strategy has been developed for considerably 3.3 Database Design and Scheme
lengthy coast. (ii) DIMS support the development and
use of standards for geo-natural resource data The architecture of DIMS development is shown in the
definition, collection, verification and storage, which graphical abstract. The main aim is to design a robust
enhances compatibility of data processing schema in order to accommodate the dataset from
techniques between projects and departments, as the national data collection sheet template and
well as ensuring consistency of approach for a given regional data collection sheet template. The
set of data over a period of time. (iii) The benefit of a template will cover, a large and diverse range of geo-
shared database (particularly, if the access is Natural resource and marine aspects including
provided through internet) is for updating of records, quantitative and qualitative natural and social-
and the accessibility to a common set of data by economic parameters. In order to host all collected
many different departments or regions that are information a detailed robust database schema was
involved in management of a single project say, a designed to accommodate the contents of both
stretch of coast and so on. As a shared database, national and regional data collection sheet.
DIMS framework support reduction or elimination of
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4.0 WEBGIS BASED DIMS

The GIS based DIMS displays climate change related

parameters and database information on large
interactive maps using Mapserver. It is a web mapping
server available online as open source server. The
application requests GIS data and MapServer-specific
files, namely, Map file and HTML template files through
the Mapserver program. In fact, every object is
defined on the online map, including data layer, scale
bar, geo-map, legend, location, projection and web
object.
The object definition is used to define how the map
would look if it is presented. The defined objects such
as map, legend and scale bar are presented on the
online map interface. But for designing the interface,
the template files are used instead of Map files. The Figure1 Graphical user interface
template file (Mapper) serves the purpose of
designing the interface, generating mapping tools
etc. This DIMS – GIS framework uses all open source Legend tab, displays the names of the selected
datasets as well as dataset provided by country layer and the associated colors of the each layer. To
representatives. access the each countries datasets CMS will have the
link to web mapping server. Below the URL to access
4.1 System Development the each countries web map portal. The list of data
available on the webpage is given in the following
The system development includes the organization of paragraphs for three chosen countries for public use.
spatial data, GUI and interactive Web mapping and
development of data management tools - catalog 4.2.1 DIMS for Malaysia
tools to provide metadata information about the
spatial layers. The thematic layers host on the web page
The development of the system is based on web http://dims.globalclimate-
based client-server architecture. The server side engine.org/apn/malaysia/map.phtml consists of geo-
software components consist of several servers referenced meteorological and geo-spatial data viz.,
working in tandem, including Apache, web mapping Country Boundary, Coast Line, City Locations only for
server, and Java applications for visualisation. The West Malaysia, State Boundary, Land Cover
web mapping server handles the linkage between Classification, WMS service - Satellite image from
spatial objects and non-spatial attribute data stored NASA, Elevation – SRTM, Climate Parameters, Annual
in a relational database. Together, relational Rainfall, Annual Rainfall Rain day, Wind Speed, Max.
databases and GIS provide powerful tools for Wind Direction, Evapotranspiration, Normal
organising and analysing environmental data. The Precipitation, Rain Comparison, RH, Solar Radiation,
climate change coastal resource information system Temperature Radiation, Maximum Temperature,
has been designed to be simple, yet flexible [8]. The Mean Temperature, Minimum Temperature and
web based system will allow the users to interactively Temperature Comparison.
query and visualise data. A sample view of database is shown in Figure 2.
Projects and research works related to meteorological
4.2 Graphical User Interface - GUI studies, climate change and impact on
meteorological parameters could be accessed at this
The Graphical User Interface (GUI) design contains webpage. The webpage has graph editor to plot and
four parts 1) Map Viewer 2) Tool box 3) Table of check for preliminary studies on the data before any
Contents 4) Index map as shown in Figure 1. The map modeling and its tests.
viewer will display the various thematic layers
compiled through map composition and controlled 4.2.2 DIMS for Singapore
by set of scripts based on the user selection.
The second major database host online at the project
The tool box consists of basic and advanced controls
webpage is for Singapore. The portal under the link:
for thematic layers in map display. The table of
http://dims.globalclimate-
contents basically lists the thematic layers and their
engine.org/apn/singapore/map.phtml provides
display properties such as legend and symbol
Singaporean data for Country Boundary, Coast Line
properties. The Index map provides the thumbnail
Land Cover Classification, Elevation – SRTM,
view of the each countries like Malaysia, Singapore
Population Class and WMS service - Satellite image
and India. The map viewer contains the below
from NASA. A sample datasheet is shown in Figure 3.
thematic layers for each country.
56 Ramani Bai, Tkalich Pavel & Mohan s / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 78: 8–6 (2016) 53–59

Figure 5 The GIS portal for Malaysia

Figure 10 The GIS Portal displays the spatial data for India with metadata
Figure 2 The GIS portal for Malaysia
Figure 4 The Spatial data for India with metadata

5.0 GRAPH GENERATOR

Graph generator is a Joomla Component that we

developed and integrate into Joomla website. Its
main function is to generate a graph based on the
tabular data that will be uploaded by application
user. Graph Generator can be separated into 2
sections namely Frontend and Backend
Administration.

5.1 Frontend Administration

This is the normal application user interface. Once user

reached this frontend page, it will be forced to choose
either one of the following options namely in- built
Figure 12 The GIS Portal shows the spatial data and their metadata for Singapore Data or upload New Data. For “In-built data”, the
Figure 3 The spatial data for Singapore with metadata graph generator system will actually read the data
from the local database which has been uploaded
and recorded from the Graph Generator Admin
4.2.3 DIMS for India Page. The user can generate the graph based on the
inbuilt data and will able to filter according to a set of
Indian database for selected stations are host under
queries viz., Country, Station, Parameter, Graph
the webpage http://dims.globalclimate-
Format, Minutes, Hourly, Daily, Monthly, and Yearly.
engine.org/apn/india/map.phtml. It has Country
User is also able to select Graph Type as Normal,
Boundary, Coast Line, City Locations, State Boundary,
Average, Minimum and Maximum.
Coral Reef – Boundary, River Drainage Network, Land
Normal graph will produce graph as per in the
Cover – Classification and WMS service - Satellite
database. Average graph will produce average plot
image from NASA. A sample datasheet is shown in
graph in selected period. Minimum graph will produce
Figure 4.
minimum plot graph in selected period. Maximum
graph will produce maximum plot graph in selected
period. Once the user click “Generate” button after
all filter has been selected, the Graph Generator will
produce the graph in Flash format in which can be
exported to JPEG image format.
For “Upload New Data”, it will force user to upload
their own data in CSV format. The sample CSV file also
can be downloaded here at
http://www.globalclimate-
engine.org/components/com_graphgenerator/asset
57 Ramani Bai, Tkalich Pavel & Mohan s / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 78: 8–6 (2016) 53–59

s/sample/newdata_sample.csv. Once the user

uploaded the CSV file, the graph generator will plot
the graph in FLASH format, in which later can be
exported to JPEG image format.

5.2 Backend Administration

Backend administration is the administration page for

the application admin. In this page, the application
admin can upload new data for “Inbuilt Data”
selection in the front end page. Figures 5 shows the
screen shot of Graph Generation online.

Figure 11 Flood predictions online

Figure 6 The flood prediction software online

7.0 CATALOG AND METADATA SYSTEM

A metadata catalogue system is developed to store,

update, and search for metadata that describe the
datasets used in the project. The screenshot below
shows the metadata population page where data
custodians can use this page to create metadata for
their dataset. The standard for the metadata is based
on the ISO 19115 standard as located on the web
page,
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnum
Figure 3 Graphical User Interface – In built data ber=26020).
Figure 5 Graphical user interface - in built data import

7.1 Metadata Population and Update

6.0 FLOOD PREDICATION SOFTWARE ONLINE
After populating the metadata, in later times, the
Flood Prediction is a Joomla Component that we custodians can update their metadata through the
developed and integrate into Joomla CMS website. Its metadata update page. Below shows the metadata
main function is to generate a graph based on the update page that demonstrates a list of metadata
tabular data that will be uploaded by application user that are previously entered. Figure 7 shows a sample
and predict the flood based on the number of years of how the custodians can click on the buttons, which
entered in the input box. This Flood Prediction are located at the end of each metadata record, to
application will be based on data uploaded in CSV either edit or delete the respective record.
format. Sample CSV format data for Flood Prediction If the edit button is clicked, a page similar to the
application also can be downloaded at metadata population page will be displayed with the
http://www.globalclimate- metadata information previously entered by the
engine.org/components/com_graphgenerator/asset custodians. When the delete button is clicked, the
s/sample/unmc2.csv. record will be deleted otherwise.
After the data is uploaded, the graph will be
generated and user can then enter the number of 7.2 Metadata Search
years they would like to predict in the “Enter number
of years you would like to predict based on the Figure 8 shows the searchable data page for
uploaded data:” input box. The graph also can be metadata. Using this page, the users can search
exported to a jpeg image by clicking “Export Image” metadata with the search term appeared in the ISO
link. Figure 6 represents the screen sort of the software keywords and/or title and/or abstract of the
available online. metadata. As can be seen in the screenshot, the user
entered “landcover” as the search term. When the
search button is hit, the returning result as
demonstrated in the screenshot below shows the
metadata that contain the search term “landcover”.
58 Ramani Bai, Tkalich Pavel & Mohan s / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 78: 8–6 (2016) 53–59

When the “detail” link is clicked, the full detail of that that any update done in the metadata update page,
metadata will be displayed. will be instantly refreshed in this GIS Portal page
(http://dims.globalclimate-
engine.org/Metadata_UNM/GISServer).

8.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

DIMS should be used as an important tool for the

natural resource modeling and to advance in the field
of geo-natural resource zone management and its
monitoring especially due to climate change. The in
built DIMS in ARCGIS represent the latest tool to
provide solution for geo spatial and temporal data-
handling problems. For an appropriate use of DIMS
based on GIS requires knowledge of map
composition, data handling, skills of an experienced
cartographer, the data base management skill of the
data processing person, the scientific insight of
modeler, the computer knowledge of a system
Figure 9 A list of previously entered metadata in the metadata update page
analyst and the personnel and organisation skills of the
manager.
Figure 7 A list of in-built metadata at the metadata update The DIMS concepts ensure the level of interest and
there are grounds for optimism towards natural
process modeling such as climate change, flood
modeling, sea-level rise, and watershed studies etc. At
the end, it is concluded that the use of DIMS in geo-
natural resource zone management would be
interesting and stimulating to any user.

9.0 CONCLUSION

In today’s technology, the geographic information

system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) are very
important tool for planning, management and
monitoring of natural resources. Thus the DIMS project
by utilising its objectives could support for
rehabilitating the country’s resources and alleviating
the climate change issues.
Hence, DIMS technology is considered as an
important online resource for users who are badly in
Figure 8 Searchable database – a sample need of understanding, acquiring knowledge on the
issues, managing resources and so to improving and
preserving the country’s environment.
7.3 Metadata GIS Portal

The metadata GIS Portal is also developed to visualize Acknowledgement

the spatial data along with their metadata. Figure 7
and 8 are the main interface of the metadata GIS The authors are truly grateful for the research grant
Portal. The interface is divided into three panels. The provided by the Science Fund, Ministry of Science,
left panel shows a list of spatial data available, the Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysia and the
middle panel shows the spatial data, and the right Asia Pacific Network (APN), Japan for their support
panel demonstrates corresponding metadata. and publication of the paper that has resulted in this
To include the spatial data for display, the users article. The authors sincerely thank the opportunity
need only check on the checkbox of the spatial data, given by Geotropika 2016, Universiti Teknologi
as shown in the left panel. After hitting the “Display Malaysia to publish the research work in the journal
Map with Metadata” button at the bottom of the left and made it available to the end users.
panel, the spatial data and their respective metadata
will be retrieved from the database and displayed in
the middle and right panels respectively. Please note
59 Ramani Bai, Tkalich Pavel & Mohan s / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 78: 8–6 (2016) 53–59

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