Chapter 21 Connecting People , Data and Resources – Distributed Geovisualization

This chapter illustrates how challenging problems in geovisualization may be solved by harnessing activities on a distributed scale: bringing a range of people, a range of data and a range of resources to bear on the problem. The discussion is framed around a scenario of environmental crisis management – a flood emergency – which is typical of the challenges that only a distributed approach can solve in an effective and timely manner. We discuss some of the tools and technologies already available to meet the needs of this scenario, and some of the obstacles that remain to be overcome. We finish by reviewing the scenario against the recent Research Agenda of the ICA Commission on Visualization and Virtual Environments.