The desire
The goal of this “Mind Your Territory” project is to promote data exchange and gain better insights into socioeconomic indicators so that businesses and local governments in the province of Liège can use them as input for their policies.
It is important to SPI that they can easily manage the web platform and related map applications themselves.
The platform should provide users with several tools, including two mapping applications:
- A multi layered map that gives the ability to load, visualize and analyze different datasets;
- “Geocoders” that provide the statistical sector of an address or point location on the map.
Geo Solutions in action
Geo Solutions’ comprehensive analysis advanced the combination of the popular open-source tools “MapStore” and “WordPress” as the most suitable solution for this case.
Geo Solutions built out the entire portal in WordPress CMS and organized training sessions with SPI to manage the website themselves.
For mapping applications, the MapStore software was completely set up and configured according to SPI’s needs. Two custom plugins were also developed to meet this need:
- ‘Nominatim Search plugin’ that addresses a proprietary Nominatim service with only Belgian data so that only Belgian addresses are shown in the search bar;
- ‘NIS code plugin’ that provides the functionality to retrieve the NIS code when searching for an address or when indicating a point on the ‘Geocodeur’ map application.
Our front-end developers also fully customized MapStore’s styling to match the look and feel of entire portal and ensured the seamless integration of map applications into the WordPress website. To provide SPI staff with the necessary independence in managing the map applications, Geo Solutions also provided coaching around MapStore.
The value
Thanks to “Mind Your Territory,” businesses and local governments in the province of Liège can easily visualize, analyze and exchange socioeconomic datasets. This leads to better insights into related indicators that serve as input for smarter and better policies.
By using the popular open-source WordPress CMS, SPI itself is able to easily manage their website.
The use of MapStore allows relatively easy and inexpensive integration and customization of a modern Web GIS application due to its open-source nature. New needs can therefore be easily implemented.
