Environmental data visualization	Interactive map design

At the Fraunhofer-Institute fur Graphische Datenverarbeitung in Rostock, Germany, developers have created the VISMAR-Marine environmental data-visualization system using PV-WAVE. VISMAR is an interactive system created for marine environmental data visualization in a geographical context. It is implemented as an open and extensible system for UNIX^® workstations.

VISMAR provides three main functions: interactive design and production of maps of any sea region in the world; marine environmental data visualization in a geographical context, using different kinds of 2D and 3D scientific visualization methods; and import of the environmental data in different data-exchange formats for future analysis by this system.

The methods of scientific visualization offered by VISMAR enable the graphical-supported analysis of marine environmental data for administrative as well as for scientific purposes. The graphical user interface of the system allows intuitive use. A context-sensitive help system with hypertext facilities that support the user work is also included. The system is based on X-Windows^®, OSF-Motif^® and PV-WAVE.

During the monitoring and research of marine ecological systems, a large amount of data of different structures is measured. Graphical representations, which show the characteristics of the data as well as their arrangement in the geographical context, are used to support the interpretation of data. The goal of VISMAR is to support the fast visualization of marine environmental data from different origins and data formats. Thus VISMAR provides the capability of converting marine data from usual formats to the system's internal data format. According to the characteristics of the selected data, a window is opened that enables the user to select parts of data for visualization.

VISMAR offers the opportunity to save the activities of an analysis session as PV-WAVE procedures. Saved procedures can be used to automate routine analysis activities and to produce metafiles for different hard copy devices, such as PostScript, CGM, and HPGL.