Web Mapping System for Public Area Management in Developing Countries

Mapping on the Internet is a growing field with many applications using cartographic data. Available technologies differ marked ly in their co mplexity, cost and openness. This work addresses a three-component Web mapping solution for area management in a town council in Benin. The imp lementation has been done thanks to a geographic database PostgreSQL/PostGIS that handles spatial and attributes data. The geographic server uses these spatial data to produce map layers thanks to the requirements of the Web applicat ion. The latter is based on the java server pages and servlets technologies to manage the dynamic side of the system. The proposed system allows users to interact with it using Web browser or short message services from mob ile phone. The full description of the system is presented in this paper.