BC Government employees have exciting new tools to use that will help them share data, maps, and apps within government and in the public realm. The Map Hub is an online location where staff, clients, partners and the public can access and view public datasets, web maps, or web applications – all from within a web browser. Data and web maps are foundations of the Map Hub, but apps are where the magic happens. Apps provide additional tools and functionality for users to interact with and understand the underlying data with ease.
The B.C. Map Hub is a space for the development and hosting of web maps. It’s another channel for GIS professionals to search for, find, access and utilize Provincial data. The BC Map Hub is the provincial government’s participation in the ArcGIS Online community.
Over six hundred diverse layers are accessible from school locations, Licensed Child Care Providers and Heath Authorities to Provincial Forest Cover, electoral boundaries and the Parcel Fabric. This offering provides users with a wide range of authoritative data layers to support and complement a wide range of data needs from reference layers to specific subject area layers. As new geospatial open data is published in the BC Geographic Warehouse and registered in the BC Data Catalogue, its metadata is automatically registered in the BC Map Hub, making the data available as a web service via this channel.
The BC Map Hub also provides an application showcase which will be built out over time. Two applications deployed in the hub include Transportation and Infrastructure stops of interest and the PICES Tsunami Debris Aerial Photo Survey.
The platform is part of the provincial government’s Spatial Data Infrastructure and Open Data program and puts more tools in the hands of content authors and business staff. It complements existing favorites like iMapBC, BC Data Catalogue, Data Download and location services. Its flexible design means it can act as a web mapping platform, collaborative project development space, or data explorer.
The Map Hub was built by a cross-government team of GIS professionals drawn from the Ministry of Jobs Tourism and Skills Training, Transportation and Infrastructure, Government Communications and Public Engagement, Forests Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Elections BC, and the BC Oil and Gas Commission. A governance model has been developed for this service to manage the publication of data and applications as well as the administration of government account holders.