What is Web GIS?

Web GIS is a Geographic Information System that runs in a web browser rather than on specialist desktop software. It lets people view, query and share spatial data, maps of properties, assets, boundaries and other features, using nothing more than a browser and a link. The heavy work still happens behind the scenes, but the person using it does not need GIS software installed or GIS training to get value from it.

In short: web GIS takes capability that used to sit with a small number of specialists and makes it available to a whole organisation.

How web GIS differs from desktop GIS

Desktop GIS, such as QGIS, is powerful software installed on an individual computer. It is where spatial professionals build maps, run analysis and manage data. It is not designed for everyone in an organisation to use every day.

Web GIS is the other half of the picture. It takes the maps and data prepared in a desktop GIS and publishes them to a browser, so anyone with permission can open them. The analyst still works in the desktop tool. Everyone else works in the browser.

The two are complementary, not competing. A common setup is QGIS for building and web GIS for sharing.

What organisations use web GIS for

• Making property, asset and planning information available to staff who are not GIS specialists.
• Sharing maps with the community or other organisations through a simple link.
• Answering everyday ‘where’ questions without raising a request with the GIS team.
• Bringing data from different systems together into one map view.

Why organisations are moving to web GIS

The pull is simple: more people need spatial information than can reasonably be given desktop GIS software and training. Web GIS removes that bottleneck. It also lowers cost and maintenance, since there is nothing to install on each machine, and it makes data easier to keep current because everyone is looking at the same published source.

Web GIS and open standards

Good web GIS is built on open standards and open source foundations, which keeps data portable and avoids locking an organisation into one vendor’s formats. Pozi, for example, is built on QGIS, the leading open source GIS, so the data you publish stays in open, standard formats you control.

Frequently asked questions

Is web GIS the same as Google Maps?

Not quite. Google Maps is a general-purpose map of the world. Web GIS lets an organisation publish and work with its own spatial data: its properties, assets, boundaries and layers, with querying and analysis built in.

Do you need GIS skills to use web GIS?

No. Building the maps takes GIS skills. Using a published web GIS map takes only a browser.

Is web GIS secure?

Access is controlled through permissions, so an organisation decides who can see what. Where the platform is hosted and how data is governed matters too, which is worth asking any provider about.

Book a demo to see web GIS in action with Pozi