A methodological approach to the development of applications in a SDI environment

This paper describes a methodological approach to the development of geographical Web applications operating in SDI environments. The application is firstly modelled by means of a standard methodology and a formal language: UML. The UML data description is then transformed into XML files, with geographical objects described in GML. Finally a transformation to the SVG format is accomplished to visualise and analyse the data through a Web browser. The proposed approach complies with the principles and the technological framework of the Inspire initiative for European SDIs. As case study, an application to analyse the evolution of Alpine glaciers is briefly described.