1. Open Source GIS stack: data
Hub for flexibility, performance
and effectiveness.
Nicolas Gignac, Public Safety Quebec & eHealth Africa
Frank Salet, eHealth Africa

2. Plan
● GIS Data sharing needs
● Why choosing FOSS4G?
● The case of Nigeria
● The case of Quebec in Canada
● Opportunities of partnership

3. GIS Data sharing needs
● Access to data in multiple and open format
● Multiple datasets as the formal source
● View and analyse data on-demand
● Reduce unnecessary data replication
● Benefit from platform of the open data community
● Access data in a standardised way
● Minimise the use of ETL
● Good & simple metadata documentation to find quickly the
right data without technical assistance
● Data can be quickly access with both GIS proprietary and
open source software

4. Why choosing FOSS4G
● Linked to standard (OGC) and open data movement (OSM) : (Nigeria & Quebec)
● Freedom and flexibility in development (Quebec)
● Multiplatform (Linux, Windows) (Nigeria & Quebec)
● Getting support from community (Nigeria & Quebec)
● Invest in HR instead of licence fee (Quebec)
● Good for HR development (Nigeria & Quebec)
● Multiple solutions linked together, not a one-solution-fits-all (Nigeria & Quebec)
● Free to install and deploy (Nigeria & Quebec)
● Fast & reliable on the server-side (Quebec)
● Well adapted to cloud hosting and Software as Service (Nigeria)
● ...

5. The case of Nigeria
● Use case present earlier at FOSS4G-Asia (Yesterday)
● eHealth Africa : Supporting polio eradication programme since
2011 and Ebola outbreak response
● US NGO using technology to give health service in Northern
Nigeria
● NGO is supported by external private funds & support from WHO
● IT Development towards open source (GeoDjango, FormHub,
tablet apps)
● GIS is more an hybrid model (ESRI+FOSS4G)
● Hired as GIS International Consultant to help their 20 GIS staffs for
a short term project and FOSS4G training

6. GIS implementation at eHealth
● Support ESRI licences by funding
● ArcGIS-ArcMap used for editing
● Uses MS SQL Server for database and versioning
● Support by OpenStreetMap - Humanitarian Team (HOT)
● FTP transfer from database to Health applications
● Expensive licences and versioning with ESRI complex
● ArcGIS Rest not performant for ETL needs or cascading need
● Stack of open source tools develop for none-GIS apps by IT Team
(GeoDjango, PostgreSQL, OpenData kit, FormHub, Salt, nginx)

7. FOSS4GIS implementation at eHealth
● JOSM, HOT-OSM Tasking Manager
● Batch routing with OSRM
● Start editing layers in QGIS
● Multiple map services on AWS using :
○ PostgreSQL-PostGIS: DBMS
○ MapServer: WMS & WFS cascading
○ CKAN: Catalog, data portal and metadata
○ OpenLayers+Geoext+ExtJS: Web viewer
● GIS Internal Windows Server using :
○ MapServer (WFS cascading) serving MS SQL Server data
○ MapProxy: imagery donated by partners
● OGC standard use (WMS, WMTS, WFS as GeoJSON or CSV)

8. GIS Architecture at eHealth

9. GIS data published by eHealth
Catalog and data released ODbL licence available: http://data.ehealthafrica.org/
GIS web viewer (OpenLayers+ExtJS+Geoext): http://gis.ehealthafrica.
org/eHealth/ehaloc/

10. The case of Quebec (Canada)
● Need flexible, open, not costly and reliable 24/7 GIS service solutions
● Focus over data on-demand, integration, analysis and publish on the
web
● Flow of information and data support decision in disaster management
● Since 2008, Quebec Public Safety used and involved in GIS open
source (MapServer, OpenLayers, PostGIS), open data (GeoNetwork)
and open standard (WMS, WFS)
● Use standard (OGC member, OASIS) to be interoperable with other
GIS system (ESRI, Hexagon- GeoMedia) used by multiple partners
(private, public, NGO, citizen)

11. The case of Quebec
● Public Safety developed from 2009 to 2013: Web
GIS Service (800 layers) and apps using 100%
FOSS4G
● 6 others organisations merge together sharing:
source code, web service, infrastructure,
development process, expertise and documentation
to create: IGO, meaning Open GIS Infrastructure.

12. The case of Quebec

13. The case of Quebec
● IGO has multiple components:
○ Web GIS viewer: XML file config
○ Layer tree Manager and security: XML file & database
configuration
○ Editing tools based on WFS-T, but as GeoJSON service
○ Spatial Analysis Service - WFS & WPS with Zoo project
○ Routing Service - OSRM with gov data
○ Metadata Service - GeoNetwork - PostgreSQL
○ Geocoding Service - as PHP Service - SOAP

14. The case of Quebec
● IGO is an API on top of JavaScript & Phalcon
● IGO has a data security model liked on GeoPrisma
● IGO depends on UMN MapServer, but can act as a WMS
client
● XML config on top of OpenLayers two, GeoExt 1.0
● Adapted to change backend libraries (OL3, Leaflet) without
XML change
● Made also for integration in web site/portal as iframe
● IGO is an API based on MVC (Model-View-Controller)
● Planned to be open source in 2015 as LGPL licence

15. The case of Quebec
IT Environment :
● Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, CentOS
● Security : LemonLDAP & Apache
● DBMS: PostgreSQLPostGIS, Oracle
● FOSS4G : MapServer, OpenLayers, MapCache, PHP (Phalcon), GeoExt,
ExtJs, JQuery, OSRM, Zoo project
● Standard: WMS, WFS, CSW, WMTS, WPS, SOAP and CAP
● Cascading: WMS & WFS of partners services (close to the source)
● GDAL/OGR (ETL)
● Gitlab & Redmine (forge)

16. The case of Quebec

17. The case of Quebec
IGO Governance (based on UMN MapServer Community) :
● 7 Ministries main contributors
● 15 organisations as users
● Other potential organisation
4 levels of partners:
- Contributors
- Committers
- Technical committee
- Management committee

18. Possible partnerships
eHealth: public health, mobile technology, OSM data,
Software as a service, cloud deployment
mapping@eHealthAfrica.org
Quebec Public Safety: involve in IGO when code release,
disaster management, FOSS4G, web standard, web spatial
analysis, community-based development for
government/municipality organisation
geomsp@msp.gouv.qc.ca

19. Contact
Email: gignacnic@gmail.com
Slideshare: ehealthAfrica
Linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/nicolas-gignac/20/690/a42/

20. Press release
● eHealth Africa: http://ehealthafrica.org and http://ehealthafrica.
org/open-street-map-and-ehealth-gis-projects/
● Slashgeo.org: http://slashgeo.org/
● http://www.irinnews.org/report/98127/analysis-which-technology-to-use-for-disaster-
management
○ http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/open-source-software-and-ogc-web-
services-life-saving-components-in-qu/217989