Thesis Tobias Kohr
Development of a service-based Whale Watching Geoportal
| submitted by: | Tobias Kohr |
| advisor: | Prof. Dr. Lars Bernard |
| Dipl.-Geogr. Matthias Müller |
Abstract
The observation of whales and other cetaceans commonly termed whale watching serves recreational, educational and scientific purposes. In contrast to the naval infrastructure that takes people to the places where whales can be spotted there is hardly any public infrastructure that is dedicated to the exchange and dissemination of whale sightings in Panama. This work presents a lean information system that supports the acquisition, visualization and dissemination of whale sightings. The conception as a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) ensures scalability even for large numbers of observations and stimulates the integration with other sources of data. The system is geared towards user generated content and allows people to contribute whale sightings to the database. A Geoportal for tourists and whale watching enterprises integrates mapping and data services to support tour planning by augmenting administrative and touristic maps with whale sightings.