SVG+Ajax+R: a new framework for WebGIS

This paper first proposes a method of establishing a Web-based system that can visualize statistical data that are accompanied by geographical information and analyze it interactively using dynamic graphics. In terms of the graphics format, our proposed system uses XML-based 2D vector graphics, known as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). To install an enhanced interactive function, we adopted a technique of server–client asynchronous communication using JavaScript, called Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) and R, which perform statistical analysis on the server side. This enables Web developers to construct a lightweight system including statistical computing rapidly. Furthermore, many users get possible to utilize such data effectively and efficiently anywhere anytime. The latter half of this paper introduces the WebGIS realized by this framework. We then discuss the possibility and advantages of applying this new method to the dynamic graphics proposed previously.