The Dutch Directorate for Public Works and Water Management, Rijkswaterstaat, is funding the extension of Open Source geospatial data renderer Mapserver to support Keyhole Markup Language, KML. Used for managing three dimensional geographic data and popularised by Google Maps and Google Earth, KML is to be included in Mapserver version 5.0, expected in September.

The Directorate wants to use KML to open its three dimensional geographic data to users, offering its information in links to Google Earth. "This will allow citizens to see, for example, exactly what a new bridge will look like that is planned in their neighbourhood."

The KML support code will be released as Open Source. This should allow other departments and city councils to develop similar services, expects project manager Thijs van Menen.

"KML fits very well in our plans to make our data available to the public", explains Van Menen. "Wherever possible, we will also try to offer geographic information by linking to Google Maps or Google Earth."

To get KML support in Mapserver, the Dutch Directorate for Public Works contracted with DM Solutions, a Canadian software company actively involved in developing the Open Source Mapserver. Van Menen: "The Canadians are currently writing the code and we will verify and test it in the coming month."

A European tender for adding KML is not necessary, according Van Menen, as the cost of the software development is well below minimum requirements.

Rijkswaterstaat has previously funded Open Source software development. However, getting KML supported in Mapserver is its biggest of these projects yet, says Peter Diesveld in an interview with Ososs, a project by the Dutch government to encourage public administrations to use Open Source software and open standards. Diesveld: "With KML we will be able to offer a large number of applications and initiatives."

Standard

Google in April submitted the KML specifications to OGC, an international organisation on standards for geographic information systems.

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Further information:

• Mapserver
• Ososs article (in Dutch)