Abstract: Interdisciplinary research projects with environmental focus need an information technology which is capable of describing the flow of minerals and other substances with respect to space and time. Especially time dependencies are of great interest in many environmental studies, where changes can often be shown only via trend analysis of time series. A suitable technology must also supply methods for processing of information in order to present project data and project results in graphically as well as in numerically meaningful ways. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are the tools that meet these requirements best. In the DFG-funded interdisciplinary project SFB 299 (Land use concepts for peripheral regions) we implemented successfully such web-based GIS (also known by the terms "Internet GIS", "Online GIS", "Distributed GIS" or "Internet Mapping"). Especially Open GIS standards such as "Web Map Service" (WMS) or "We...
Claus Mückschel, Gabriel A. Schachtel, Jens N