HydrIS: An Open Source GIS Decision Support System for Groundwater Management (Morocco)

A regional groundwater management system has been elaborated, integrating Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) and various web services. It consists of web geospatial application so-called HydrIS (Hydrogeological Information System) based on Open Source components and technologies, leading to a feasible and low-cost solution. Therefore, HydrIS permits delivery of data from a number of heterogeneous sources to standards supported by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The protocols used for exchanging data are also derived from OGC standards, i.e., WMS (Web Mapping Service), WFS (Web Feature Service), and WCS (Web Coverage Service). Finally, a geoportal was developed, which consists of client-applications that communicate with different Web Services (WMS, WCS, and WFS) through http-requests.