Availability of Spatially Distributed Environmental Information Through GIS Web Services Online: ColombiaCase Study

This paper presents the Geoportal of Colombian Environmental Information (GCEI) of Valle University (Colombia) for aiding the research and planning management of sustainable development. The GCEI was designed to be used by the scientific community under RENATA (National Academic Net-work of Advanced Technology), which is equivalent to UCAID – University Corporation for Advances Internet Development. The spatial environmental information is derived from remote sensing data available from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) which are: daily precipitation and temperature, water bodies, thermal anoma-lies, forest fires, and vegetation cover (VC). The GCEI allows the spatial information to be: 1) displayed by a graphic interface, 2) interrogated by SQL queries, 3) downloaded for use in personal com-puter and 4) printed with cartographic features. The GCEI can be found a