Creating a Standard Compliant Gazetteer Web Service for the Definitive Placename Layer for Scotland

The Definitive Placename Layer for Scotland is a gazetteer resource which provides a comprehensive list of Scottish placenames. Despite the importance and significance of this resource, it is currently undelivered and the data is not currently being utilised to its full potential. It was therefore necessary to create a web-based gazetteer service which is capable of delivering the Definitive Placename Layer for Scotland, extending the value of the resource and standard compliant. There are currently a number of well-defined standards which relate to placenames and gazetteers, issued by well-respected organisations such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the European Union through the INSPIRE initiative. However, none of these standards apply to the manner in which placename data is provided within a web-based gazetteer service. This has led to the definition of a new standard which indicates the manner in which placename data should be presented within a gazetteer service. The project has successfully created a gazetteer service which delivers the placename data held within the Definitive Placename Layer for Scotland and is compliant with web-based standards. This service is capable of supporting a number of spatial queries and has a number of potential uses for organisations such as the Scottish Government and the emergency services. The service is capable of geocoding (converting between coordinates and placenames) and a number of spatial queries, such as bounding box and polygon geometry searches