Abstract
Google has released a virtual three-dimensional model of the earth through the product Google Earth. This product gives us easy access to huge amounts of high quality geodata free of charge. This thesis addresses the impact this product may have on geographical information systems (GIS) by making available a new platform for geographic information services.
I discuss how Google Earth performs as a universal GIS client by exploring its possibilities and limitations. I do this by developing a framework to be used on third party servers offering geographical information services for the client. I discuss topics such as how to generate Google Earth data (KML documents) from a high level object model, how to manage symbols with three dimensional graphics, how to handle requests, authentication and sessions from Google Earth clients, how to limit the data to just include objects of interests with a sufficient detail level and how to present a graphical user interface for the user in order to get parameters back.
In order to try the flexibility I implement several test cases using the framework for offering different services. This includes fleet management, presentation of health information and overview of national resources for emergency use.
Although I discover some limitations, the main conclusion for this thesis work is that Google Earth may perform well as a universal geographic information system client. Google Earth differs from traditional GIS systems by letting the user access geodata from different services and gets everything presented at the same time on the same map. This makes the program to act similar as a web browser.