Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS

The Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS is an Internet based service that provides developers an opportunity to access thematic-centric mapping products. The Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas is the province's gateway for publishing thematic mapping products. By using the service, developers will have steady access to creative and dynamic thematic map products from many Nova Scotia agencies. Nova Scotia Maps is an example of a WMS Compliant mapping tool - use its "+" button to add the Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS or any other WMS service.

For your convenience, there is a WMS compliant Thematic Atlas viewer in the Featured Applications section of the GeoNOVA Portal that provides an intuitive interface to browse all of the thematic maps.

The Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS is offered with a Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD). This allows WMS mapping viewers that support SLD to display the WMS with fully styled symbology.

WMS Map Layers

There are forty-one geographic layers available in the Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS.

• Agricultural Areas
• Airports
• Arterial Highways
• Coastline
• Collector Highways
• Contour Generalised
• Contours
• Contours Background
• Counties
• County Boundaries
• County Names
• County Background
• Crown Lands Background
• DHA Boundaries
• DHA Names
• Fire Towers
• Forested Areas
• High Precision Network
• Hospital
• Hospital Names
• Local Roads1
• Local Roads2
• Loose Surface Roads
• Municipal Boundaries
• Municipal Names
• Municipal Outline
• Natural History Areas
• Natural History Districts
• Natural History Regions
• Natural History Units
• Place Names Level1
• Place Names Level2
• Place Names Level3
• Place Names Overview
• Private Surface Water
• Public Groundwater Water
• Public Surface Water
• Railways
• Rivers and Streams
• Transmission Lines
• Trunk Highways

GetCapabilities

The GetCapabilities request allows users to retrieve information about the service such as the layer names and the supported projections. The response is returned to the user in the form of an XML document. GetCapabilities is forwarded to the service through an URL-encoded request:

http://142.176.62.109:8080/geonova/servlet/FusionServlet?service=WMS&request=GetCapabilities

GetMap

The GetMap request is an URL-encoded request that is used to produce a map. The request has several parameters: VERSION, REQUEST, SRS, BBOX, WIDTH, HEIGHT, LAYERS, STYLES, and FORMAT.

http://142.176.62.109:8080/geonova/servlet/FusionServlet?version=1.1.1&request=GetMap&layers=Counties%3AGeoNOVA,County+Boundaries%3AGeoNOVA,Coastline%3AGeoNOVA,Loose+Surface+Roads%3AGeoNOVA,Local+Roads1%3AGeoNOVA,Local+Roads2%3AGeoNOVA,Arterial
+Highways%3AGeoNOVA,Trunk+Highways%3AGeoNOVA,Collector+Highways%3AGeoNOVA,Place+Names+Level2%3AGeoNOVA,Place+Names+Level3%3AGeoNOVA,Place+Names+Level1%3AGeoNOVA,Place+Names+Overview%3AGeoNOVA&styles=&srs=EPSG%3A26920&bbox=187452.93,4756604.268224299,783411.69,5285726.531775702&width=428
&height=380&format=image%2Fgif&transparent=false&exception=application%2Fvnd.ogc.se_xml&bgcolor=0xa6caf0

The example above is a functional GetMap request. The WMS version used is 1.1.1; the request is GetMap; the Spatial Reference System or SRS is 26920 (UTM Zone 20 N, with a NAD83 original datum); there are several layers selected; default styling is used; the bounding box (bbox), or requested map extents are 187452.93, 4756604, 783411, 5285726 (same coordinate system as per the SRS parameter); the width and height specify a rectangle of pixels 428 x 380; the format of the returned image is a GIF; transparency is turned off; and an exception document is specified.

Styled Layer Descriptor

The SLD that comes with the Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS is an XML (eXtended Markup Language) document that contains styling information for the layers named in the WMS. The SLD enhances the cartographic potential of the WMS. The Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS' SLD may be found at:

http://142.176.62.109:8080/geonova/sldns.xml

Projections

The Nova Scotia Thematic Atlas WMS supports different projections or Spatial Reference Systems (SRS). The following list includes the European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG) pre-defined projections supported by the WMS:

EPSG:26920 NAD83 / UTM zone 20N
EPSG:4326 WGS 84