2

Having used WMS for years now, I am wondering what extra benefits there could be if I also offered WCS for certain raster datasets eg. DEM.

I have geotiff DEMs which I have loaded into geoserver and the height value is readable by WMS-getFeatureInfo. If I displayed this as a WCS what would I gain?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

A WCS returns the data rather than a picture of the data (which a WMS does), it could be thought of as a WFS for rasters.

So you need to ask do you need to process the data or just look at it?

Improve this answer
2
  • Thanks. I understand what wcs does, but I´m not sure on why I should implement it instead of wms. I have already uploaded a GeoTiff DEM to geoserver. The Geotiff has a value field which contains heights. Using OpenLayers - when I use getFeatureInfo the height field is diplayed. As far as I understand, the wcs would do exactly the same, wouldn´t it. I don´t want to geoprocess anything, just read the height values.
    – Robert Buckley
    Aug 15, 2012 at 5:52
  • 1
    No, what would happen if you used the WMS service is that GeoServer would squeeze and quantize the height values into the range 0-255 so it can be displayed as a greyscale bitmap; you would lose all the data you'd need to reconstruct the values, and lose actual values if your height range is > 255. With WCS, you get the actual height values as (usually) a GeoTIFF, and it would be up to your GIS to render it as a greyscale or whatever colour ramp you choose. You may be lucky with your existing DEMs if they're 1m vertical res., and never go above 255m (replace m with the unit of your choice).
    – MerseyViking
    Aug 15, 2012 at 10:49

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.