The highly interactive web-based, GIS-enabled cancer atlas is a prototype, designed as a model for implementation of atlases to support government cancer control activities. This model integrates symbolization and design principles from print cartography, interaction strategies from exploratory geovisualization, and web-map/web-feature service advances from GIS. The atlas has been implemented using a client-server architecture. It leverages two open-source GIS tools, PostGIS (as the system database) and GeoServer (to connect the database to the client mapping application). The client mapping application has been built in Macromedia Flash.

This research and development effort aimed to design and implement a model web-atlas to support cancer surveillance and control activities undertaken by public health professionals (figure 1). The research integrates perspectives and technologies associated with interaction strategies for exploratory geovisualization, interactive atlases, and web-map/web-feature services.