ИСТИНА

So far, researchers, planners, designers, managers, and others have to spend an unacceptably long time searching for the required landscape data, even if they exist. In the past few months, we have tried to inventory the sources on the Internet about the landscape data and map coverage of the territory of Russia for the time period from 1959 to the present. The group of maps and atlases available on the Web is extremely small; the vast majority of them duplicate existing paper editions. There are few or no landscape datasets intended and suitable for direct use in the GIS, not necessarily published, but publicly available in various formats. Almost aren’t used opportunities for data access and display data via the WMS/WFS service of the Open Geospatial Consortium. Different regions vary enormously in the landscape-cartographic investigation state. There are the difficulties of searching for analog and digital landscape maps, spatial datasets in library collections, bibliographic source summaries, and databases. The community of environmental specialist has to recognize the need to complete spatial metadata about the landscape data and maps on the proposed geoportal “Landscapes of Russia” as a web-based digital platform, similar to the existing Russian and foreign samples, providing access to the data discovery, view, download and transformation services, as well as allowing spatial data services to be invoked. The creation of an open multi-user interactive network platform “Landscapes of Russia” will help to disseminate the landscape approach among specialists of various profiles and makes data available for various scientific, educational, and practical purposes.