Nature-Pilot Schleswig-Holstein - Interactive Balloon Flight Presenting Nature Highlights

Abstract

The “Nature-Pilot Schleswig-Holstein” presents nature highlights of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany. The Nature-Pilot web site is not just a portal site but a highly interactive web application offering a number of features and options to the user. In the standard mode one can “fly” above the country and aim at about 50 “nature highlights”. There the balloon can sink and present aerial photos of the selected highlight as well as extensive information about that spot. In the “free flight mode” the balloon can float and lower at every location on the map on 6 “altitude” levels. Two of these levels are presenting orthophotos of the chosen extent. These navigational functions are supplemented by several additional options like interactive presentation of boat-, bicycle- and wandertours, a search facility for all localities and municipalities of Schleswig-Holstein, 3-D sightseeing flights of selected areas and much more. One important basic condition was to offer this bundle of functions with an improved usability so the whole application is easy to use even for people who are working with a computer only from time to time. The application bases technically on a modular software framework using PHP, JavaScript, the Minnesota (UMN) MapServer and a database system (MySQL or Oracle).