MiraMon Map Reader(R)

Installation from de CD-ROM

Installation from Internet

The Internet version of MiraMon^(R) Geographic Information System (GIS), the MiraMon Map Reader^(R), was officially presented at the Department of the Environment as a key tool in making Catalonia's environmental information public.

The MiraMon Map Reader^(R) is a FREELY-DISTRIBUTED program that lets you view, query and print maps published on the Internet or on CD-ROM/DVD. Maps have to have been generated by MiraMon^(R) having a specific license called MiraMon Internet Map Publisher^(R).

With the MiraMon Map Reader^(R), you can explore information distributed through the Internet or on CD/DVD support. The information is given out in a compressed format, generated using the most advanced data-compression algorithms, which could contain MiraMon^(R)Maps or other documents. The maps, in digital format, can be queried by position (select any point to find out what is there) or by attributes (you can ask the map to find a certain item, such as a treatment plant, or a phenomenon, such as weather station having an average January temperature of less than 5°C). They can also include any other associated information such as text documents, spreadsheets, pictures, graphics, sound, HTML sites, Internet addresses or even other maps which, in turn, are linked to another microcosmos of information.

The MiraMon Map Reader^(R) works with data in raster as well as vector format; vector data have topological structure.

The philosophy behind the MiraMon Map Reader, in contrast to many Internet Geographic Information Systems, does not consist in offering a simple screen dump or a small selection of data, but in offering access to the data itself. Users can query and explore as extensively and as often as they want, and the compressed format saves time and money, which means benefits for the user and for the agency serving the data.

The MiraMon Map Reader^(R) opens the door to all this information with just a simple click, but the click is made not simply, but onto the high performance product that is the MiraMon^(R) GIS.

Data security is guaranteed by certification included in the compressed files (MMZ format) by the agency issuing the information. The MiraMon Map Reader^(R) checks certificate integrity before displaying data.

The MiraMon Map Reader^(R) is a 32-bit application that can be executed on Windows 3.1x, 95, 98 or NT platforms. It is programmed entirely in ANSI C and was developed by a team under Dr. Xavier Pons at the Ecological and Forest Applications Research Center (CREAF, UAB). Over 1100 users currently use the MiraMon^(R) GIS. The largest user, in number of licenses, is the Catalan government.

MiraMon^(R) GIS was backed by the Department of Agriculture, Stockbreeding and Fishing (DARP) and the Department of the Environment (DMA) of the Government of Catalonia, Generalitat de Catalunya. Development of the MiraMon Map Reader^(R) was heavily backed by the DMA using designs and preliminary ideas from the team led by Xavier Pons on distributing GIS data on the Internet and CD.