Introduction to Web Coverage Service¶

A Web Coverage Service provides:

A set of coverages (one per raster layer)

The means to describe the structure of the coverage (resolution, bands and the like)

The means to extract data, eventually selecting by area, picking a specific band combination, rescaling and reprojecting the data

This allows a client to get to the source of the raster data, download it for later visualization and analysis.

This introduction showcases the WCS 2.0 protocol version, as it’s easier to explain compared to the older 1.0 and 1.1 versions.

GetCapabilities¶

Let’s have a look at a WCS capabilities document using this url:

http://localhost:8083/geoserver/ows?service=WCS&version=2.0.0&request=GetCapabilities

The response as usual is divided into sections:

A service identification section with information of the service and profiles implemented (the WCS 2.0 specification is highly modular, a server can decide to only implement extraction by bounding box and leave other elements out)

<ows:ServiceIdentification>
   <ows:Title>FOSS4G 2011 styling examples</ows:Title>
   <ows:Abstract />
   <ows:Keywords>
     <ows:Keyword>WCS</ows:Keyword>
     <ows:Keyword>WMS</ows:Keyword>
     <ows:Keyword>GEOSERVER</ows:Keyword>
   </ows:Keywords>
   <ows:ServiceType>urn:ogc:service:wcs</ows:ServiceType>
   <ows:ServiceTypeVersion>2.0.1</ows:ServiceTypeVersion>
   <ows:ServiceTypeVersion>1.1.1</ows:ServiceTypeVersion>
   <ows:ServiceTypeVersion>1.1.0</ows:ServiceTypeVersion>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS/2.0/conf/core</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_protocol-binding_get-kvp/1.0.1</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_protocol-binding_post-xml/1.0</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_crs/1.0/conf/crs-gridded-coverage</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_geotiff-coverages/1.0/conf/geotiff-coverage</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/GMLCOV/1.0/conf/gml-coverage</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/GMLCOV/1.0/conf/special-format</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/GMLCOV/1.0/conf/multipart</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_scaling/1.0/conf/scaling</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_crs/1.0/conf/crs</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_interpolation/1.0/conf/interpolation</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_interpolation/1.0/conf/interpolation-per-axis</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_interpolation/1.0/conf/nearest-neighbor</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_interpolation/1.0/conf/linear</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_interpolation/1.0/conf/cubic</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Profile>http://www.opengis.net/spec/WCS_service-extension_range-subsetting/1.0/conf/record-subsetting</ows:Profile>
   <ows:Fees>NONE</ows:Fees>
   <ows:AccessConstraints>NONE</ows:AccessConstraints>
 </ows:ServiceIdentification>

A service provider section with contact information:

<ows:ServiceProvider>
  <ows:ProviderName>GeoSolutions</ows:ProviderName>
  <ows:ProviderSite xlink:href="http://geoserver.org" />
  <ows:ServiceContact>
    <ows:IndividualName>GeoSolutions</ows:IndividualName>
    <ows:ContactInfo>
      <ows:Phone>
        <ows:Voice>+39 0584 962313</ows:Voice>
        <ows:Facsimile>+39 0584 962313</ows:Facsimile>
      </ows:Phone>
      <ows:Address>
        <ows:DeliveryPoint>Via Poggio alle Viti 1187</ows:DeliveryPoint>
        <ows:City>Massarosa</ows:City>
        <ows:PostalCode>55054</ows:PostalCode>
        <ows:Country>Italy</ows:Country>
        <ows:ElectronicMailAddress>info@geo-solutions.it</ows:ElectronicMailAddress>
      </ows:Address>
      <ows:OnlineResource xlink:href="http://geoserver.org" />
    </ows:ContactInfo>
  </ows:ServiceContact>
</ows:ServiceProvider>

A operations metadata section reporting the available requests:

<ows:OperationsMetadata>
    <ows:Operation name="GetCapabilities">
       <ows:DCP>
          <ows:HTTP>
             <ows:Get xlink:href="http://localhost:8083/geoserver/wcs?" />
          </ows:HTTP>
       </ows:DCP>
       <ows:DCP>
          <ows:HTTP>
             <ows:Post xlink:href="http://localhost:8083/geoserver/wcs?" />
          </ows:HTTP>
       </ows:DCP>
    </ows:Operation>
    <ows:Operation name="DescribeCoverage">
       <ows:DCP>
          <ows:HTTP>
          ....

A service metadata section reporting requestable formats and the list of target coordinate reference systems for reprojection. This section contains by default a long list of coordinate reference systems, that can be reduced at will using the “Limited SRS list” in the WCS admin page:

<wcs:ServiceMetadata>
    <wcs:formatSupported>application/gml+xml</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:formatSupported>application/gtopo30</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:formatSupported>application/x-gzip</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:formatSupported>application/x-netcdf</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:formatSupported>image/jpeg</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:formatSupported>image/png</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:formatSupported>image/tiff</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:formatSupported>text/plain</wcs:formatSupported>
    <wcs:Extension>
       <wcscrs:crsSupported>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/2000</wcscrs:crsSupported>
       <wcscrs:crsSupported>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/2001</wcscrs:crsSupported>
       <wcscrs:crsSupported>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/2002</wcscrs:crsSupported>
       <wcscrs:crsSupported>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/2003</wcscrs:crsSupported>
       <wcscrs:crsSupported>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/2004</wcscrs:crsSupported>
       <wcscrs:crsSupported>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/2005</wcscrs:crsSupported>
   ...

A contents section showing all available coverages and their location:

<wcs:CoverageSummary>
  <ows:Title>North America sample imagery</ows:Title>
  <ows:Keywords>
    <ows:Keyword>WCS</ows:Keyword>
    <ows:Keyword>worldImageSample</ows:Keyword>
    <ows:Keyword>worldImageSample_Coverage</ows:Keyword>
  </ows:Keywords>
  <wcs:CoverageId>nurc__Img_Sample</wcs:CoverageId>
  <wcs:CoverageSubtype>RectifiedGridCoverage</wcs:CoverageSubtype>
  <ows:BoundingBox crs="http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/EPSG:4326">
    <ows:LowerCorner>-130.85168 20.7052</ows:LowerCorner>
    <ows:UpperCorner>-62.0054 54.1141</ows:UpperCorner>
  </ows:BoundingBox>
  <ows:WGS84BoundingBox>
    <ows:LowerCorner>-130.85168 20.7052</ows:LowerCorner>
    <ows:UpperCorner>-62.0054 54.1141</ows:UpperCorner>
  </ows:WGS84BoundingBox>
</wcs:CoverageSummary>

DescribeCoverage¶

Now let’s request more information for the nurc__Img_Sample layer using the DescribeCoverage request:

http://localhost:8083/geoserver/ows?service=WCS&version=2.0.0&request=DescribeCoverage&coverageId=nurc__Img_Sample

Element	Description
http://localhost:8083/geoserver/ows?service=WCS	The base URL
service=WCS	The service
version=2.0.0	The service version
request=DescribeCoverage	The request
coverageId=nurc__Img_Sample	The list of coverages that need to be described (comma separated, can be one)

The output provides more information about the coverage, including:

The area occupied by the coverage,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><wcs:CoverageDescriptions xmlns:wcs="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0" xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows/2.0" xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml/3.2" xmlns:gmlcov="http://www.opengis.net/gmlcov/1.0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:swe="http://www.opengis.net/swe/2.0" xmlns:wcsgs="http://www.geoserver.org/wcsgs/2.0" xsi:schemaLocation=" http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0 http://schemas.opengis.net/wcs/2.0/wcsDescribeCoverage.xsd">
  <wcs:CoverageDescription gml:id="nurc__Img_Sample">
    <gml:boundedBy>
      <gml:Envelope srsName="http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326" axisLabels="Lat Long" uomLabels="Deg Deg" srsDimension="2">
        <gml:lowerCorner>20.7052 -130.85168</gml:lowerCorner>
        <gml:upperCorner>54.1141 -62.0054</gml:upperCorner>
      </gml:Envelope>
    </gml:boundedBy>
    <wcs:CoverageId>nurc__Img_Sample</wcs:CoverageId>
    <gml:coverageFunction>
      <gml:GridFunction>
        <gml:sequenceRule axisOrder="+2 +1">Linear</gml:sequenceRule>
        <gml:startPoint>0 0</gml:startPoint>
      </gml:GridFunction>
    </gml:coverageFunction>
    <gmlcov:metadata>
      <gmlcov:Extension/>
    </gmlcov:metadata>

Information about its resolution, and how to map pixel coordinate to real world ones:

<gml:domainSet>
  <gml:RectifiedGrid gml:id="grid00__nurc__Img_Sample" dimension="2">
    <gml:limits>
      <gml:GridEnvelope>
        <gml:low>0 0</gml:low>
        <gml:high>982 597</gml:high>
      </gml:GridEnvelope>
    </gml:limits>
    <gml:axisLabels>i j</gml:axisLabels>
    <gml:origin>
      <gml:Point gml:id="p00_nurc__Img_Sample" srsName="http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326">
        <gml:pos>54.08616613712375 -130.81666154628687</gml:pos>
      </gml:Point>
    </gml:origin>
    <gml:offsetVector srsName="http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326">0.0 0.07003690742624616</gml:offsetVector>
    <gml:offsetVector srsName="http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326">-0.05586772575250837 0.0</gml:offsetVector>
  </gml:RectifiedGrid>
</gml:domainSet>

The available image bands and their allowed values:

  <gmlcov:rangeType>
    <swe:DataRecord>
      <swe:field name="RED_BAND">
        <swe:Quantity>
          <swe:description>RED_BAND</swe:description>
          <swe:uom code="W.m-2.Sr-1"/>
          <swe:constraint>
            <swe:AllowedValues>
              <swe:interval>-1.7976931348623157E308 1.7976931348623157E308</swe:interval>
            </swe:AllowedValues>
          </swe:constraint>
        </swe:Quantity>
      </swe:field>
      <swe:field name="GREEN_BAND">
        <swe:Quantity>
          <swe:description>GREEN_BAND</swe:description>
          <swe:uom code="W.m-2.Sr-1"/>
          <swe:constraint>
            <swe:AllowedValues>
              <swe:interval>-1.7976931348623157E308 1.7976931348623157E308</swe:interval>
            </swe:AllowedValues>
          </swe:constraint>
        </swe:Quantity>
      </swe:field>
      <swe:field name="BLUE_BAND">
        <swe:Quantity>
          <swe:description>BLUE_BAND</swe:description>
          <swe:uom code="W.m-2.Sr-1"/>
          <swe:constraint>
            <swe:AllowedValues>
              <swe:interval>-1.7976931348623157E308 1.7976931348623157E308</swe:interval>
            </swe:AllowedValues>
          </swe:constraint>
        </swe:Quantity>
      </swe:field>
    </swe:DataRecord>
  </gmlcov:rangeType>
  <wcs:ServiceParameters>
    <wcs:CoverageSubtype>RectifiedGridCoverage</wcs:CoverageSubtype>
    <wcs:nativeFormat>image/tiff</wcs:nativeFormat>
  </wcs:ServiceParameters>
</wcs:CoverageDescription>

Armed with this information, the client can now perform data extraction requests.

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