Importing abstract spatial data into the SAND database system

The World Wide Web has opened ways to operate large applications by users with simple client platforms located half way around the world by connecting servers around the world together. We present a system that makes a centrally stored spatial database available to off-site users. Regardless of the specific platform available to a user, all they need to do is simply establish a link between their client and the server. Unlike well-known web-based services such as MapQuest [2] that rely on computational power of the server, our system distributes the workload among the client and the server in such a manner that the user will observe the system as being interactive, with minimal delay between the user action and appropriate response for most types of operations.