OGC Services
To support open science and facilitate access to project data, the SnowMed platform provides a set of interoperable geospatial services compliant with the standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). These services allow users to visualize, query, and integrate datasets directly within desktop GIS applications (such as QGIS or ArcGIS), web mapping tools, or custom workflows.
The available services are hosted on our GeoServer instance and can be accessed at:
https://geoserver.snowmed.it/web/Available Service Types
- Web Map Service (WMS): Enables dynamic visualization of georeferenced layers as map images.
- Web Feature Service (WFS): Provides access to vector features for querying and downloading spatial data.
- Web Coverage Service (WCS): Allows retrieval of raster datasets with their original values for advanced analysis.
These services follow the FAIR principles—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable—ensuring that the SnowMed datasets can be efficiently shared and reused within the scientific community.
Quick Access
Use the following endpoints to connect immediately from your preferred GIS client.
| Service | Purpose | Endpoint |
|---|---|---|
| WMS | Map visualization | https://geoserver.snowmed.it/geoserver/ows?service=WMS&request=GetCapabilities |
| WFS | Vector data access and download | https://geoserver.snowmed.it/geoserver/ows?service=WFS&request=GetCapabilities |
| WCS | Raster data retrieval | https://geoserver.snowmed.it/geoserver/ows?service=WCS&request=GetCapabilities |
Tip: Copy and paste the desired URL directly into your GIS connection manager.
How to Connect Using QGIS
Follow these steps to access SnowMed datasets directly from QGIS:
Add a WMS Layer (recommended for visualization)
- Open QGIS.
- Go to Layer → Add Layer → Add WMS/WMTS Layer.
- Click New and enter:
- Name: SnowMed GeoServer
- URL:
https://geoserver.snowmed.it/geoserver/ows?service=WMS&request=GetCapabilities
- Click OK, then Connect.
- Select the desired layer and press Add.
Available Datasets
The OGC services provide access to the geospatial products generated within the PRIN 2022 SnowMed project, aimed at improving the assessment of the changing cryosphere in the Central Italian Apennines, a recognized climate-change hotspot within the Mediterranean basin.
The datasets combine historical and scientific archives with modern Earth-observation techniques, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys, and numerical model simulations, all integrated into a long-term geospatial platform.