A Geographical Information System for the Integrated Coastal Area Management

Enrico Ferretti (1), Leda Pecci (1), Paola Salmona (2)

(1) ENEA Centro Ricerche Ambiente Marino S.Teresa, La Spezia (IT) controllare l’intestazione
(2) Università degli Studi di Genova (IT) and ICCOPS – International Centre for Coastal and Ocean Policy Studies (IT)

Introduction
This paper explains the Geographical Information System (GIS) realised by the National Agency for New Technologies and Environment (ENEA) within the Program Agreement with the Italian Ministry of Environment, Project n. 5.1 “Defence of the Mediterranean Sea and its Coasts”, working stream “Regulation of Coastal Activities”
The work has been carried on at the ENEA Centre for the Research on Marine Environment at Santa Teresa, La Spezia (IT), with the collaboration of the Department POLIS mettere nome per esteso of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Genova

Even if a great amount of data about the Italian coastal area has been collected, most of them refer to specific fields or to rather small areas.
At the national scale, data are available mostly about the geomorphologic features or few ecological aspects (such as water quality) of the coastal area. On the contrary, qualitative and quantitative data about human related aspects are quite poor. As a matter of fact, most of them have never been mapped, and only in few cases they have been used in integrated, multi-criteria analyses, to outline the general framework of the socio-economic contest of an area.

Objectives of the Work
On these premises, the overall objective of the work is to elaborate a Decision System Support for planners and operators in coastal management, through the implementation of a GIS of human activities along the Italian coast. The system is expected to:

Considering that many territorial plans have been designed favouring only one or few purposes, and discarding their consequences upon other uses or the environment, it is self evident that an integrated, analyses of the uses, is effectively useful for clearly outline a general picture of the territory, the eventual critical areas and those where a management intervention should be considered a priority.

The initial aim was to create a tool actually usable within a planning process. During the work, however, it has been necessary to modify this objective either because it proved to be not feasible to include at the national scale all the details required for starting or implementing a coastal management programme, or because the available data are heterogeneous, from different, often not official or not recognisable sources, in many cases not updated or incomplete. Therefore, the Italian coastal area has been used as a case study for elaborating a methodology to be applied to different situations, when reliable data were available.
At this purpose, it is to be noted that, in order that an administration or a private enterprise undertakes the expensive and time consuming task of creating and updating a date bank, it has to be justified by very strong motivations, i.e. to be useful to different stakeholders, or to be functional to actually necessary intervention on the territory. Hence the need, on one hand, of effectively integrated planning and management programmes, on the other hand of the creation of a data infrastructure able to optimise the collection, the dissemination and the use of coastal information.

Structure and content of the GIS
The core elements of the analyses are the coastal uses. It is defined “coastal use” the interventions and operations as a whole carried out on a specific resource to achieve a certain result. It is important to underline that “coastal use” has a more extensive meaning than business activity. As a matter of fact, it involves the relationship between the resource and the interventions on it, in order to deduce the impact of each coastal use on the available resources, aside from the direct economic consequences. Examples of a coastal use that can not be identified with a profit oriented activity, are protected areas: they are intervention on specific natural resources, whose main purpose is their conservation and, indirectly, economic benefits.

On these premises, the uses of the Italian coast relevant for an integrated management programme have been individuated, referring both to the thematic literature and to the actually available material. Then, they have been sorted out in a list, named use net, that has been the base for the following collection and arrangement of the data.

Table 1 - the use net

conservation natural heritage protected areas natural parks and reserves
EC interest sites
EC specially protected areas
marine protected areas
fragile ecosystems estuaries and lagoons
wetlands
cultural heritage material heritage archaeological sites
UNESCO World Heritage sites
primary uses animal biological resources onshore cattle farming
offshore fisheries and related services
aquaculture and related services
vegetal biological resources agriculture cereals and seedlings farming
perennial plants
forestry
mixed farm land
natural areas wood
bush
mining industry hydrocarbons hydrocarbons extraction
other materials quarries, mines, gravel extraction
saltworks
secondary uses water surface and groundwater water courses
water catchement and distribution
energy production not renewable and renewable ENEL power plants
other plants for the production and distribution of electricity and gas
industry Any kind of industry ironworks
oil refineries
chemical plants
engineering industry
shipbuilding industry
elecronics and precision instruments
other manufactories
food industries
environmental hazard factories
tertiary uses settlements urban areas compact city structure
scattered city structure
urban parks
transports land transports roads
motorways
railways
air transports airports
harbours goods commercial harbour
industrial harbour
fishing harbour
traditional fishery harbour
shipyards and repairs
passengers passengers terminal
marina
services shipping services
cables and pipes fuel methane pipelines
oil pipelines
electricity long distance powe lines
tourism bathing bathing
other recreational activities recreational and sport areas
museums
defence defence plants Navy harbour
waste disposal solid and liquid waste dumps

The relationships between the chosen uses have been displayed by a square matrix, named use-use matrix, where the uses are written in the rows and in the columns, with the same sorting, according with the general form Xi, Xj. Where each row and column crosses, it is possible to indicate the kind of relationship between the two corresponding uses. In particular, the potentially conflicting combinations have been considered, that means those that could lead to risk, incompatibility, or just to set unfavourable conditions for the carrying out of one or more uses. To find out the actual conflicting situations, a very detailed survey would be necessary, that would be possible only on a smaller scale. The spotted situations have above all the aim to give a hint for a more detailed analyses.

GO TO THE USE-USE MATRIX

Table 2 - Explanation of some pointed out conflicts

Location Conflicts
L1 Protected area, or areas where protection is foreseen conflict with fisheries, agriculture and cattle farming on a broad scale or using high environmental impact systems (i.e. massive use of pesticides, trawling, dredges, etc.). On the contrary, in case of small scale or traditionally or environmentally sound run activities, the uses can often be integrated and their relationship can be reciprocally favourable.
L2 The collection of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses conflicts with environmental conservation when it heavily affects the water balance and the circulation of surface and ground water (i.e. damming of a river)
L3 The possibility of conflicts between tourist harbours and ecologically fragile areas depends on the harbour’s size, on the organisation of its related infrastructures (roads, parking areas, etc.), on the traffic and on the size of the boats
L4 In most harbours, the different functions can coexist without problems, but in some cases, the lack of room, a poor organisation of the different facilities, and a heavy maritime traffic, become an obstacle for their carrying on
Organisation conflicts
O1 Due to the intense urbanisation of the Italian coast, some protected areas or ecosystems defined as fragile use to include settlements. The eventual conflict, therefore, is not triggered by the presence of the settlement itself, but, by its expansion, above all if it is disorganised or profit-oriented and by eventual high environmental impact activities carried out in the settlement or nearby
O2 Estuaries and wetlands are area very rich in fish, and fisheries and aquaculture are traditionally activities. Anyway, since they are very fragile ecosystems, it is necessary a strict control over the used devices and the number of catches, in order to avoid their impoverishment
O3 Most salt works are traditionally located inside lagoons and wetlands. A careful control over these activities is anyway necessary, to avoid the degradation of the surrounding areas
O4 Some activities functional to a large commercial or industrial harbour may interfere with the tourist, recreational and cultural activities that should characterise a World Heritage Site (i.e. the navigation of bulk ships to the industrial pole of Porto Marghera inside the Venice lagoon)
O5 Navigation is often forbidden in the sea surrounding submarine cables and pipes
O6 There is a conflicting situation in case of submarine archaeological sites
O7 There is a conflicting situation in case of hauling shafts in marine or lagoon areas
O8 The main income source of many settlements is tourism and bathing. Anyway, the settlement, in some cases, may cause a heavy degradation of the coastal environment and to be in conflict with the tourist use of the area. It is therefore necessary a local survey to assess the situation
  Organization conflicts
O1 Due to the intense urbanisation of the Italian coast, some protected areas or ecosystems defined as fragile use to include settlements. The eventual conflict, therefore, is not triggered by the presence of the settlement itself, but, by its expansion, above all if it is disorganised or profit-oriented and by eventual high environmental impact activities carried out in the settlement or nearby
O2 Estuaries and wetlands are area very rich in fish, and fisheries and aquaculture are traditionally activities. Anyway, since they are very fragile ecosystems, it is necessary a strict control over the used devices and the number of catches, in order to avoid their impoverishment
O3 Most salt works are traditionally located inside lagoons and wetlands. A careful control over these activities is anyway necessary, to avoid the degradation of the surrounding areas
O4 Some activities functional to a large commercial or industrial harbour may interfere with the tourist, recreational and cultural activities that should characterise a World Heritage Site (i.e. the navigation of bulk ships to the industrial pole of Porto Marghera inside the Venice lagoon)
O5 Navigation is often forbidden in the sea surrounding submarine cables and pipes
O6 There is a conflicting situation in case of submarine archaeological sites
O7 There is a conflicting situation in case of hauling shafts in marine or lagoon areas
O8 The main income source of many settlements is tourism and bathing. Anyway, the settlement, in some cases, may cause a heavy degradation of the coastal environment and to be in conflict with the tourist use of the area. It is therefore necessary a local survey to assess the situation
Environmental conflicts
A1 Gas or oil pipes and the long distance power lines, themselves, do not have a very heavy environmental impact. A bigger impact, on the contrary, is caused by the works for the setting of these infrastructures, such as clearing of trees, excavations, hearth moving, road clearing, etc., that often are not followed by environmental restoration interventions. Moreover, above all in the case of oil pipes, a breakdown may cause very heavy environmental consequences
A2 Logging in areas close to wetlands, estuaries or lagoons may cause considerable variations in sediments in the water ant the consequent alteration of their ecosystems.
A3 Only a few activities among the “other manufactories” and the “food industry” have a high environmental impact or conflict with other uses. Since there is not detailed information, a potential conflict is pointed out, to be assessed locally
A4 A heavy conflict takes place when road and railway infrastructures entail land filling, embankments, edges, or any structure that alter freshwater or saltwater circulation.
A5 The environmental impact of a harbour is cause either by the dumping of organic and inorganic substances, or by the possible alterations of currents and sediments transportation. In a lagoon or in an estuary, these concerns are particularly relevant.
A6 There was, and it is still actual, the habit of burning some grazing areas, above all among the ones used as sheep graze.
A7 Massive agriculture in proximity of water catchment basins may alter water quality. Actually, a local survey is needed
A8 Forestry involves less pesticides and fertilisers than other agricultural activities, but it may have a negative impact on erosion and sediment transportation
A9 The higher is the conservation level and the natural and biological value of wood areas, the sharper is the conflict with industrial areas
A10 Urban settlements impact over watercourses discharging pollutants, as well as altering the river bed, water collection, etc. Each impact or conflict, anyway, has to be assessed with local surveys
A11 Water collection for domestic or industrial purpose is essential for urban settlements, but, the pollution of surface water and groundwater due to sewers and other discharges may trigger a conflicting situation
A12 It is always an argument the actual danger of long distance power lines….
E Aesthetical conflicts

A programme of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) should include land and sea and the extension of this coastal area should be identified using ecological, administrative/jurisdictional and socio-economic criteria. In this case, the limits are constituted, offshore, by the external boundary of the territorial sea, and, inland, by the intersection of the extension of the coastal municipalities - whose seaward boundaries are less than 1000 m far from the shoreline - with the 10 km wide strip used as the base for the digital map LaCoast - LAnd cover changes in COASTal zones.

In most cases, the whole municipality is included in this strip, with the exception of some major towns (Roma, Ravenna, Pisa, etc.). However, since the greater part of the available information refers to the municipalities, they have been chosen as base land unit.

At this stage, available data have been arranged according with the following criteria:

Table 3 - list of the data included in the GIS and their elaboration

Use
data
Source
Work on the raw data
Links
Coastal administrative boundaries Boundaries and Chief towns of Municipalities, Provinces and Regions, settlements, demographic statistics, ISTAT codes ISTAT (Italian Institue for Statistics) fitting to the reference coastline map and updating to year 2001 Data from Unoncamere, museums, archaeological sites,harbours, ports, Maritime Districts, Power Plants, power plants, environmental hazard factories, aquaculture plants
Economic activities company name, business title, post address, kind of activity of agricultural companies (including fisheries, aquaculture and forestry with more than 10 workers), manufactories with more than 100 workers, service companies (to agriculture and industry) with more than 10 workers Unioncamere (Union of Italian Chambers of Commerce) Updating according with the information about Municipalities
Sorting of the data by activity
Mapping of the firms from the post address		  
Environmental hazard factories Location, company name, business title, kind of industry, Italian law requirements Ministry of Environment Comparison with the similar information from Unioncamere Municipalities
Maritime Districts
ENEL power plants Location, kind of fuel, capacity, cooling water flow ENEL (Italian National Agency for Electricity) Updating according with the information about Municipalities
Clean out of the database		  
hydrography Classification of the water courses, length of the river sections. ENEA The quality of the raw data was very poor and it has not been possible to improve them  
Land use:
agricultural areas
quarries
industrial areas
dumps
settlements
urban parks
natural areas
large infrastructures		 Surface and perimeter of each plot of land, land use in 1975 and in 1992 LaCoast Sorting of the Lacoast data  
Aquaculture plants company name, business title, post address, kind of fish ENEA Mapping of the plants from the post address  
Coastal morphology Sea basin, length and morphology of the coastal sections, distinction between built up and natural shore University of Parma Fitting to the reference coastline map  
Hydrocarbon extraction Location, kind (i.e. oil or methane rigs)and annual production of the rigs, route or the oil and methane pipelines, location of the hydrocarbon processing ports, marine forbidden areas ENERGEO Fitting to the reference coastal area  
Harbours Geographical coordinates, functions (fisheries, tourism, bulk, etc.) Portolano del Mediterraneo, 2000 (Mediterranean harbours factbook) Organisation of the data into a database and mapping of the harbours Municipalities
Maritime Districts
Major ports (seat of Port Authority) The use of each wharf is indicated Portolano del Mediterraneo, 2000 (Mediterranean harbours factbook) Organisation of the data into a database Municipalities
Maritime Districts
Restricted areas Location and when possible boundaries of restricted or forbidden areas and shipways, forbidden activities. Portolano del Mediterraneo, 2000 (Mediterranean harbours factbook) Organisation of the data into a database and mapping of the areas (when possible) Maritime Districts
Jurisdictional boundaries Base lines and territorial sea   Rearrangement of the original vector file and fitting to the reference coastline map  
Marittime districts Boundaries of the Marine districts Genova Port Office
Gazzetta Ufficiale (Italian Law journal) n. 135 of 18/04/ 2000		 Updating to year 2000 of the original database, mapping of the extension of each district along the shoreline Harbours, ports, Municipalities
Port Offices Boundaries Port Offices jurisdiction Genova Port Office
Gazzetta Ufficiale (Italian Law journal) n. 135 of 18/04/ 2000		 Updating to year 2000 of the original database Circoscrizioni Marittime
Railways Name, kind, length, administration agency of each section Official railway timetable Organisation of the data into a database and rearrangement of the original vector file  
Motorways Name, length, administration agency of each section Web sites Organisation of the data into a database and rearrangement of the original vector file  
Roads Kind (state road, regional road, provincial road), name, length ANAS (Italian Agency for Roads) database Organisation of the data into a database and rearrangement of the original vector file  
Airports Kind of airport, coordinates, number and length of the strips Web site of the Ministry for Infrastructures and transports, web sites (for minor airports) Organisation of the data into a database and mapping of the airports Municipalities
Archaeological sites Name, extension, kind of the area, kind of the finds, post address Web site of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities Organisation of the data into a database and mapping of the sites from the post address Municipalities
UNESCO World Heritage sites Name, location, short description Web site of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities Organisation of the data into a database Municipalities
Museums Name, kind , content, post address Web site of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities Organisation of the data into a database and mapping of the museums from the post address Municipalities
Methane pipelines Route, length of each section ENEA Clean out of the database  
Long distance power lines Route, carrying capacity ENEA Clean out of the database  
Sewerage pipes Only the underwater pipes that can be harmful to navigation or other maritime activities are indicated (in the “restricted” areas part) Portolano del Mediterraneo, 2000 (Mediterranean harbours factbook)    
Waterworks Only the underwater waterworks that can be harmful to navigation or other maritime activities are indicated (in the “restricted” areas part) Portolano del Mediterraneo, 2000 (Mediterranean harbours factbook)    
Cables Only the underwater cables that can be harmful to navigation or other maritime activities are indicated (in the “restricted” areas part) Portolano del Mediterraneo, 2000 (Mediterranean harbours factbook)    
Natural reserves Kind of reserve (land, marine or mixed natural reserve), surface, year of establishment Ministry of Environment    
Natural park Kind of natural park (nationa, Regional, etc.) Ministry of Environment    
Protected areas on land Name, kind of protected area, surface, perimeter, date of establishment Ministry of Environment    
Marine protected areas Name, zoning, boundaries, surface and perimeter of each zone Ministry of Environment Fitting to the reference coastline map Municipalities
Coastal EC Interest Sites Location, name, surface kind Ministry of Environment    
Coastal EC Specially Protected Areas Location, name, surface kind, institution date Ministry of Environment    

The resulting cartographic and alphanumeric data set is characterised by a certain degree of interoperability and it is the base for the elaborations expected in the overall objectives of the project. In particular, the conflicts and their representation have been considered as a priority, either at the cartographic or at the datasheet level, by allowing the access and the comparison of the information related to all the involved uses. Moreover, some indicators have been defined, to be calculated using the available information.

Once more it is to be underlined that the main aim of the project is to demonstrate and validate a methodology. For this reason, not all the possible situations have been taken into consideration, but only the most interesting ones, as case studies. At the same time, some results are heavily conditioned by the poor quality of the initial data. In the case of an action-oriented work, first of all, a major investment in the collection of updated and accurate data would be necessary.

Since the final users of the GIS are supposed to be local administrator and in general operators that are not bound to have a specific knowledge in the field of geographical Information, a user friendly interface has been made. It, on one hand, allows an easy access to the datasets, on the other hand it supply the user the opportunity to compare the different uses, and to display at different scales the potentially conflicting situations and some thematic maps on the basis of the calculate indicators.

The application "Management of the Coastal Area"” release 1.0.0
The expected final achievement is a specialised application allowing an immediate analyses of the digital maps, finalised at the application of the principles of ICM. It has been chosen not to use a commercial cartographic application, because it would require specific knowledge to the final user, and it would not deal with the methodological aspects. On the contrary, the realised application, supplies the user a synthetic description of the used methodology and, by means of the user friendly interface lead the user through the GIS tools functional to the coastal analyses.

This application allows to display:

Moreover, through simple masks, qualitative and quantitative queries are possible on the single uses or on specific areas

The navigation inside the program is organized by web browser style buttons.
The maps are composed by different layers, each of them can be queried by the operator by mouse selection or by simple logical queries. The operator is required to have a basic knowledge of informatics and to be acquainted with the main principles of ICM.

In particular, the functions at the user’s disposal are:

Figure 1 - a selection page

The content of the application
The available information has been organised according with three main streams: uses, conflicts and indicators.

Uses
This section can be accessed by use or by thematic groups. When accessing by use, the user chooses from the use net which ones to display and switches on the corresponding layers on a blank map. Otherwise, he is able to choose and switch on all together the layers corresponding to the uses included in specific thematic groups (i.e. transport, energy infrastructures, etc.), will be directly displayed on the blank map. Then, by clicking on specific object or by SQL queries, it is possible to read all the information related to each use.

Figure 2 - The uses at the Po river delta

Conflicts between uses
This section presents the potentially conflicting situations that could occur between two uses, at the national or the municipal scale, with the main purpose to the give hint for a more detailed survey in the concerned areas. One more time it is essential to specify that they are not actual conflicts, but situations that could be conflicting or trigger a conflict.
On the national scale, the layer corresponding with environmental hazardous factories, energy plants and highways - some of the uses that more frequently are involved in conflicting situations - have been overlaid to the other uses and 14 thematic maps have been drawn. The areas included within a fiexed buffer around these uses have been overlaid to the other uses, and the intersections have been highlighted. Only in these cases it has been possible to derive general maps, because it is possible to define rather accurately the extension of the influence of these uses(i.e. the Italian law states at 5000 m the safety buffer around the environmental hazardous factories).
Usually, on the contrary, the influence area depends on the local features (geo-morphological features, ground water, etc.) and it is possible to delimitate it only through local surveys.
The displaying of the conflicts on the municipality scale is based instead on a datasheet that points out the presence or absence of every use in each municipality. When a municipality is selected, the datasheet originates a reduced use-use matrix showing only the uses actually present and the consequent potential conflicts. The operator has to switch on the layers corresponding to the uses concerned by potential conflicts to have a general view and some hints about the most likely ones. The application does not give any evaluation, but it is left to the operator.

Figure 3 - the potential conflicts in the area of Genova

Table 4 - list of the conflicts on the national scale

Use 1
Use 2
Buffer
Environmnetal hazard factories protected areas 5000 m
Environmental hazard factories EC Interest Sites 5000 m
Environmental hazard factories EC Specially Protected Areas 5000 m
Environmental hazard factories urban settlements (except industrial and commercial areas) 5000 m
Environmental hazard factories farm lands 5000 m
power plants protected areas intersection
power plants EC Interest Sites intersection
power plants EC Specially Protected Areas intersection
power plants urban settlements (except industrial and commercial areas) intersection
motorways farm lands 100 m
motorways protected areas 100 m
motorways EC Interest Sites 100 m
motorways EC Specially Protected Areas 100 m
motorways urban settlements (except industrial and commercial areas) 100 m

Indicators
Some general indicators, that it has been possible to calculate on the basis of the available data are presented in this section.
They concern demography, human pressure on the land and on the coast, land use, and hazard and they are displayed through thematic maps. The resulting figures are sorted into classes and displayed in different colours.
They mostly refer to each municipality, except the ones about land use, whose data source is the LaCoast cartography that cover only a 10 km strip from the shoreline. In this case they refer to the intersection of the municipality area with the 10 km strip. Moreover, to get a general overview, it is possible to switch on the layer corresponding to each kind of land use
The elaboration of more significant indicators requires an amount of data that it is possible to collect only on the local scale.

Table 5 - list of the indicators

Indicator
reference unit
population density extension of the Municipality
percentage of protected area extension of the Municipality
percentage of the municipality declared EC Interest Site extension of the Municipality
percentage of the municipality declared EC Specially Protected Area extension of the Municipality
coast lenght (natural Italian coastline) extension of the Municipality
coast lenght (administrative Italian coastline) extension of the Municipality
coast lenght per person (natural Italian coastline) inhabitants of each Municipality
coast lenght per person (administrative Italian coastline) inhabitants of each Municipality
percentage of coastal area extension of the Municipality within 10 km from the shoreline
percentage of not built area extension of the Municipality within 10 km from the shoreline
land plot - km of infrastructures per ha of not built area extension of the Municipality within 10 km from the shoreline
percentage of built coastline extension of the coastline of each Municipality
percentage of land use change (1975 to 1992) extension of the Municipality within 10 km from the shoreline
new constructions (1975 to 1992) extension of the Municipality within 10 km from the shoreline
percentage of farm land extension of the Municipality within 10 km from the shoreline
percentage abandoned farm lands extension of the Municipality within 10 km from the shoreline

The GIS architecture

Kind of data
Vectorial data: ESRI shapefile
Tables:.dbf formatThe software architecture

The software is a stand alone application, and it has been developed in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 for Microsoft Windows systems.Map Object by ESRI has been used for the Map management.

Hardware and software requirements
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
Video Board: SVGA - colour: 16 bit or more.Monitor VGA 800x600
CPU: minimum Intel Pentium IIRAM: 256 Mb
CD-Rom drive
Hard disk: 400 Mb free space

To run the application it is necessary Microsoft Internet Explorer. If it is not present on the PC, it is automatically installed with the application

General information
One descriptive section, finally, is dedicated to present some information about the methodology and the principles that lead to the carrying out of the application, the GIS specifications and the credits.

Conclusions
This work is supposed to be an example of a user friendly, GIS based methodology for the analyses of the coastal area. Despite some gaps or simplifications due to the scarce availability of accurate and updated data, it has been possible to transfer some principle of ICM, in particular the need of a comprehensive view of the coastal area, into a context where planners and managers are able to operate. The experience gained during this project, is indeed expected to be useful either in an eventual action oriented phase, or, in case the project were developed on the national scale, in the collection and arrangement of appropriate data.
A further step forward could be the integration of the data related with human activities with the environmental information, and finally, the change toward the local scale and, therefore, the inclusion of more detailed information. In this case, always keeping the national framework as general reference and unifying element, the greater amount of available information, could lead to the creation of an actually action oriented tool.
Another perspective, from the technological point of view, is to transform the application into an internet base one, giving it higher visibility.

References:

Web sites