Evaluation and Implementation of the OGC Web Processing Service for Use in Client-Side GIS Christopher D. Michaelis & Daniel P. Ames Received: 26 March 2007 / Revised: 1 February 2008 / Accepted: 25 February 2008 / Published online: 1 April 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract The Open Geospatial Consortium Web Processing Service specification is intended as a solution for creating and distributing web-based functions. This paper seeks to evaluate the WPS specification with respect to feasibility and utility, to identify areas for improvement, and to provide a demonstration implementation approach including a client- side tool and a server-side wrapping technique for exposing geoprocessing functionality through WPS using an asynchronous approach. Challenges with the WPS specification, some of which are already being addressed in the newest WPS revisions, are discussed together with proposed solutions. Several potential enhancements to the WPS proposal are introduced and considered, including a mechanism to guide client applications in prompting for correct data and a means to list the data available on a server. Keywords OGC . WPS . geoprocessing . geographic information systems 1 Introduction The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a consensus standards organization concerned primarily with the release of non-proprietary specifications to unite geographic information software, bringing together a multitude of disjointed formats and communications mechanisms to allow interoperability [8]. Rather than avoiding the OGC standardization process and remaining fully proprietary, many geospatial technology developers “have shown extraordinary cooperation in teaming to submit OpenGIS Specifications” [4] and have actively embraced the standards, many participating in their development. As OGC is composed of professionals in multiple fields, rather than a single committee in a single corporate environment, the standards typically are of consistently high quality and are suitable for any number of application areas. Geoinformatica (2009) 13:109–120 DOI 10.1007/s10707-008-0048-1 C. D. Michaelis (*) : D. P. Ames Department of Geosciences, Idaho State University, 199 Valleyview Drive, 921 South 8th Ave., Pocatello, ID 83209-8072, USA e-mail: cmichaelis@happysquirrel.com