A metadata service for managing spatial resources of coastal areas.

Within the framework of the SYSCOLAG pluridisciplinary research programme on ICZM in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, we propose an ISO-19115-compliant metadata service to share informational resources. Each resource is described using a metadata form. Each form consists of textually and spatially controlled terms which are stored in a single DBMS (Postgres and Postgis). The graphical user-interfaces contain the expert knowledge (thematic and spatial ontologies) and include a mapping service (SVG and OGC-compliant WMS-WFS) that allows spatial and thematic queries to be addressed to the metadata service.