King George Island, Antarctica, is considered by some as the 'Secret Capital of
Antarctica'. The mainly ice-covered island features a large number of scientific
bases, an air strip and abundant wildlife. The island is also a hot spot for
Antarctic tourist cruises and the emerging land-based Antarctic tourism. Scientific
activities, requirements for facility management, tourism, and the protection of the
sensitive ecosystems lead to a considerable conflict of interests. The international
King George Island GIS Project (SCAR KGIS) provides a SDI for the island in support
of research and environmental management activities. The spatial database, related
on-line access tools and OGC compliant data services are implemented based on free
and open source software. The SCAR KGIS Project is part of the continent-wide
Antarctic Spatial Data Infrastructure SCAR AntSDI, which provides for the
institutional arrangements and data sharing policies, a feature catalogue for common
semantics and technical specifications.