Oleksandr Matsibora. Paleo Web GIS: an alternative architecture using PHP content management systems
“Paleo Web GIS” is a Ukrainian web platform for storing and managing paleogeographical (paleoecological) data about modern and ancient soils (including sediments) from the Quaternary period (2.5 million years ago to the present). The main idea behind this Web GIS is to maintain comprehensive information about soil sites in a well-structured format that is available for complex queries. Different sources of information and data formats necessitate a unified database structure, not only to store attributes but also to visualize the spatial distribution of studied objects and research areas. A crucial feature of such systems, given the current circumstances, is the ability to manage content independently by multiple users simultaneously.
The requirements for the backend were strict. It needed to be reliable, stable, cost-effective, predictable, and flexible enough to implement specific features. This is why the PHP-based Drupal content management system (CMS) was chosen. The main benefits of the Drupal CMS are:
an open-source PHP engine, available for free for any purpose
stability and security sufficient for most use cases
regular updates that address security fixes and performance improvements
a non-coding platform with nearly all necessary built-in features (CRUD operations, user group policies, custom content types, automatic media content optimization, etc.)
the ability to be deployed on any Unix PHP shared web hosting* which is one of the cheapest options with SQL database support
a vast array of modules for extending functionality, all verified by the developer community and covered by the “Drupal security advisory policy”
support for different geometry types (points, polygons, polylines) and formats (latitude-longitude, WKT, GeoJSON)
The development of the database (DB), where all information from different sources is stored, required some simplifications in the understanding of natural objects. This is why several abstract entities were implemented: “soil_site”, “genetic_horizon”, and a few “dictionaries” of taxonomy terms. At this level of abstraction, a “soil_site” can be considered a vertical stack of “genetic_horizons”, which are referenced by an ID field. The dictionaries of taxonomy terms consist of standard and repeatable information, such as “admin_regions”, “natural_regions”, “geological_periods” etc.
The user interface (UI) of the Web GIS was developed using the Bootstrap framework, the Leaflet.js library, and the Leaflet.markercluster plugin. The UI provides essential functionality, including responsive design, server-side rendering, and views for tables and maps. A key feature of the “Paleo Web GIS” UI is the complex filtering of data based on 9 different parameters (soil site title, administrative region, natural region, geological age of soil, archaeological period, etc.). Filters can be applied together or separately, which is helpful for searches using multiple parameters, not only for soil sites but also for genetic horizons. All mentioned objects have dedicated web pages with all available attributes grouped into tables, lists, cards, and sections.
Currently, more than 180 soil sites (from the Holocene and Pleistocene epochs) with genetic horizons and attribute information have been added to the database, which is actively used by several scientific institutions in Ukraine.
Link to “Paleo Web GIS” (in Ukrainian): https://paleo.geohub.org.ua
* while the Drupal CMS can be deployed on a dedicated server or an AWS EC2 instance, under the limited budget of the research project, shared web hosting appeared to be the most optimal type of infrastructure
Citation:
Matsibora, O. (2025). Paleo Web GIS: an alternative architecture using PHP content management systems. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14859658