Home / Current Issue / Paper 1722297
Leveraging Volunteered Geographic Information and High-Resolution Satellite Imagery in a Web-GIS Framework for Smart Campus Navigation
Subject area: Science,Engineering and Technology · Area of research: Web GIS and Smart Navigation
Abstract
Micro-scale navigation within academic campuses, government complexes, and scientific facilities represents a significant research and application gap for standard Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) platforms. This gap is primarily driven by the absence of granular internal routing networks and facility-level spatial metadata. Commercial web-mapping applications routinely depict large institutional campuses as featureless geometric boundary polygons, creating geographic voids that lack internal pedestrian walkways and building entry points. This paper presents the technical design, system architecture, and practical deployment of NasrdaNavi, a web-based campus navigation system developed for the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) headquarters at the Obasanjo Space Centre in Abuja, Nigeria. Utilizing a hybrid geospatial pipeline, the system integrates localized drone imagery from the NASRDA data pipeline, crowdsourced vectors from OpenStreetMap (OSM), and high-resolution ESRI World Imagery satellite basemaps. These multi-source spatial layers were geometrically cleaned, topologically corrected in QGIS, and served via a lightweight Flask backend and MapLibre GL JS client engine. The single-page application (SPA) executes real-time hardware geolocation tracking, attribute-based point-of-interest (POI) queries, dynamic reachable-area (isochrone) polygon generation, and client-side pathfinding across private institutional road and footpath networks without heavy server-side processing. This study provides a cost-effective, replicable framework for overcoming last-mile campus navigation bottlenecks while operationalizing practical space-to-earth geospatial solutions within Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) guidelines and addressing critical constraints of national spatial data sovereignty.
Keywords
Web-GIS, Campus Micro-Navigation, OpenStreetMap, MapLibre GL JS, Satellite Imagery, Data Sovereignty, Spatial Data Infrastructure
How to cite this paper
@article{1722297,
author = {Warekuromor Tubolayefa (PhD), Adepoju Olumide Mathew (PhD); Alaga Abayomi Taofeek (PhD); Jega Idris Mohammed (PhD); Ashibuogwu Kevin, Umar Tanimu Yakubu; Okonkwo-Bruno Chukwunweike; Bulus Emmanuel Duwongs (PhD); Mohammed Jibril Turaki, Alfred Joy Ojochona; Abah Catherine Jummai; Ebuh Alexandra Chukwuyem; Isa Bilyaminu Shamaki, Osayi Victor Nnabuike; Yahaya Ahmed; Mustapha Abbas Yahuza; Sunmola Kudirat Oladayo},
title = {Leveraging Volunteered Geographic Information and High-Resolution Satellite Imagery in a Web-GIS Framework for Smart Campus Navigation},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {2},
pages = {1317-1332},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1722297.pdf},
abstract = {Micro-scale navigation within academic campuses, government complexes, and scientific facilities represents a significant research and application gap for standard Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) platforms. This gap is primarily driven by the absence of granular internal routing networks and facility-level spatial metadata. Commercial web-mapping applications routinely depict large institutional campuses as featureless geometric boundary polygons, creating geographic voids that lack internal pedestrian walkways and building entry points. This paper presents the technical design, system architecture, and practical deployment of NasrdaNavi, a web-based campus navigation system developed for the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) headquarters at the Obasanjo Space Centre in Abuja, Nigeria. Utilizing a hybrid geospatial pipeline, the system integrates localized drone imagery from the NASRDA data pipeline, crowdsourced vectors from OpenStreetMap (OSM), and high-resolution ESRI World Imagery satellite basemaps. These multi-source spatial layers were geometrically cleaned, topologically corrected in QGIS, and served via a lightweight Flask backend and MapLibre GL JS client engine. The single-page application (SPA) executes real-time hardware geolocation tracking, attribute-based point-of-interest (POI) queries, dynamic reachable-area (isochrone) polygon generation, and client-side pathfinding across private institutional road and footpath networks without heavy server-side processing. This study provides a cost-effective, replicable framework for overcoming last-mile campus navigation bottlenecks while operationalizing practical space-to-earth geospatial solutions within Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) guidelines and addressing critical constraints of national spatial data sovereignty.},
keywords = {Web-GIS, Campus Micro-Navigation, OpenStreetMap, MapLibre GL JS, Satellite Imagery, Data Sovereignty, Spatial Data Infrastructure},
month = {August},
}