WMS. Web Map Service

It is a standard for exchanging map data between IT systems.

How does it work?

An institution that wants to publish data creates a WMS Server, uploads the data, and publishes the WMS address where the data is accessible.
This address looks like a website URL, for example, the WMS address for data provided by the General Directorate for Environmental Protection looks like this:

https://sdi.gdos.gov.pl/wms

What can you do with this link?

To properly view the shared data, a WMS Client is required, such as:

1. QGIS software
2. Usemaps

After loading the data via WMS, we can browse it freely in our favorite application.

Why does it work this way?

The source spatial data is very large and often changes (updates). By using WMS, we can be sure that the data is always up to date (because with every movement on the map, the WMS Client requests fresh data from the WMS Server) and we don’t have to download it entirely (we receive only the data for the area currently being viewed).

 

Read more:

1. A long (quite old, but still relevant) article can be found here: WMS. What is it? How to use it?
2. How to add a WMS to a map?