Web-based Image Delivery: Storing Images in File System VS. Storing Images in Database

Web-based GIS and image delivery applications have become very popular in recent years. A lot of land-governing organisations are making full use of the spatial technology available today and put up some web-based applications to satisfy today's demanding business needs.

Imagery is an important part of many spatial applications. Due to the nature and volume of spatial imagery, serving large amount of spatial imagery over the intranet or Internet is a challenge. As such, a number of approaches are being used to overcome the problem. There are two major image storing and delivery techniques currently adopted in Web-base applications. This paper reviews both methods and discusses the pros and cons of both approaches.