The Web Coverage Service (WCS) is a standard issued by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

The Web Coverage Service (WCS 1.0.0) supports the electronic interchange of geospatial data as "coverages", that is, digital geospatial information representing space-varying phenomena. Examples of coverages are satellite imagery and digital elevation model.

WCS offers the means to retrieve or query geographic coverages independent of the format of the stored data. Data can be defined by temporal and spatial characteristics and can be delivered in multiple raster-based data formats (e.g., GeoTiffs, .img, ENVI (.hdr) file types).

Bentley Descartes supports WCS version 1.0.0.

In Raster Manager, you can create a new Web Coverage Service definition file using the following:

Reality Modeling > Attach > Raster Manager > File > New > WCS.

To attach a previously created definition file, there are two methods:

• If the file contains a definition for an image, use the following:

  Reality Modeling > Attach > Raster Manager > File > Attach > WCS.

• If the definition is for elevation data, use:

  Reality Modeling > Attach > Raster Manager > File > Attach > Raster Grid.

For more detail on the Raster Grid attachment, click here.

You can also manage your preferred WCS Servers using the Servers Manager Dialog accessible through the WCS Coverage Editor dialog