System Architecture

Architecture diagram

Data flows from raw sources through GitHub-hosted pipelines into R2, then to the client via Cloudflare CDN:

Data Sources  →  GitHub Data Pipelines  →  R2 Buckets  →  Cloudflare CDN  →  Client
     (GNIS, BLM, USGS, …)     (Python, Tippecanoe)      (static JSON,        (Leaflet,
                                                                 tiles)         Alpine, Chart.js)

Components

Data layer

• GNIS — USGS Geographic Names Information System
• NOAA — Weather and environmental data
• USGS — NHD, DEM, National Map
• State GIS — Alaska DNR and other state sources
• BLM — Federal land and mining claims
• ADF&G — Alaska Department of Fish and Game (wildlife, fish counts)

Storage

• Cloudflare R2 — S3-compatible object storage
• Static JSON — Gazetteer, catalog, and config
• Vector tiles — PMTiles, MBTiles
• FlatGeobuf — Optional for large feature sets

Edge layer

• Cloudflare Workers — Authentication, payments (Stripe), API routing
• CDN — Caching and delivery for R2 public buckets

Client

• Leaflet / MapLibre — Map rendering
• Alpine.js — Lightweight UI and state
• Chart.js — Data visualizations (e.g. fish counts, trends)

This architecture lets the platform operate at near-zero server cost while scaling with demand.