International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission)
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HARMO-DATA Project – cross border spatial data harmonization using INSPIRE model
Get PDFHARMO-DATA is an ongoing project, funded by EU in the framework of the INTERREG V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020 Programme. It involves different stakeholders, target groups and end-users in three regions: Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (Italy), Veneto (Italy) and Slovenia. The main purpose of this project is to develop common solutions for more efficient cross-border spatial data management – by harmonizing the existing spatial data, implementing a cross-border spatial data platform, and developing a common protocol for the harmonization of territorial data. It will provide an instrument to define the specific obligations and rights of the involved parts – in terms of data harmonization, exchange, use and maintenance. Five pilot case studies were identified by the project partners – in cooperation with public and private end-users, and additional stakeholders. The core use cases of the project relate to spatial data search, view and download, and the harmonization model for spatial datasets applies the INSPIRE data specifications. A joined common spatial data platform was established as an extension of the existing search-view-download platforms (metadata systems), upgraded and improved to better enable open data access by users from both Italy and Slovenia. The common spatial HARMO-DATA data platform, as well as, a joint protocol for cross-border spatial data harmonization, have been formalized in an official bilateral agreement
An integrated conceptual framework for SDI research: experiences from French case studies
Get PDFUnderstanding the contribution of a Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) to society through improved economic, social and environmental outcomes implies an integrated and dynamic approach. To address this challenge, we propose a research framework that gathers theories and findings from a study concerning 45 French institutional SDIs. Its goal is to provide a logical structure for a holistic analysis of the complex components that affect the production and use of geographical information, their relationships, the dynamics of these relationships and the resulting outcomes. Two published frameworks, the Press-Pulse Dynamics and the Institutional Analysis and Development, are used as boundary objects during a three-workshop process gathering the research team. The result of this collective process leads to the design of an integrated conceptual framework for SDI research. It describes five main components of SDI (external drivers, a social component, patterns of interactions, a technical and informational component and outcomes), their relationships and research hypotheses. Guided by external press and internal pulse dynamics, the iterative framework redresses the balance of SDI components in favor of the social block and links this block to the technical and informational component through two bridges: patterns of interactions and outcomes. It shows how social norms and representations of different types of actors affect collective and individual actions, which then impact the technical and informational component of SDIs. In turn, technical and informational artifacts influence outcomes, thereby modifying human actions and initiating feedback that impacts the original dynamics and processes. We provide such a type of conceptual activity for assimilating large amounts of social and technical knowledge to strengthen our understanding of SDIs functioning and dynamics
Evaluating the Arctic SDI: An Assessment of the Foundations needed for Success
Get PDFThe Arctic encompasses eight countries and has a population of over four million people. With datasets produced by private and public stakeholders all over the world and noted gaps in data for many parts of the region, there is an opportunity to collaborate and create a unified Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the Arctic. This research identified a set of criteria for evaluating the long-term efficacy of the Arctic SDI from an organizational perspective and not from a user’s perspective. Through the external assessment, half of the countries were found to be strong contributors - almost equally contributing in terms of deliverables, resources and leadership to the Arctic SDI. These three themes developed based on a critical evaluation of the existing SDI literature. While the other half countries contributed noticeably less - due to a lack of deliverables, less participation in working groups or little or no resource contributions. Complementing theses (external) assessments, also internal reviews were conducted via semi-structured interviews, which obtained the participants’ view of the Arctic SDI collaboration potential successes and shortcomings. The interviewees identified opportunities, limitations and risks as they perceived them. Most of the issues associated with the opportunities, limitations and risks could be cross-validated with the external assessment criteria. However, the importance of communication was strongly emphasized in the interviews and was not represented by the external assessment criteria. The completion of both the external and internal assessments led to the multi-view framework that can be used to assess the long-term potential of the Arctic SDI. This evaluation tool can also be used for defining tasks and clarifying responsibilities for the next 5-year Memorandum of Understanding (2019-2024) or to assess the Arctic SDI to identify challenges and mitigation measures that would assist in its longevity. This tool can also be used for other regional SDIs to define MoUs and assess the potential for success
New Directions in Digital Government Using INSPIRE - Report from the Workshop at the INSPIRE Conference 2017
Get PDFDigital government in Europe is evolving rapidly, thanks to both advances in technology and the tendency for governments to establish more participative relationships with businesses and citizens. There is a drive to promote economic growth in digital businesses through the better use of data, and location data play a very important role in this. INSPIRE has created a basis for the harmonisation of location information across Europe, and is able to support some of the more important developments in digital government. Some Member States have developed integrated strategies and have provided lessons from which others may learn. Technological advances have created an immense range of opportunities through developments such as the internet of things, cloud computing and big data; however, they have also introduced challenges in terms of privacy, trust and the need for new digital skills. A workshop entitled “New Directions in Digital Government using INSPIRE” at the INSPIRE Conference 2017 aimed to explore these new directions by sharing experiences and ideas. This formed part of the ISA2 work programme, undertaken by the European Location Interoperability Solutions for e-Government (ELISE) project, which involves the development of frameworks and solutions to exploit the potential of location information in digital public services across Europe
Citizen Science and its Impacts on Spatial Data Infrastructure Research
Get PDFCitizen Science crystallised as an umbrella term for public participation in scientific research, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), Citizens’ Observatories, and many more. Technological advancements clearly power the wealth and spread of related initiatives, and organisational structures could be established over the past few years. On the one hand, most of the data collected or analysed by these initiatives, such as biodiversity records, air quality information or waste maps, have a spatio-temporal component. On the other hand, many Citizen Science initiatives reply on spatial data in order to plan or carry out their activities. Thus it is legitimate to ask if and how these recent developments might influence Spatial Data infrastructure (SDI) research. In 2018, the International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructure Research (IJSDIR) for the first time showcases possible future scenarios in a dedicated Special Section on Citizen Science. The editorial at hand sets the scene for this Special Section
Open Data, VGI and Citizen Observatories INSPIRE Hackathon
Get PDFIn 2016, the INSPIRE Conference hosted the first INSPIRE hackathon on volunteered geographic information and citizen observatories, also known as the INSPIRE Hackathon. The organisers, mostly representatives of European research and innovation projects, continued this activity with the next INSPIRE Conference in 2017. The INSPIRE Hackathon is a collaborative event for developers, researchers, designers and others interested in open data, volunteered geographic information and citizen observatories. The main driving force for the INSPIRE Hackathon is provided by experts from existing EU projects, and its primary objective is to share knowledge and experience between the participants and demonstrate to wider audiences the power of data and information supported by modern technologies and common standards, originating from INSPIRE, Copernicus, GEOSS and other initiatives. This paper describes the history and background of the INSPIRE Hackathon, the various INSPIRE-related hackathons already organised, supporting projects, the results of INSPIRE Hackathon 2017 and the authors’ vision of future activities
Citclops: Data Interpretation and Knowledge-based Systems Integration
Get PDFMeasuring the optical properties of water bodies (as indicators of, e.g., sewage impact, dissolved organic matter, sediment load or gross biological activity) is a way to assess their environmental status. The Citclops European project, in 2012-2015, developed systems to retrieve and use data on natural-water colour, transparency and fluorescence, using low-cost sensors combined with contextual information, taking into account existing experiences. This paper describes the general interpretation of data and delivery of information as carried out via the development of a decision support system named 'Citclops Data Explorer' and available from the main portal of the project
Engaging Citizens in Environmental Monitoring via Gaming
Get PDFCitizen science is quickly becoming one of the most effective tools for the rapid and low-cost collection of environmental information, filling a long recognized gap in in-situ data. Incentivizing citizens to participate, however, remains a challenge, with gaming being widely recognized as an effective solution to overcome the participation barrier. Building upon well-known gaming mechanics, games provide the user with a competitive and fun environment. This paper presents three different applications that employ game mechanics and have generated useful information for environmental science. Furthermore, it describes the lessons learnt from this process to guide future efforts
DEMs: An Approach to Users and Uses from the Quality Perspective
Get PDFThe importance of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) is great in geosciences, but a general view of users and uses which would bring the concept of quality closer to users is lacking. For this reason, the aim of this paper was three-fold: to obtain better knowledge of users, determine the main application domains of DEMs, and identify main use cases. For this purpose, we used data from two web questionnaires (MR1 and MR2), a search of the ScienceDirect database (MR3) and a Google search (MR4). The data coming from the MR1 resource have offered us a large number of cases in order to characterise the profile of users in Spain. The MR2 resource is an ad hoc designed survey which has allowed us, among other things, to identify those calculations that are more normal; determine that subjective evaluation of quality is of great importance for users; and conclude that there is a high percentage of users who do not use any quality index, and also that the majority of users do not know how to evaluate the influence of poor quality on their work. Through MR3, it was possible to analyse the relationships between relevant items and carry out a semantic analysis of a set of 950 abstracts. From MR4, it can be concluded that the formalisation of applications as use cases is not normal. This paper identifies some research lines in order to offer users a better understanding of the issue of quality regarding DEMs
Citizen OBservatory WEB (COBWEB): A Generic Infrastructure Platform to Facilitate the Collection of Citizen Science Data for Environmental Monitoring
Get PDFCOBWEB has used the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves as a testbed for researching and developing a generic crowdsourcing infrastructure platform for environmental monitoring. A major challenge is dealing with what is necessarily a complex problem requiring sophisticated solutions balanced with the need to present sometimes unsophisticated users with comprehensible and useable software. The components of the COBWEB platform are at different Technology Readiness Levels. This short paper outlines the overall solution and points to quality assurance, standardisation and semantic interoperability as key areas requiring further attention