International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission)
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An Improved Parcel-Based Approach to Bruneian Geocoded Address Database
Get PDFA new framework of Brunei’s national geocoded address database is proposed in this paper. The proposed framework is based on the concept of land parcel-based geocoding and deterministic record linkage, which involves three datasets: the national address database, cadastral polygons and building centroids. The technique used in the development of the framework is an improved version of land parcel-based geocoding with no matching address components since addresses are sourced from the authorised national address database. Addresses are mapped onto the centroids of building polygons resulting in formation of geocoded address points. Cadastral polygons of land parcels act as a mediator to link the address database and the building centroids using its unique key known as ‘lotnum_bc’. The proposed approach has an advantage in terms of fitting into the currently available resources. Furthermore, the proposed approach produces geocoded addresses for buildings when compared with valid addresses from the authorised address database up to the accuracy of parcel-based geocoding level. The deterministic record linkage requires validation of ‘lotnum_bc’ within the address database to ensure such an accuracy. It is expected that the proposed geocoded address database will become an integral part of the spatial data infrastructure of Brunei
Ensemble mean of CMIP5 Sea Surface Temperature projections under climate change and their reference climatology
Get PDFA software was developed in the framework of the GEOWOW project for computing the mean of the output of an ensemble of climate change models from the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparaison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). The ensemble mean for the time projections of the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) under climate change and the corresponding climatology were computed: this paper describes the data set and its properties. The generated datasets are of interest for ecologists willing to assess future changes of marine ecosystems, and can be used under Creative Common Attributions license.
Assessment of Spatial Data Infrastructure from Risk Perspective
Get PDFThis research presents an operational framework to assess organizational Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) from a risk perspective to develop a stable SDI. The core of the framework is constructed based on a survey, fuzzy inference system and cluster analysis, providing quantitative indicators to measure and prioritize the risks to SDI. This framework could mainly contribute to identifying, mitigating or avoiding the potential risks of different aspects of an SDI, such as spatial data and information, organizational and technological aspects. Additionally, it could be considered as an approach that supports multi-view SDI assessment framework toward a more comprehensive assessment of SDIs. A prototype implementation to assess and prioritize the risks of the spatial data and information demonstrates the framework merit, flexibility and usability for assessing the risks of SDI initiatives at different levels, such as organizational, local and national levels; however, the risks and SDIs change over time; thus, the development of stable SDI initiatives depends on a continuous process for coping with the risks
Citizen OBservatory WEB (COBWEB): A Generic Infrastructure Platform to Facilitate the Collection of Citizen Science data for Environmental Monitoring
Get PDFThe mass uptake of internet connected, GPS enabled mobile devices has resulted in a surge of citizens active in making a huge variety of environmental observations. The use and reuse potential of these data is significant but currently compromised by a lack of interoperability. Useable standards either don’t exist, are neglected, poorly understood or tooling is unavailable. Large volumes of data are being created but exist in silos. This is a complex problem requiring sophisticated solutions balanced with the need to present sometimes unsophisticated users with comprehensible and useable software. COBWEB has addressed this challenge by using the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves as a testbed for researching and developing a generic crowdsourcing infrastructure platform for environmental monitoring. The solution arrived at provides tools for the creation of mobile Applications which generate data compliant with open interoperability standards and facilitate integration with Spatial Data Infrastructures. COBWEB is a research project and the components of the COBWEB platform are at different Technology Readiness Levels. This paper outlines how the overall solution was arrived at, describes the main components developed and points to quality assurance, integration of sensors, interoperability and associated standardisation as key areas requiring further attention.
Big Data – a step change for SDI?
Get PDFThe globally hyped notion of Big Data has increasingly influenced scientific and technical debates about the handling and management of geospatial information. Accordingly, we see a need to recall what has happened over the past years, to present the recent Big Data landscape from an infrastructural perspective and to outline the major implications for the SDI community. We primarily conclude that it would be too simple and naïve to consider only the technological aspects that are underpinning geospatial (web) services. Instead, we request SDI researchers, engineers, providers and consumers to develop new methodologies and capacities for dealing with (geo)spatial information as part of broader knowledge infrastructures
A comparative analysis of stakeholder roles in the spatial data infrastructures of South Africa, Namibia and Ghana
Get PDFSpatial data infrastructures (SDIs) at various levels (global, regional national, local and corporate) are being developed by and in countries around the world. We assess here the SDI developments in three African countries, Ghana, Namibia and South Africa, using the SDI models developed by the Commission on Geoinformation Infrastructures and Standards of the International Cartographic Association (ICA), focusing on the stakeholders and their roles: the Policy Maker, Producer, Provider, Broker, Value-Added Reseller (VAR) and End User. SDI development in all three countries has involved a variety of stakeholders and has taken a long time, waxing and waning depending on the availability of funding and the commitment of the stakeholders, particularly the Policy Makers. This research on the similarities and differences of the SDI stakeholders in Ghana, Namibia and South Africa improves the understanding of SDI development and we hope that the results can help other countries with their own SDI developments. Based on our work, we make recommendations for refining the ICA’s stakeholder typology
Towards a Decision Support System for environmental emergencies management in poor settlements in the Kathmandu Valley (Nepal)
Get PDFThe output of the collaboration among ASIA Onlus and the University of Trento (Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering) in the analysis of environmental risk occurrences in the Kathmandu Valley is presented. Aim of the study was to design and implement a prototype of a practical Decision Support System for environmental emergencies management for the informal poor settlements in Kathmandu. Intensive fieldwork and analysis have been carried out to collect the necessary input data for the application. The population of informal urbanized areas has been involved with a participatory approach to discover perception and behaviors during environmental emergency occurrences and to share knowledge and procedures in risk management. The study focuses on one poor-area in the Kathmandu Valley considering flooding, earthquake and fire as environmental risks and aims to be extended to the entire city with the direct involvement of local authorities
INSPIRE Compliance of Public Health Information – A Danish Case Study
Get PDFGeographical information systems have become important to research, planning, commercial businesses, and health organisations in the public and private sectors. Data management and sharing are advantageous considering that repeating tasks is costly. The existence of several versions of the ‘same’ dataset raises concerns over data reliability and authority. Digitisation, which largely involves spatial information, is one approach for sharing data. Thus, digitisation is a vital part of the Danish e-government strategy. A well-functioning spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is an important prerequisite for e-governance. Implementation of the INSPIRE Directive has placed emphasis on SDI within key ministries and has resulted in several national services with free access to spatial data. However, until now, public health information has not been a part of the Danish SDI. In Denmark, several organisations have created independent public health datasets, and the infrastructure of the data is undocumented. Obtaining an overview of the available health data suitable for spatial applications is not easy. Most public health data do not have any spatial references, but it should be linked to features with a spatial reference, for example, administrative units or addresses. According to Danish legislation, health information is private, which imposes great limitations on the use of health data. Human health information should not be isolated, which is more or less the situation today, but rather seamlessly combined with other data. The aim of the current research is to identify available public health data in Denmark, including links to spatially referenced features, and to analyse its compliance with the principles of the INSPIRE Directive. The INSPIRE Directive includes the theme of human health and safety, and it is the basis for identifying available health data
The STIG – A new SDI assessment method
Get PDFTo stimulate the Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) development effectively and efficiently, it is key to assess the progress and benefits of the SDI. Currently, several SDI assessment methods exist. However, these are still in an infant stage and none of these appear to meet the requirements of practitioners. As a result, SDI decision makers are still without any guidance on the performance of their SDI. In the financial sector stress testing is commonly used to assess the sustainability and success of the system. This work presents an early stage of a longer research activity by introducing the subject, underlying concepts and proposing a projection of an assessment method from FI to SDI. While this work already identifies a key scenario to begin with, concrete realisations remain part of the future work. Based on a review of the nature and concept of the SDI and Financial Infrastructure (FI) we conclude that the stress test methodology is likely to be an appealing alternative way of assessing SDIs. The Multi-factor Stress tests (Hypothetical and a Non-systematic Subjective scenario model) are most promising as a basis for SDI assessment. A first draft of the Stress Test for Infrastructure of Geographic information is presented: the STIG.
Describing models in context – A step towards enhanced transparency of scientific processes underpinning policy making
Get PDFThe transparency and reproducibility of scientific evidence underpinning policy is crucial to build and retain trust. This paper describes an application that takes a significant step towards enhanced transparency of scientific models used for policy making: The Modelling Inventory Database and Access Services (MIDAS) developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) describes models in use by the JRC in their scientific context by linking them to other models, to related data, to supported policies and to domain experts. To effectively share the resulting knowledge across different domains and with policy makers within the institution MIDAS represents the resulting complex network of relations and entities through visual aids based on visual analytics and data narratives. This paper describes not just the application in order to contribute to emerging dialogue on best practice for model documentation, it describes the process and main challenges we met with, and the approach taken to overcome the