International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission)
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Towards a User-centric SDI Framework for Historical and Heritage European Landscape Research
Get PDFSpatial scientific research has increasingly become multidisciplinary. The need for different disciplines to share thematic knowledge and information has increased. However, not many Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) have succeeded in facilitating the needs of these multidisciplinary research communities. This article provides a methodological framework for the development of a user-centric SDI and applies it to the academic community that researches the history and heritage of urban and rural landscapes in the Netherlands. In addition, it demonstrates how the users’ objectives and Geospatial Information literacy can be determined, in order to inform the conceptual and technological architecture of a user-centric SDI. The architecture of the historical and heritage landscape SDI focusses on developing a user-centric dashboard, which is placed at the centre of the SDI, and developed as the result of a top-down analysis of the users. The framework and architecture presented function as an example for other third-generation SDIs, and form a reference point for the development of historical and heritage landscape SDIs in Europe
Linking spatial data: automated conversion of geo-information models and GML data to RDF
No full textLinked data provide an alternative route for the dissemination of spatial information compared to the traditional SOA-based SDI approach. The traditional approach has provided a wealth of standardized and structured location data based on Geography Markup Language (GML), while linked data provides an open mechanism for sharing and combining this data with anything, once the data is available as linked data. The first part of the paper focuses on deriving linked data from GML data. In the second part, we study how more meaningful data, expressed in Resource Description Framework (RDF) can be created from GML, given the underlying information model, by transforming it from Unified Modeling Language (UML) to Web Ontology Language (OWL)
Crowdsource Approach for Mapping of Illegal Dumps in the Czech Republic
Get PDFThis paper describes the environmental project called www.ZmapujTo.cz which is intended to fight against illegal waste dumps in the Czech Republic with the use of geographic information systems (GIS). A smartphone/tablet GIS reporting application ZmapujTo has been developed. This freely available mobile application makes it possible to report illegal dumps and also overloaded containers of municipal waste. The project ZmapujTo is intended for public institutions, municipalities, all people who do not like illegal dumping in their cities, villages, countryside and forests, especially if they want to do something against people's bad environmental behaviour. Users of this mobile GIS application can report an illegal dump quickly and easily thanks to the use of their smartphones/tablets. Therefore, anybody can use the interactive public website form to report an illegal dump in the Czech Republic. The objective of this project is to contribute to the solution of the problem of environmental pollution by illegal dumps in the Czech Republic by making available a modern, effective and widespread GIS platform for their monitoring
Comparison of Different Caching Techniques for High-Performance Web Map Services
Get PDFThe demand for digital maps on the Internet has increased considerably in the last few years. Therefore the performance of Web Mapping Services is becoming more and more important. This article introduces different caching techniques for high performance transfer of data using standardized Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Services (WMS). It describes and examines different caching mechanisms based on tile caching, reverse proxy caching and web application acceleration. Furthermore it demonstrates benefits, problems and how data needs to be modified for different caching techniques. The article outlines the advantages of WMS caching systems and investigates the behaviour of these systems with an increasing number of concurrent requests using benchmark tests. This includes the examination of applicability of the INSPIRE service level agreement for view services
Greek National Spatial Data Infrastructure. Attempts towards design and implementation.
Get PDFSpatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a long term, evolving process without a priori known results. Different countries try to develop a National SDI (NSDI) not always with a successful outcome. Although the successes are presented thoroughly (e.g. SDI best practice), it is equally important to highlight unsuccessful efforts in order to comprehensively examine different aspects of the SDI development and to acquire a more holistic approach and integrated perspective on the subject. The first Greek NSDI effort that is presented in this paper is an example of an unfruitful first attempt. Examination and assessment of this effort, lead to interesting and hopefully constructive conclusions towards a broader understanding of the SDI development. In order this first effort to be assessed, three time periods in the Greek spatial evolution are determined. These periods seem to have affected each other. People, concepts and inadequacies of a period appeared also during the next one, forming a kind of pattern. The discussion of aspects that influenced and characterized this effort reveal the multiple difficulties and problems the Greek NSDI development had to face
INSPIRE Geology Data Model Implementation in Digital Geological Map Production in Portugal: A Preliminary Approach
Get PDFThis work describes the implementation of the INSPIRE Geology data model (INSPIRE GE) for digital geological map production at the Portuguese Laboratory of Energy and Geology (LNEG). The process of harmonising geological mapping data involves the restructuring of the LNEG’s current data model into the extended INSPIRE GE, which aims a more efficient, interoperable and harmonized management data structure. The methodology, which is compliant with the Portuguese geology requirements, was applied to the Rosário antiform, a geological structure located in the Iberian Pyrite Belt. Three maps were produced: (i) a geologic map representing the geological units organized according to their spatial distribution and age; (ii) a lithologic map representing the most important rock types; and (iii) an age map representing the lower boundary age of the geological units. This study improves current LNEG's data structuring and geological map production flow. It also shows that the INSPIRE GE implementation is feasible and that it constitutes the first step toward data harmonization and interoperability in LNEG geological mapping activities
Okavango Collections: Sharing Environmental Information Resources of the Cubango-Okavango River Basin
Get PDFThis paper provides an account of the development of the web-based Okavango Collections (OC) metadata catalogue. In light of climate change, growing population, and developmental pressures on the transboundary Cubango-Okavango river basin, there is an urgent need to ensure timely access to reliable environmental data and information for environmental decision-making. Commissioned by the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM), OC provides a searchable directory of collections of data, data sets, image archives, books, reports and other information available both in the region and in other parts of the world. It is based on GeoNetwork Opensource, a standards-based and open source web catalogue, implementing international standards for metadata content and system interoperability. Its main features include a geospatial catalogue application, providing metadata editing and advanced search and discovery capabilities, and an integrated map viewer. Key development challenges included the creation of a regional geographic names thesaurus as a controlled vocabulary for place keywords, an email notification system to facilitate ongoing maintenance of metadata records, improved contacts management, and enhanced search and discovery functionality. In addition to providing an important environmental information service for the Cubango-Okavango region, and a key tool to facilitate negotiation of river basin data sharing among the riparian states, OC potentially offers a model system for implementation elsewhere
Spatial Metadata Automation: A Key to Spatially Enabling Platform
Get PDFMetadata is a vital tool for any spatially enabling platform, and helps the users to share, discover, assess and access data and services. However, the spatial industry faces different issues and challenges regarding metadata generation, updating and improvement; which could affect the quality of this crucial component of any sharing platform. The main issue is the lack of an appropriate approach to the automated metadata generating and updating process. Metadata and related spatial data are often managed and maintained separately. This issue involves different aspects, including the lack of proper methodologies to integrate metadata and spatial data in a common environment, the generation and updating of metadata outside the spatial dataset lifecycle and the dependency of metadata creation on the metadata authors’ knowledge of the dataset. In addition, the current data discovery services are not user-friendly and sufficiently efficient to serve the end users to easily find the most appropriate datasets and services to meet their needs in a spatially enabling platform.
In response to these issues, this paper presents the new approaches to create, update and improve the content of metadata in an automated fashion to facilitate metadata management. The first approach relates to process-based metadata entry which aims at creating the ISO 19115:2003 metadata elements in parallel with the dataset lifecycle. This approach has the potential to overcome the problem of missing or incomplete metadata through identifying the stage to generate and update metadata within the dataset lifecycle.
Also, the paper introduces a new synchronization approach to automate the spatial metadata updating process. This approach would aid the data custodians to update metadata on the fly whenever the dataset is modified. The synchronization is based on the GML technology to couple dataset and metadata and to exchange them over the Web. The paper also presents and discusses the prototype system implemented and based on the conceptual design of the automatic metadata updating. This system has been integrated with the GeoNetwork opensource and is now up and running.
Finally, the paper demonstrates the prototype systems which have been designed and developed following the automatic metadata enrichment approach. This approach is based on Web 2.0 and Folksonomy concept and involves improving the content of descriptive keyword (as a metadata element) which is the first gateway for discovering existing datasets in a sharing platform. The prototype systems have been implemented within two different environments: Model Information Knowledge Environment (MIKE) and GeoNetwork opensource
Brave New Open Data World?
Get PDFThere is a growing tendency to release all sorts of public data on the Internet. The greater availability of interoperable public data catalyses secondary use of such data, which leads to growth of information industries and better government transparency. Open data policies may, nevertheless, be in conflict with the individual’s right to information privacy as protected by the Data Protection Directive. This directive sets rules to the processing of personal data in the European Union. Technological developments and the increasing amount of publicly available data are, however, blurring the lines between non-personal and personal data. Open data may not seem to be personal data on first glance especially when it is anonymised or aggregated. However, it may become personal data by combining it with other publicly available data or when it is de-anonymised. In this article, we argue that these developments extend the reach of European Union privacy regulation to open data, which may obstruct the implementation of open data policies in the European Union
Analysis of quality metadata in the GEOSS Clearinghouse
Get PDFThe Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Clearinghouse is part of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) that supports the discovery of the data made available by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) members and participant organizations in GEOSS. It also acts as a unified metadata catalogue that stores complete metadata records, not only about datasets but also for other kinds of components and services. By exploring these records, users often try to find the fit-for-use data. Quality indicators and provenance are included in the metadata and are potentially useful variables that allow users to make an informed decision avoiding to download and to assess the data themselves. However, no previous studies have been made on the completeness and correctness of the metadata records in the Clearinghouse. The objective of this paper is to analyze the data quality information distributed by the GEOSS Clearinghouse. The aim is to quantify its completeness and to provide clues on how the current status of the Clearinghouse could be improved and how useful quality aware tools could be. The methodology used in the current analysis consists in first harvesting of the Clearinghouse and then quantify the quality information found in 97203 metadata records, by using a semi-automatic approach. The results reveal that the inclusion of quality information on metadata records is not rare: 19.66% of the metadata records contain some quality element. However, this is not general enough and several aspects could be improved. For instance, 77.78% of quantitative measures lack measure units. When quality indicators are not sufficient, the lineage metadata information could be used to mitigate this situation by analysing the process steps and sources used to create a dataset. However, even though lineage is reported in 15.55% of the records, only 1.27% of the cases return a complete list of process steps with sources. This paper also provides indications on what is lacking in the current producer metadata model and, detected a gap in usage or user feedback metadata in GEOSS. Moreover, information extracted from GeoViQua interviews with users indicates that they value informal comments and user feedback on datasets as a complement of the more formal producer-oriented metadata description of the data. Although, many efforts within the scientific community and the Quality Assurance Framework for Earth Observation (QA4EO) group have been invested in describing how to parameterize data quality and uncertainty, we conclude that still extra work can be done to provide complete quality information in the metadata catalogues. In brief, since the GEOSS Clearinghouse references data from the most important agencies and research organizations, the results presented in this paper provide a perspective on how well quality is disseminated in the Earth observation community in general