International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission)
Not a member yet
165 research outputs found
Sort by
The Brokering Approach for Multidisciplinary Interoperability: A Position Paper
Get PDFGlobal sustainability research requires an integrated multi-disciplinary effort underpinned by a cyber infrastructure able to harness big data and heterogeneous information systems across disciplines. Two approaches are possible to achieve the interoperability desired across such systems and data: federating, and brokering. This position paper argues that the former is appropriate to single discipline or domain environments, but that brokering is more scalable and effective in complex multi-disciplinary domains. The paper identifies the principles of brokering, and gives examples of practical implementation relating to data discovery, semantic searching, and data access achieved in the EuroGEOSS project. The value of the EuroGEOSS brokering approach has been demonstrated in extending the data resources available through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) from a few hundred to over 28 million in a matter of 3 months. Brokering offers therefore a real chance to facilitate truly multi-disciplinary big data science and address the scientific challenges of our time
Address Data Sharing: Organizational Motivators and Barriers and their Implications for the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure
Get PDFAn address is a common reference for a multitude of information. In South Africa, multiple address datasets are developed and maintained by various public and private organizations with little or no cooperation on data sharing. We identified motivators and barriers for address data sharing in South Africa through case studies of three typical organizations, which prepare, distribute and use address data. The most significant motivators are improved data quality and an expected return on investment for better decision-making and service delivery. However, the quality of data produced by organizations participating in a data sharing initiative needs to be clearly described and evaluated, in order to avoid prejudiced perceptions of poor quality; and expectations about the timing and value of the expected return on investment from an SDI need to be managed to avoid losing support from stakeholders. Even if organizations have the best data sharing intentions and agreements in place, high staff turnover, which is a considerable problem in South Africa, can jeopardize data sharing. Technical barriers, such as common definitions, models and formats, are less significant and can be overcome by implementing appropriate standards. Public-private partnerships are not given enough consideration in South African data sharing initiatives. Our findings have significant implications for the recently established Committee for Spatial Information (CSI), which is tasked with the implementation of the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI), but they are also of interest to other countries and for other spatial datasets
Creating a Multilingual Geospatial Thesaurus: GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas Translations for Italian, Spanish, French and Slovenian
Get PDFThe Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) are a set of terms of interest for the development of global spatial data infrastructures. These SBAs form a two level hierarchy (categories and subcategories) ranging from natural disasters to human health. The SBAs are used widely by international geographic information sharing initiatives and policy makers.
One of the uses of the SBAs is to allow users to search a spatial data infrastructure for resources that relate to the theme of interest (category or subcategory) selected. However, the SBAs are currently only specified in English. In this paper, we provide a translation of the SBAs into Italian, Spanish, French, and Slovenian in order to support multilingual search, and we underline the issues involved in the translation. Since some of these issues seem to be strictly related to a few discrepancies present in the original version of the SBAs, this paper also proposes a revision of the original set of terms in English
A multidisciplinary Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Mediterranean to support implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive
Get PDFThe Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) adopted in 2008 aims to protect the marine environment through the holistic Ecosystem Approach (EA). The MSFD requires Member States to develop and implement cost-effective measures to achieve and/or maintain “Good Environmental Status” (GEnS). To this end, interested parties require a large amount of data and this data should be appropriately managed. This is particularly true for EA applications, where data can come from diverse sources, in diverse formats, and from several disciplines.
Preliminary steps for supporting reliable multi-disciplinary analysis include data collection, data management, and the implementation of an interoperable sharing system. In an effort to implement this type of multidisciplinary analysis, a working group from the KnowSeas project (www.knowseas.com) created a Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Mediterranean Sea, designed to define and analyze the GEnS concept across various geographical scales. This article describes the implementation of this SDI, demonstrating how an interoperable system can provide strong support in implementing the MSFD under the EA, and how marine spatial planning can assist policymakers in the decision making process
Seamless SDI Design by Using UML Modeling
Get PDFThe integration of marine and land based spatial information will support sustainable management and development of the coastal zone. Therefore, the development of a seamless platform covering the land and marine environments would facilitate more efficient and effective decision-making capabilities for any jurisdiction with land-marine interface.
This paper discusses the potential for developing a seamless platform covering the land, marine and coastal environments as part of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) enabling a more integrated and holistic approach to management of the land-marine interface. It addresses the feasibility of seamless platform towards spatially enabled society and government. Further, it provides an insight to the design and development of the Seamless SDI model by introducing Seamless SDI conceptual model. The Seamless SDI class and its inherited characteristics and properties will be discussed. In addition to the conceptual phase, the development of a Seamless SDI model also consists of two more stages: design phase and implementation phase. The Use Case Diagram and Class Diagram of the Enterprise Viewpoint will be developed. Finally, it highlights the importance of the creation of appropriate Seamless SDI governance structures that are both understood and accepted. This would help to develop an extended framework to support a spatially enabled jurisdiction covering the land-marine interface. Ideally this extended framework would result in harmonised and universal access, sharing and integration of coastal, marine and terrestrial spatial datasets across regions and disciplines
Future SDI – Impulses from Geoinformatics Research and IT Trends
Get PDFThe term Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) was defined in the nineties as a set of policies, technologies and institutional arrangements for improving the availability and accessibility of spatial data and information. SDIs are typically driven by governmental organizations, and thus follow top-down structures based on regulations and agreements. The drawback is that it renders SDIs less easily capable of evolving with new technological trends. While organizations are still struggling to implement SDIs, the World Wide Web is increasingly developing into a Geospatial Web, i.e. one that extensively supports the spatial and temporal aspects of information. This article is our contribution to the discussion on the future technological directions in the field of SDIs. We give a conceptual view of the dynamics of both SDIs and the Geospatial Web. We present a picture of the SDI of the future, one which benefits from these developments, based on an analysis of geoinformatics research topics and current ICT trends. We provide recommendations on how to improve the adaptability and usability of SDIs as to facilitate the assimilation of new ICT developments and to leverage self-reinforcing growth
Recommender-based enhancement of discovery in Geoportals
Get PDFIn many cases web search engines like Google are still used for discovery of geographic base information. This can be explained by the fact that existing approaches for Geo-information retrieval still face significant challenges. Discovery in currently available Geoportals is usually restricted to text-based search based on keywords, title and abstract as well as applying spatial and temporal filters. Furthermore, user context as well as search results of other users are not incorporated. In order to improve the quality of search results we propose to extend the suitable searching matches in Geoportals with user behaviour and to present them as non-directly linked recommendations like in e.g. Amazon's “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” approach. As shown in the proof-of-concept EU FP7 EnerGEO Geoportal, it guarantees results that are not in the data itself but rather derived from the context of other users’ searches and views
Interoperable Search Mechanisms for Web 2.0 Resources
Get PDFWe are currently witnessing ordinary citizens willing to share geospatial information using friendly and easy-to use tools provided by Web 2.0 platforms. These platforms act as social networks describing events with large social impacts. Social networks are filled with volunteered information before, during, and after events that occur near human settlements and urban areas. The amount of this geolocated information is increasing due to the increase of location-aware devices that allow users in the field to share knowledge about an event’s evolution and impact. In order to retrieve this information one interacts with the different search mechanisms provided by various Web 2.0 services. This paper explores how to improve the interoperability of these various Web 2.0 platforms by providing a single service as a unique entry. This paper demonstrates the utility of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Open Search Geospatial and Time specification as an interface for a service that searches, retrieves and aggregates information available in different Web 2.0 services. We present how this information is useful in complementing other official and scientific information sources by providing an alternative, contemporary source of information. We demonstrate this with a proof of concept presented in a forest fire scenario. The intrinsic interoperability of the system is reflected in the collaborations shown with different information systems such as those at the biodiversity and forestry units in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at the Joint Research Centre
Assessment of multi-scale drought datasets to quantify drought severity and impacts in agriculture: a case study for Slovenia
Get PDFReal-time information on the development of the drought conditions is one of the fundamental requisites for reinforcing the drought mitigation and preparedness. The EuroGEOSS interoperability approach promotes the development of monitoring and early warning systems based on real-time information. Different climatic databases, which are based on publicly available meteorological information, are available on real time by climatic research institutions. Commonly, publicly available information has much lower spatial resolution than the existing available national datasets. The capability of low resolution climatic datasets to quantify drought severity and drought impacts is limited and has therefore been analysed in the framework of the EuroGEOSS project. Initial operating capacity, which was built during the project, provided the framework for the analysis. The Standardized Precipitation Index, obtained from the low-resolution precipitation datasets, has been compared to the national high-resolution datasets in Slovenia. The areas of low spatial agreement between different drought datasets were determined. In addition, various statistical measures were used to compare the drought characteristics, originating from different drought datasets. Furthermore, the capabilities of these datasets to identify the drought impacts in different drought prone systems were analyzed. Even though, low resolution datasets failed to realistically detect the spatial patterns of specific drought episodes, they were able to reproduce the general drought temporal variability, especially at the short time scales. The low resolution dataset also provided reliable outputs in terms of knowing the impacts of drought on agriculture
Automatic Generation of Geospatial Metadata for Web Resources
Get PDFWeb resources that are not part of any Spatial Data Infrastructure can be an important source of information. However, the incorporation of Web resources within a Spatial Data Infrastructure requires a significant effort to create metadata. This work presents an extensible architecture for an automatic characterisation of Web resources and a strategy for assignation of their geographic scope. The implemented prototype generates automatically geospatial metadata for Web pages. The metadata model conforms to the Common Element Set, a set of core properties, which is encouraged by the OGC Catalogue Service Specification to permit the minimal implementation of a catalogue service independent of an application profile. The performed experiments consisted in the creation of metadata for Web pages of providers of Geospatial Web resources. The Web pages have been gathered by a Web crawler focused on OGC Web Services. The manual revision of the results has shown that the coverage estimation method applied produces acceptable results for more than 80% of tested Web resources