New Generation Sensor Web Enablement

Many sensor networks have been deployed to monitor Earth’s environment, and more will follow in the future. Environmental sensors have improved continuously by becoming smaller, cheaper, and more intelligent. Due to the large number of sensor manufacturers and differing accompanying protocols, integrating diverse sensors into observation systems is not straightforward. A coherent infrastructure is needed to treat sensors in an interoperable, platform-independent and uniform way. The concept of the Sensor Web reflects such a kind of infrastructure for sharing, finding, and accessing sensors and their data across different applications. It hides the heterogeneous sensor hardware and communication protocols from the applications built on top of it. The Sensor Web Enablement initiative of the Open Geospatial Consortium standardizes web service interfaces and data encodings which can be used as building blocks for a Sensor Web. This article illustrates and analyzes the recent developments of the new generation of the Sensor Web Enablement specification framework. Further, we relate the Sensor Web to other emerging concepts such as the Web of Things and point out challenges and resulting future work topics for research on Sensor Web Enablement

Search improvement within the geospatial web in the context of spatial data infrastructures

El trabajo desarrollado en esta tesis doctoral demuestra que es posible mejorar la búsqueda en el contexto de las Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales mediante la aplicación de técnicas y buenas prácticas de otras comunidades científicas, especialmente de las comunidades de la Web y de la Web Semántica (por ejemplo, Linked Data). El uso de las descripciones semánticas y las aproximaciones basadas en el contenido publicado por la comunidad geoespacial pueden ayudar en la búsqueda de información sobre los fenómenos geográficos, y en la búsqueda de recursos geoespaciales en general. El trabajo comienza con un análisis de una aproximación para mejorar la búsqueda de las entidades geoespaciales desde la perspectiva de geocodificación tradicional. La arquitectura de geocodificación compuesta propuesta en este trabajo asegura una mejora de los resultados de geocodificación gracias a la utilización de diferentes proveedores de información geográfica. En este enfoque, el uso de patrones estructurales de diseño y ontologías en esta aproximación permite una arquitectura avanzada en términos de extensibilidad, flexibilidad y adaptabilidad. Además, una arquitectura basada en la selección de servicio de geocodificación permite el desarrollo de una metodología de la georreferenciación de diversos tipos de información geográfica (por ejemplo, direcciones o puntos de interés). A continuación, se presentan dos aplicaciones representativas que requieren una caracterización semántica adicional de los recursos geoespaciales. El enfoque propuesto en este trabajo utiliza contenidos basados en heurísticas para el muestreo de un conjunto de recursos geopesaciales. La primera parte se dedica a la idea de la abstracción de un fenómeno geográfico de su definición espacial. La investigación muestra que las buenas prácticas de la Web Semántica se puede reutilizar en el ámbito de una Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales para describir los servicios geoespaciales estandarizados por Open Geospatial Consortium por medio de geoidentificadores (es decir, por medio de las entidades de una ontología geográfica). La segunda parte de este capítulo desglosa la aquitectura y componentes de un servicio de geoprocesamiento para la identificación automática de ortoimágenes ofrecidas a través de un servicio estándar de publicación de mapas (es decir, los servicios que siguen la especificación OGC Web Map Service). Como resultado de este trabajo se ha propuesto un método para la identificación de los mapas ofrecidos por un Web Map Service que son ortoimágenes. A continuación, el trabajo se dedica al análisis de cuestiones relacionadas con la creación de los metadatos de recursos de la Web en el contexto del dominio geográfico. Este trabajo propone una arquitectura para la generación automática de conocimiento geográfico de los recursos Web. Ha sido necesario desarrollar un método para la estimación de la cobertura geográfica de las páginas Web. Las heurísticas propuestas están basadas en el contenido publicado por os proveedores de información geográfica. El prototipo desarrollado es capaz de generar metadatos. El modelo generado contiene el conjunto mínimo recomendado de elementos requeridos por un catálogo que sigue especificación OGC Catalogue Service for the Web, el estandar recomendado por deiferentes Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales (por ejemplo, the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)). Además, este estudio determina algunas características de la Web Geoespacial actual. En primer lugar, ofrece algunas características del mercado de los proveedores de los recursos Web de la información geográfica. Este estudio revela algunas prácticas de la comunidad geoespacial en la producción de metadatos de las páginas Web, en particular, la falta de metadatos geográficos. Todo lo anterior es la base del estudio de la cuestión del apoyo a los usuarios no expertos en la búsqueda de recursos de la Web Geoespacial. El motor de búsqueda dedicado a la Web Geoespacial propuesto en este trabajo es capaz de usar como base un motor de búsqueda existente. Por otro lado, da soporte a la búsqueda exploratoria de los recursos geoespaciales descubiertos en la Web. El experimento sobre la precisión y la recuperación ha demostrado que el prototipo desarrollado en este trabajo es al menos tan bueno como el motor de búsqueda remoto. Un estudio dedicado a la utilidad del sistema indica que incluso los no expertos pueden realizar una tarea de búsqueda con resultados satisfactorios

Service-oriented design of environmental information systems

Service-orientation has an increasing impact upon the design process and the architecture of environmental information systems. This thesis specifies the SERVUS design methodology for geospatial applications based upon standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium. SERVUS guides the system architect to rephrase use case requirements as a network of semantically-annotated requested resources and to iteratively match them with offered resources that mirror the capabilities of existing services

Development of an interface for ontology‐based transformation between features of different types

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesImplementation of the INSPIRE directive, the spatial data infrastructure for the Europe, has created a necessity for easy and convenient conversion between different models of geospatial data. Data model transformation across heterogeneous systems can be hampered by differences in terminology and conceptualization, particularly when multiple communities are involved. Requirement in current situation is an interface facilitating transformation of data to a desired format and immediate use of the data, which are collected from different formats and models. Ontology-aware software with shared understanding of concepts, enable users to interact with geospatial data models. Thus use of ontologies could make a friendly environment to the user in translating the data conveniently. Feature type ontologies, along with annotations are provided from an ongoing project at the Institute for Geoinformatics (IfGI, University of Münster, Germany), in order to reconcile differences in semantics. FME workbench provides a successful environment to execute set of rules for the data model transformation using a mapping file, which can be developed externally. The thesis work developed a user interface that includes operations to define rules for the translation of geospatial data, from one model to another. Annotated feature types are taken as input, and the results are encoded as FME Mapping files. The overall methodology involves three phases.(...

From Here to Eternity: An Experiment Applying the e-Framework Infrastructure for Education and Research and the SUMO Ontology to Standards-based Geospatial Web Services

A number of efforts have been made in recent years to define standards for the description of resources (including web services) in services oriented architectures. These standards often use description logic ontologies (for example, OWL-S) and are intended to be machine-readable. They have been applied to geospatial web services to describe the functions that those services perform in a way that can be automatically interpreted by systems. By contrast, little effort has gone into the development of human readable descriptions of resources in a services oriented architecture, other than using unstructured natural language. e-Framework is an infrastructure for the higher education environment that provides a typology of human-readable artefacts that can be used to describe resources, and provides an internal structure for those artefacts. e-Framework has thus far not been used with geospatial information even though geospatial information has a number of important roles in education and research, and has a well-organised community of users and creators. This paper applies the e-Framework infrastructure to OGC web services, and also recommends the refinement of e-Framework with the use of the SUMO Upper Level Ontology to define Service Genres, the most abstract level of artefacts in e-Framework. It then illustrates the ways in which the Open Geospatial Consortium standards and specifications may be described in e-Framework. The work evaluates SUMO for e-Framework purposes, finding that its use for Service Genres is possible and offers a number of gains. It also evaluates e-Framework from a geospatial perspective, and shows that e-Framework’s constraints on resource descriptions do not suit the large and complex nature of geospatial web services

LifeWatch deliverable 5.1.3: Technical construction plan –Reference Model

The LifeWatch Reference Model (LifeWatch-RM) provides a common conceptual framework for understanding the significant relations and key characteristics of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) elements of LifeWatch that should appear consistently across different implementations. Its intention is to represent a common view of the ICT dimension between all those involved in and contributing to the LifeWatch Research Infrastructure and to provide guidelines for the construction and management process. The LifeWatch-RM defines a number of components and architectural concepts as a basis for the future LifeWatch Architecture. It is neither a blueprint nor does it define a technological mapping, but identifies some key aspects and components that should be present in the final implementation of the LifeWatch System

Metadata management services for spatial data infrastructure

Am Geographischen Institut der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin wird täglich mit räumlichen Daten gearbeitet. Die erfolgreiche Arbeit von Forschungsgruppen, Lehrtätigen und Studenten basiert auf brauchbaren Datengrundlagen. Um diese Fülle von Ressourcen überschaubar zu organisieren wird seit einigen Jahren eine Geodateninfrastruktur unterhalten. Sie verfügt - neben anderen Anwendungen - über ein Geoportal, das dem Benutzer erlaubt auf die Geodatenbanken des Instituts zuzugreifen. Die Geodateninfrastruktur erlaubt dem Benutzer Ressourcen institutsweit zu suchen, anzuzeigen und (wieder) zu benutzen. Durch dieses kooperative Netzwerk sollen Synergieeffekte erzielt werden da Beschaffungskosten für Neudaten entfallen. Zusätzlich kann die Geodateninfrastruktur Lehrtätigkeit unterstützen und als praktisches Beispiel in den Lehrplan integriert werden. Kernstück dieses virtuellen Netzwerks sind Metadaten. Sie ermöglichen die umfassende Beschreibung der Ressourcen des Instituts, sowie Suche und Identifikation von Ressourcen durch das Geoportal. Der Metadaten Katalog des Instituts dient der Organisation dieser Metadaten in standardisierter Form. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, ein neues Metadaten Management Systems für die Geodateninfrastruktur des Geographischen Instituts zu implementieren. Der am Ende stehende funktionsfähige Prototyp soll vom Leitbild des „user-centric SDI“ Ansatzes geprägt sein. Dieses Konzept repräsentiert die nunmehr dritte Generation von Geodatenbanken und rückt den Benutzer in das Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit - und dies von Beginn des Implementierungsprozesses an. Der gesamte Arbeitsfluss soll demzufolge stark vom Feedback der späteren Benutzer und deren Anforderungen geprägt sein. Mit „Joint Application Design“ und „Rapid Prototyping“ wurden Methoden gewählt, die diese Art von Software Entwicklung unter aktivem Nutzerengagement unterstützen. Als Folge nehmen Nutzerbefragungen, Präsentations- und Informationsveranstaltungen sowie Fragebogendesign und Auswertung in dieser Arbeit prominente Stellungen ein. Viele Weichen in der Softwareentwicklung wurden nach Auswertung von Nutzerbefragungen gestellt. Im Vorfeld wurde eine Unterteilung der Institutsmitglieder in „Experten“ und (potentielle zukünftige) „Nutzer“ getroffen. Wenige Experten wurden für grundlegende Entscheidungen herangezogen; die Nutzergemeinschaft wurde zu Informationsveranstaltungen eingeladen und mittels Fragebogen zum Thema Interface Design und der optimalen Bedienbarkeit des Geoportals befragt. Diese Veranstaltungen sollten über die Vorteile der Geodateninfrastruktur informieren, und durch aktive Beteiligung die Nutzergemeinschaft zu stärken und zu vergrößern. Jede GDI basiert auf Kommunikations- und Kooperationsprozessen, weshalb diese Aktivitäten Garanten für eine langfristig erfolgreiche Initiative darstellen. Eine vorangegangene Software Evaluation ließ, unter Berücksichtigung der gesammelten Nutzeranforderungen, für das Softwarepacket GeoNetwork open source entscheiden. Die Technische Entwicklung und die Gestaltung der Computer-Nutzer-Schnittstellen des GeoNetwork Prototypen wurden in sich wiederholenden Feedbackschleifen geplant. Abwechselnd soll die Generierung neuer Prototypen auf erneute Präsentationen inklusive Nutzerbefragungen folgen. Die Ergebnisse dieser Befragungen geben die Richtung für weitere Arbeit am Prototyp vor. Als methodischer Rahmen diente der „Rapid Prototyping“ Ansatz. Diskussionen in der Runde der Experten sowie die ständige Einbindung dieser in wichtige Entscheidungen rund um die GDI soll Teambildung fördern und die Mitglieder der Expertenrunde an das Projekt binden. Sie sind es, die später Verantwortlichkeiten für Metadaten übernehmen und delegieren können und damit einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Wartung und Instanthaltung der Infrastruktur leisten. Vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt Planung, Umsetzung und Ergebnis des Implementierungsprozesses dieses Prototyps unter Anwendung spezieller, auf Benutzer Partizipation und Feedback aufbauender Methoden. Es wird am Beispiel der speziellen Fallstudie diskutiert wie weit die gewählten Methoden im Sinne des Konzept des „unser-centric SDI“ eingesetzt werden und wie diese Praxis nachhaltig die Benutzerzufriedenheit steigert und zum Erfolg einer GDI langfristig beiträgt. Die Arbeit schließt mit einem Ausblick in die nahe und ferne Zukunft der möglichen Weiterentwicklung der GDI des Geographischen Instituts.Working with spatial data is “daily bread” at the Department of Geography at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. The success of research projects, staff members’ work and students’ university routines depends on high quality data and resources. A couple of years ago the department’s own Spatial Data Infrastructure was founded to organize and publish these resources and corresponding metadata. This virtual infrastructure offers a geoportal that allows the user to discover, visualize and (re-)use the department’s spatial and aspatial resources. Maintaining this cooperative network aims at synergy effects like reduction of costs for the acquirement of new resources. Moreover, SDI can be used to support teaching activities and serve as a practical example in the curriculum. Central for SDI are metadata; they represent a comprehensive structured description of the department’s resources and are a core piece of the geoportal’s functionalities to discover and identify data. The department’s Metadata Catalogue serves as a container for structured organization of metadata. This project goal is the implementation of a new metadata management system for the department’s Spatial Data Infrastructure. The resulting prototype should be developed following the user-centric SDI (third generation SDI) paradigm. This approach considers the (possible future) user community’s requirements and feedback as highly important and suggests an implementation process with continuous user participation. Both methods, “Joint Application Design” and “Rapid Prototyping”, rely on active user participation and were chosen and applied to support this concept. As a consequence, user assessments, information and dissemination activities and design and analysis of questionnaires occupied a prominent part of this study; the most important decisions during the implementation process were based on user feedback. In the forefront, users were distinguished between (possible future) “users” and “experts”. A small group of experts was asked to discuss and make fundamental decisions about the department’s SDI development, and the community of users was invited to informative events and to participate by filling out a questionnaire about the geoportal’s usability and interface design. These events were expected to raise user interest, foster a user community and user participation and to provide information about usage and benefits of the department’s SDI. SDI, as a communication and cooperation network, benefits from these activities in the long run. A preliminary software evaluation and the assessment of user requirements led to the decision that GeoNetwork open source was the most promising software to replace the department’s current metadata management system. Technical development and implementation of GeoNetwork prototype and its interfaces was accompanied by continuous feedback loops in accordance with the concept of “Rapid Prototyping”. The development of each new version of the prototype is followed by the presentation to users and collection of feedback. This feedback sets the agenda for further developments. Members of the expert group were constantly invited to participate in the SDI implementation process. Discussions regarding elemental SDI issues should foster team building and should bind experts to the project. They are the ones who are needed to take over custodianship for resources and metadata and to therefore play central roles in maintaining the department’s SDI. The thesis at hand describes the planning, design, realization and results of the implementation of a metadata management system prototype, by facilitating special, user participation methods. Using the example of this special case it discusses the combination of these methods with a user-centric SDI approach and implications in terms of user satisfaction and long-term SDI success. The final chapter offers a discussion about the implementation process and closes with an outlook on the possible short and long term development of the department of Geography’s SDI node

Next Generation of Spatial Data Infrastructure: Lessons from Linked Data implementations across Europe

The need for integration of geospatial data across national borders poses questions on how to overcome technical and organizational barriers between national mapping agencies. Existing National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDIs) inherited heterogeneous technology stacks and user cultures. Example integration solutions are based on cascading data services on the Web using open standards. However, this approach is often cumbersome since it requires substantial efforts aimed at harmonisation of data structures and semantics of the content between NSDIs. In contrast, the Linked Data technology as an innovative approach for publishing heterogeneous data sources on the Web is able to transcend the traditional confines of separate databases, as well as, the confines of separate institutions - keeping existing infrastructures intact. Moreover, exposing national data as Linked Data on the Web makes it a part of the Semantic Web. This allows shifting focus from collection and dissemination of data to meaningful data consumption. Here, we present and discuss the results of the Open European Location Services project, a collaboration between the national mapping agencies of Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain which is aimed at demonstrating the capabilities of Linked Data technology in the context of Pan-European geospatial data provision

Exploring multi-granular documentation strategies for the representation, discovery and use of geographic information

This thesis explores how digital representations of geography and Geographic Information (GI) may be described, and how these descriptions facilitate the use of the resources they depict. More specifically, it critically examines existing geospatial documentation practices and aims to identify opportunities for refinement therein, whether when used to signpost those data assets documented, for managing and maintaining information assets, or to assist in resource interpretation and discrimination. Documentation of GI can therefore facilitate its utilisation; it can be reasonably expected that by refining documentation practices, GI hold the potential for being better exploited. The underpinning theme connecting the individual papers of the thesis is one of multi-granular documentation. GI may be recorded at varying degrees of granularity, and yet traditional documentation efforts have predominantly focussed on a solitary level (that of the geospatial data layer). Developing documentation practices to account for other granularities permits the description of GI at different levels of detail and can further assist in realising its potential through better discovery, interpretation and use. One of the aims of the current work is to establish the merit of such multi-granular practices. Over the course of four research papers and a short research article, proprietary as well as open source software approaches are accordingly presented and provide proof-of-concept and conceptual solutions that aim to enhance GI utilisation through improved documentation practices. Presented in the context of an existing body of research, the proposed approaches focus on the technological infrastructure supporting data discovery, the automation of documentation processes and the implications of describing geospatial information resources of varying granularity. Each paper successively contributes to the notion that geospatial resources are potentially better exploited when documentation practices account for the multi-granular aspects of GI, and the varying ways in which such documentation may be used. In establishing the merit of multi-granular documentation, it is nevertheless recognised in the current work that instituting a comprehensive documentation strategy at several granularities may be unrealistic for some geospatial applications. Pragmatically, the level of effort required would be excessive, making universal adoption impractical. Considering however the ever-expanding volumes of geospatial data gathered and the demand for ways of managing and maintaining the usefulness of potentially unwieldy repositories, improved documentation practices are required. A system of hierarchical documentation, of self-documenting information, would provide for information discovery and retrieval from such expanding resource pools at multiple granularities, improve the accessibility of GI and ultimately, its utilisation