Challenges and Governance Solutions for Data Science Services based on Open Data and APIs

Peer reviewe

Oceanids C2: An Integrated Command, Control, and Data Infrastructure for the Over-the-Horizon Operation of Marine Autonomous Systems

Long-range Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS), operating beyond the visual line-of-sight of a human pilot or research ship, are creating unprecedented opportunities for oceanographic data collection. Able to operate for up to months at a time, periodically communicating with a remote pilot via satellite, long-range MAS vehicles significantly reduce the need for an expensive research ship presence within the operating area. Heterogeneous fleets of MAS vehicles, operating simultaneously in an area for an extended period of time, are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability to provide an improved composite picture of the marine environment. However, at present, the expansion of the size and complexity of these multi-vehicle operations is limited by a number of factors: (1) custom control-interfaces require pilots to be trained in the use of each individual vehicle, with limited cross-platform standardization; (2) the data produced by each vehicle are typically in a custom vehicle-specific format, making the automated ingestion of observational data for near-real-time analysis and assimilation into operational ocean models very difficult; (3) the majority of MAS vehicles do not provide machine-to-machine interfaces, limiting the development and usage of common piloting tools, multi-vehicle operating strategies, autonomous control algorithms and automated data delivery. In this paper, we describe a novel piloting and data management system (C2) which provides a unified web-based infrastructure for the operation of long-range MAS vehicles within the UK's National Marine Equipment Pool. The system automates the archiving, standardization and delivery of near-real-time science data and associated metadata from the vehicles to end-users and Global Data Assembly Centers mid-mission. Through the use and promotion of standard data formats and machine interfaces throughout the C2 system, we seek to enable future opportunities to collaborate with both the marine science and robotics communities to maximize the delivery of high-quality oceanographic data for world-leading science

A Data-driven, High-performance and Intelligent CyberInfrastructure to Advance Spatial Sciences

abstract: In the field of Geographic Information Science (GIScience), we have witnessed the unprecedented data deluge brought about by the rapid advancement of high-resolution data observing technologies. For example, with the advancement of Earth Observation (EO) technologies, a massive amount of EO data including remote sensing data and other sensor observation data about earthquake, climate, ocean, hydrology, volcano, glacier, etc., are being collected on a daily basis by a wide range of organizations. In addition to the observation data, human-generated data including microblogs, photos, consumption records, evaluations, unstructured webpages and other Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) are incessantly generated and shared on the Internet. Meanwhile, the emerging cyberinfrastructure rapidly increases our capacity for handling such massive data with regard to data collection and management, data integration and interoperability, data transmission and visualization, high-performance computing, etc. Cyberinfrastructure (CI) consists of computing systems, data storage systems, advanced instruments and data repositories, visualization environments, and people, all linked together by software and high-performance networks to improve research productivity and enable breakthroughs that are not otherwise possible. The Geospatial CI (GCI, or CyberGIS), as the synthesis of CI and GIScience has inherent advantages in enabling computationally intensive spatial analysis and modeling (SAM) and collaborative geospatial problem solving and decision making. This dissertation is dedicated to addressing several critical issues and improving the performance of existing methodologies and systems in the field of CyberGIS. My dissertation will include three parts: The first part is focused on developing methodologies to help public researchers find appropriate open geo-spatial datasets from millions of records provided by thousands of organizations scattered around the world efficiently and effectively. Machine learning and semantic search methods will be utilized in this research. The second part develops an interoperable and replicable geoprocessing service by synthesizing the high-performance computing (HPC) environment, the core spatial statistic/analysis algorithms from the widely adopted open source python package – Python Spatial Analysis Library (PySAL), and rich datasets acquired from the first research. The third part is dedicated to studying optimization strategies for feature data transmission and visualization. This study is intended for solving the performance issue in large feature data transmission through the Internet and visualization on the client (browser) side. Taken together, the three parts constitute an endeavor towards the methodological improvement and implementation practice of the data-driven, high-performance and intelligent CI to advance spatial sciences.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Geography 201

Dados científicos para elaborar políticas relativas à biodiversidade, conservação e áreas protegidas sob o Tratado da Antártida

The Antarctic region and its surrounding ocean experience numerous threats including human activities, invasive species, illegal fishing, pollution, and climate change. To help protect the Antarctic environment a system of international governance for the area south of 60°S latitude was created, the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). The ATS is comprised of several agreements including the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR Convention). In Annex 2 to the Protocol on Environmental Protection, Specially Protected Species (SPS) designation is stipulated, a status granted only to the Ross Seal (Ommatophoca rossii). In this thesis, it is intended to (i) understand the conservation and protection status of Antarctic marine species, (ii) to comment on their risk of extinction attributed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and (iii) to determine if any of these species should be included or excluded from the SPS list. Data obtained from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species website was filtered to obtain a list of species whose geographic range overlapped with the Antarctic Treaty area and/or with the CAMLR Convention area and that were classified as “Near Threatened” or above by the IUCN. This resulted in a list of 13 species of which the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) and the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) where chosen to evaluate and compare their conservation status with that of the Ross seal using a list of life-history traits and demographic parameters. The results of this study show that of the 13 species classified as “Near Threatened”, or above by the IUCN none has SPS status. It was also found that the information about this species available in the IUCN is significantly different from that currently available in the scientific literature. Furthermore, it was also found that the Antarctic Treaty only protects around two thirds of marine species located in the Southern Ocean, this could be a concern since the rest of the species are only protected under the CAMLR Convention and cannot be design as SPS if needed. These results allows to recommend that (i) the IUCN should update their categories and criteria in face of the vast and rapid effects that climate change has on Antarctic marine species, (ii) more Antarctic species should have their assessments revised to take into consideration climate change scenarios, (iii) the Antarctic minke whale status should be revised, (iv) updated population and distribution data should be collected regularly to better assess the species conservation status, (v) the status of the Ross seal should be assessed by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) to understand if there is need for an Action Plan and therefore if the species should maintains its SPS status or if the status no longer is needed.A região Antártida e o oceano que a rodeia estão sob inúmeras ameaças, incluindo atividades humanas, espécies invasoras, pesca ilegal, poluição e alterações climáticas. Para ajudar a proteger a região foi criado um sistema de governação internacional para a área a sul de 60°S de latitude, o Sistema do Tratado da Antártida (ATS). O ATS é composto por vários acordos, incluindo o Protocolo para a Proteção Ambiental do Tratado da Antártida e a Convenção para a Conservação da Fauna e da Flora Marinha da Antártida (Convenção CAMLR). No Anexo 2 do Protocolo para a Proteção Ambiental, é estipulada a designação de Espécies Especialmente Protegidas (SPS), um estatuto atualmente concedido apenas à foca Ross (Ommatophoca rossii). Nesta tese, pretende-se (i) compreender o estado de conservação e proteção das espécies marinhas da Antártida, (ii) comentar o seu estado de risco de extinção atribuído pela Lista Vermelha da União Internacional para a Conservação da Natureza (IUCN) e (iii) determinar a necessidade de estas espécies serem, ou não, incluídas na lista de SPS. Dados obtidos a partir do website da Lista Vermelha da IUCN, foram filtrados para obter uma lista de espécies cuja área de distribuição se sobrepõe à área do Tratado da Antártida e/ou à área da Convenção CAMLR e cuja categoria de risco de extinção é igual ou superior a “quase ameaçada”, resultando em 13 espécies. Destas, foram selecionadas duas, o pinguim imperador (Aptenodytes forsteri) e a baleia anã da Antártida (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) cujo estado de conservação foi avaliado e comparado com o da foca Ross, utilizando uma lista de atributos de história de vida e parâmetros demográficos. Os resultados deste estudo mostram que das 13 espécies que têm uma classificação de “quase ameaçadas” ou superior pela IUCN, nenhuma tem o estatuto de SPS. Verificou-se também que a informação da IUCN sobre as três espécies em estudo apresenta diferenças em relação à informação atualmente disponível na literatura científica. É também revelado que o tratado da Antártida protege apenas cerca de dois terços das espécies marinhas localizadas no Oceano Sul, o que pode ser uma preocupação, uma vez que o resto das espécies estão apenas protegidas pela CCAMLR e não podem ser classificadas como Espécies Especialmente Protegidas, se tal for necessário. Face a estes resultados é recomendado que (i) a IUCN atualize as suas categorias e critérios face aos vastos e rápidos efeitos que as alterações climáticas têm nas espécies marinhas da Antártida, (ii) a avaliação do estatuto de conservação de mais espécies da Antártida seja revista tendo em conta os cenários de alterações climáticas, (iii) o estatuto de baleia anã da Antártida seja revisto, (iv) que seja feita uma recolha regular de dados demográficos e de distribuição para permitir uma melhor avaliação do estatuto de conservação das espécies e, (v) o estatuto de Espécie Especialmente Protegida da foca Ross seja avaliado pelo Comité Cientifico para a Investigação Antártida (SCAR) para compreender se há necessidade de um plano de ação e, portanto, a espécie mantém o estatuto de SPS ou se o estatuto já não é necessário.Mestrado em Biologia Marinha Aplicad

Development of an Oil Spill Emergency Mapping System Using Internet GIS

ince the 1970s, environmental monitoring in China has formed a complete web across the country with over 2000 monitoring stations. China State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has published an annual report on the State of the Environment in China since 1989. The Chinese government began to inform the public of environmental quality and major pollution incidents through major media since the late 1990s. However, environmental quality data has not been adequately used because of constraints on access and data sharing. The public and interested groups still lack access to environmental data and information. After examining the current air quality reporting systems of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Ontario Ministry of Environment, reviewing current Internet GIS technology and sample websites, this thesis developed an ArcIMS website to publish air quality data and provide background information to the public for the city of Dalian, China. The purpose is to inform the public of daily air quality and health concerns, and to improve public awareness of environmental issues. A better-informed and educated public will be more likely to voluntarily conserve the environment in the long run. The development of this thesis can satisfy most basic expectations. However, due to the limitation of current Internet products like ArcIMS, symbology and connection with outside databases are not adequate. In addition some regular GIS analysis functions are not available to Internet GIS products. This development can be further improved to serve other environmental data to the public with better interactivity through coding. Similar Internet GIS products can be used in other Chinese cities to report their air quality data. For internal data sharing and reporting within the government, an open, interoperable distributed GIService is recommended, which is believed to be the future of Internet GIS

Pathways: Augmenting interoperability across scholarly repositories

In the emerging eScience environment, repositories of papers, datasets, software, etc., should be the foundation of a global and natively-digital scholarly communications system. The current infrastructure falls far short of this goal. Cross-repository interoperability must be augmented to support the many workflows and value-chains involved in scholarly communication. This will not be achieved through the promotion of single repository architecture or content representation, but instead requires an interoperability framework to connect the many heterogeneous systems that will exist. We present a simple data model and service architecture that augments repository interoperability to enable scholarly value-chains to be implemented. We describe an experiment that demonstrates how the proposed infrastructure can be deployed to implement the workflow involved in the creation of an overlay journal over several different repository systems (Fedora, aDORe, DSpace and arXiv).Comment: 18 pages. Accepted for International Journal on Digital Libraries special issue on Digital Libraries and eScienc

StudMap 3.0 : an interoperable web-based platform for geospatial data offers in academic life

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesGeographic Information Systems has now entered the realm of web and yields for feasible solutions to balance the technology offers with the users’ needs to share, access and explore the massive amounts of geodata available. Challenges occur when moving forward from old 2D platforms towards innovative and integrated webGIS systems that align functionality with the necessity to grant a complete understanding of the surrounding reality. 3D space responds to this but, however, stands only at the beginning of its era and cannot yet reach the development of 2D web integration. Research is now aiming at possible webGIS solutions to adapt to the special structure imposed by 3D data. In this context, this thesis focuses on designing an architecture for 2D and 3D geospatial data integration on a student-oriented web platform. This concept was further delivered and validated through a real case scenario – Studmap 3.0, a webGIS platform to serve the students of the University of Muenster in their academical life. The portal currently grants availability of geospatial data and web services of regional interest in a smart GIS environment that allows access and comparison of official services with own data. The implementation of Studmap 3.0 aided in the continuous improvement of the proposed architecture model and developed under a design science research cycle that reached its end once the final approval of its users was attained via a usability evaluation. Final strengths and drawbacks of the proposed architecture were ultimately identified together with an expert usability evaluation and a lab-based usability test of the resulting portal interface suitability for academic use. The results fall under the acceptable range with an 83.75 score for the System Usability Scale standardized questions when addressed to experts and a score of 83.87 when addressed to students. For the open-ended questions, the interface received an overall positive critique. A summary of future participants’ opinion on the benefits, drawbacks and proposed improvements was also delivered. Peers interested in similar concepts can use both this model and its final remarks as a reference for their work