Distributing non-MARC metadata: The CUGIR metadata sharing project

Technical Service departments throughout libraries today are increasingly in the position to create and maintain non-MARC metadata that may be shared among institutions. The Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository (CUGIR) Metadata Sharing Project is an example of a system that manages heterogeneous metadata such as MARC, Dublin Core, and Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM). The mechanics and policies required to exchange MARC records are mature and well understood. In contrast, non-MARC metadata resource sharing is largely uncharted territory. The authors present and discuss the mechanisms they implemented to enable heterogeneous metadata sharing. Now that CUGIR geospatial metadata records are widely distributed, searchers who might not otherwise have access to geospatial information can more easily discover what they need

A Geospatial Semantic Enrichment and Query Service for Geotagged Photographs

With the increasing abundance of technologies and smart devices, equipped with a multitude of sensors for sensing the environment around them, information creation and consumption has now become effortless. This, in particular, is the case for photographs with vast amounts being created and shared every day. For example, at the time of this writing, Instagram users upload 70 million photographs a day. Nevertheless, it still remains a challenge to discover the “right” information for the appropriate purpose. This paper describes an approach to create semantic geospatial metadata for photographs, which can facilitate photograph search and discovery. To achieve this we have developed and implemented a semantic geospatial data model by which a photograph can be enrich with geospatial metadata extracted from several geospatial data sources based on the raw low-level geo-metadata from a smartphone photograph. We present the details of our method and implementation for searching and querying the semantic geospatial metadata repository to enable a user or third party system to find the information they are looking for

Merging Special Collections with GIS Technology to Enhance the User Experience

This analysis evaluates how PhillyHistory.org merged their unique special collection materials with geospatial-based progressive technology to challenge and educate the global community. A new generation of technologically savvy researchers has emerged that expect a more enhanced user experience than earlier generations. To meet these needs, collection managers are collaborating with community and local institutions to increase online access to materials; mixing best metadata practices with custom elements to create map mashups; and merging progressive GIS technology and geospatial based applications with their collections to enhance the user experience. The PhillyHistory.org website was analyzed to explore how they used various geospatial technology to create a new type of digital content management system based on geographical information and make their collections accessible via online software and mobile applications

Global-Scale Resource Survey and Performance Monitoring of Public OGC Web Map Services

One of the most widely-implemented service standards provided by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to the user community is the Web Map Service (WMS). WMS is widely employed globally, but there is limited knowledge of the global distribution, adoption status or the service quality of these online WMS resources. To fill this void, we investigated global WMSs resources and performed distributed performance monitoring of these services. This paper explicates a distributed monitoring framework that was used to monitor 46,296 WMSs continuously for over one year and a crawling method to discover these WMSs. We analyzed server locations, provider types, themes, the spatiotemporal coverage of map layers and the service versions for 41,703 valid WMSs. Furthermore, we appraised the stability and performance of basic operations for 1210 selected WMSs (i.e., GetCapabilities and GetMap). We discuss the major reasons for request errors and performance issues, as well as the relationship between service response times and the spatiotemporal distribution of client monitoring sites. This paper will help service providers, end users and developers of standards to grasp the status of global WMS resources, as well as to understand the adoption status of OGC standards. The conclusions drawn in this paper can benefit geospatial resource discovery, service performance evaluation and guide service performance improvements.Comment: 24 pages; 15 figure

Development of Distributed Research Center for analysis of regional climatic and environmental changes

We present an approach and first results of a collaborative project being carried out by a joint team of researchers from the Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems, Russia and Earth Systems Research Center UNH, USA. Its main objective is development of a hardware and software platform prototype of a Distributed Research Center (DRC) for monitoring and projecting of regional climatic and environmental changes in the Northern extratropical areas. The DRC should provide the specialists working in climate related sciences and decision-makers with accurate and detailed climatic characteristics for the selected area and reliable and affordable tools for their in-depth statistical analysis and studies of the effects of climate change. Within the framework of the project, new approaches to cloud processing and analysis of large geospatial datasets (big geospatial data) inherent to climate change studies are developed and deployed on technical platforms of both institutions. We discuss here the state of the art in this domain, describe web based information-computational systems developed by the partners, justify the methods chosen to reach the project goal, and briefly list the results obtained so far

Bridging the Gap Between Traditional Metadata and the Requirements of an Academic SDI for Interdisciplinary Research

Metadata has long been understood as a fundamental component of any Spatial Data Infrastructure, providing information relating to discovery, evaluation and use of datasets and describing their quality. Having good metadata about a dataset is fundamental to using it correctly and to understanding the implications of issues such as missing data or incorrect attribution on the results obtained for any analysis carried out. Traditionally, spatial data was created by expert users (e.g. national mapping agencies), who created metadata for the data. Increasingly, however, data used in spatial analysis comes from multiple sources and could be captured or used by nonexpert users – for example academic researchers ‐ many of whom are from non‐GIS disciplinary backgrounds, not familiar with metadata and perhaps working in geographically dispersed teams. This paper examines the applicability of metadata in this academic context, using a multi‐national coastal/environmental project as a case study. The work to date highlights a number of suggestions for good practice, issues and research questions relevant to Academic SDI, particularly given the increased levels of research data sharing and reuse required by UK and EU funders

IHO S-100: The New Hydrographic Geospatial Standard for Marine Data and Information

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is an intergovernmental consultative and technical organization established in 1921 to support the safety of navigation, and to contribute to the protection of the marine environment. One of its primary roles is to establish and maintain appropriate standards to assist in the proper and efficient use of hydrographic data and information. This paper describes the new IHO Geospatial Standard for Hydrographic Data to be known as S-100, together with the Geospatial Information Infrastructure (GII) that is in the course of development and implementation by the IHO. In both cases, details have yet to be finalised – for example, the first draft of S-100 – IHO Geospatial Standard for Hydrographic Data was only released for stakeholder comment in March 2008 and S-100 is not expected to be an active standard until at least 2009 or 2010. Nevertheless, the concepts and supporting organisational framework behind the GII are already beginning to take shape. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to what is happening and thereby promote comment and the active involvement of both existing and potential stakeholders in the development and implementation of both the IHO GII and S-100