Seafloor characterization using airborne hyperspectral co-registration procedures independent from attitude and positioning sensors

The advance of remote-sensing technology and data-storage capabilities has progressed in the last decade to commercial multi-sensor data collection. There is a constant need to characterize, quantify and monitor the coastal areas for habitat research and coastal management. In this paper, we present work on seafloor characterization that uses hyperspectral imagery (HSI). The HSI data allows the operator to extend seafloor characterization from multibeam backscatter towards land and thus creates a seamless ocean-to-land characterization of the littoral zone

Developing an open data portal for the ESA climate change initiative

We introduce the rationale for, and architecture of, the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Open Data Portal (http://cci.esa.int/data/). The Open Data Portal hosts a set of richly diverse datasets – 13 “Essential Climate Variables” – from the CCI programme in a consistent and harmonised form and to provides a single point of access for the (>100 TB) data for broad dissemination to an international user community. These data have been produced by a range of different institutions and vary across both scientific and spatio-temporal characteristics. This heterogeneity of the data together with the range of services to be supported presented significant technical challenges. An iterative development methodology was key to tackling these challenges: the system developed exploits a workflow which takes data that conforms to the CCI data specification, ingests it into a managed archive and uses both manual and automatically generated metadata to support data discovery, browse, and delivery services. It utilises both Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) data nodes and the Open Geospatial Consortium Catalogue Service for the Web (OGC-CSW) interface, serving data into both the ESGF and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). A key part of the system is a new vocabulary server, populated with CCI specific terms and relationships which integrates OGC-CSW and ESGF search services together, developed as part of a dialogue between domain scientists and linked data specialists. These services have enabled the development of a unified user interface for graphical search and visualisation – the CCI Open Data Portal Web Presence

Nanoinformatics: developing new computing applications for nanomedicine

Nanoinformatics has recently emerged to address the need of computing applications at the nano level. In this regard, the authors have participated in various initiatives to identify its concepts, foundations and challenges. While nanomaterials open up the possibility for developing new devices in many industrial and scientific areas, they also offer breakthrough perspectives for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this paper, we analyze the different aspects of nanoinformatics and suggest five research topics to help catalyze new research and development in the area, particularly focused on nanomedicine. We also encompass the use of informatics to further the biological and clinical applications of basic research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and the related concept of an extended ?nanotype? to coalesce information related to nanoparticles. We suggest how nanoinformatics could accelerate developments in nanomedicine, similarly to what happened with the Human Genome and other -omics projects, on issues like exchanging modeling and simulation methods and tools, linking toxicity information to clinical and personal databases or developing new approaches for scientific ontologies, among many others

Libraries in transition: evolving the information ecology of the Learning Commons: a sabbatical report

This sabbatical report studied various models in order to determine best practices for design, implementation and service of Leaning Commons, a library service model which functionally and spatially integrates library services, information technology services, and media services to provide a continuum of services to the user

Complete LibTech 2013 Print Program

PDF of the complete print program from the 2013 Library Technology Conferenc

Strengthening Governance of Small-Scale Fisheries: An Initial Assessment of the Theory and Practice

Preferred citation for this report: Basurto, X., Virdin, J., Smith, H. and R. Juskus. 2017. Strengthening Governance of Small-Scale Fisheries: An Initial Assessment of Theory and Practice. Oak Foundation.Often hidden in national statistics, small-scale fisheries have been poorly measured at a global level, and in thepast often ignored in states' policy-making. Yet estimates suggest their aggregate global contribution tonutrition, food security and poverty eradication is massive. The most recent estimates available suggest thatsmall-scale fisheries account for over 90 percent of the world's commercial fishers, processors and otherpersons employed along the value chain, equivalent to over 108 million people. Roughly half areemployed in the ocean and the other half in inland fisheries—making small-scale fisheries far and awaythe ocean's largest employer (greater than oil and gas, shipping, tourism, etc.). This level of activitytranslates into a large portion of the global fish catch: an estimated 46 percent of the total, and 38 percentof the fish caught in the ocean. SSFs are also estimated to provide over half the animal protein intake inmany of the world's least developed countries, and over half of the fish for domestic consumption indeveloping countries more broadly. In sum, in many regions of the world SSFs provide both incomes tohelp reduce poverty and safety nets to help prevent it

A New Zealand case study - Open Source, Open Standards, Open Data

The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is New Zealand’s leading agency providing freshwater, ocean, climate, atmosphere and fisheries related research. Open Source software is widely used internally, both infrastructurally and in desktop systems. In 2011, the New Zealand Government passed “The Declaration on Open and Transparent Government”. This requires central government agencies to make taxpayer funded information freely available to the public, and encourages regional and local government, as well as agencies such as NIWA to comply. NIWA works closely with central and regional government, utilities, NGO’s and primary industry, making information discovery and delivery using common and open standards critical. NIWA is using Open Source applications to meet these open data discovery and delivery requirements. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards compliance ensures interoperability. Standards adopted to date include SFS (Postgis), CSW (Geonetwork), WMS/WFS (Mapserver, Geoserver, Openlayers, Quantum GIS, Quantum Map) and SOS (52 degree N, Quantum Map). Some proprietary applications are also used. These are also OGC compliant and fit within NIWA’s OGC based architecture. This paper describes the role that open source software and open standards play in NIWA’s strategies and architecture for environmental information management, discovery and delivery and gives implementation examples

GeocentraleApps : Practical Approaches to Data Integration for Spatially Enabled Apps.

With modern mobile and internet technologies, spatial data is becoming ubiquitous. In order to realize the vision of a spatially enabled society, however, decision makers in government, public administration, business and society need to understand and actively take into account location as a driver in their decisions. This necessitates decision-support tools that integrate the required spatial and textual data from a variety of sources. GeocentraleApps is a platform for building such modern spatially enabled applications. These applications and the underlying spatial data infrastructures face challenges such as data discovery, matching between disparate data sources, issues with data and service quality, as well as the need for appropriate visualization and presentation. GeocentraleApps meets these challenges by flexibly combining a number of different mechanisms for data integration. This paper presents lessons learned from an analysis of the platform’s data integration approaches with regard to their individual architectures. It points out the advantages and disadvantages of the current solutions and gives an outlook on future developments

Semantic Web meets Web 2.0 (and vice versa): The Value of the Mundane for the Semantic Web

Web 2.0, not the Semantic Web, has become the face of “the next generation Web” among the tech-literate set, and even among many in the various research communities involved in the Web. Perceptions in these communities of what the Semantic Web is (and who is involved in it) are often misinformed if not misguided. In this paper we identify opportunities for Semantic Web activities to connect with the Web 2.0 community; we explore why this connection is of significant benefit to both groups, and identify how these connections open valuable research opportunities “in the real” for the Semantic Web effort