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

The PREVIEW Global Risk Data Platform: a geoportal to serve and share global data on risk to natural hazards

With growing world population and concentration in urban and coastal areas, the exposure to natural hazards is increasing and results in higher risk of human and economic losses. Improving the identification of areas, population and assets potentially exposed to natural hazards is essential to reduce the consequences of such events. Disaster risk is a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Modelling risk at the global level requires accessing and processing a large number of data, from numerous collaborating centres. <br><br> These data need to be easily updated, and there is a need for centralizing access to this information as well as simplifying its use for non GIS specialists. The Hyogo Framework for Action provides the mandate for data sharing, so that governments and international development agencies can take appropriate decision for disaster risk reduction. <br><br> Timely access and easy integration of geospatial data are essential to support efforts in Disaster Risk Reduction. However various issues in data availability, accessibility and integration limit the use of such data. In consequence, a framework that facilitate sharing and exchange of geospatial data on natural hazards should improve decision-making process. The PREVIEW Global Risk Data Platform is a highly interactive web-based GIS portal supported by a Spatial Data Infrastructure that offers free and interoperable access to more than 60 global data sets on nine types of natural hazards (tropical cyclones and related storm surges, drought, earthquakes, biomass fires, floods, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions) and related exposure and risk. This application portrays an easy-to-use online interactive mapping interface so that users can easily work with it and seamlessly integrate data in their own data flow using fully compliant OGC Web Services (OWS)

Incorporating groundwater flow in land surface models: literature review and recommendations for further work

HydroJULES is a NERC-funded project that brings together NERC Centre-Surveys to investigate how to improve the simulation of the whole hydrological cycle in models. BGS’ role is to inform the inclusion of groundwater in both the land surface model Joint UK Land Environment Simulation (JULES) (Best et al., 2011; Clark et al., 2011) and the hydrological model Grid to Grid (e.g. Bell at al, 2009). To facilitate this a literature review has been undertaken of the current methods for inclusion of groundwater in land surface models. The keywords ‘global groundwater model’, ‘land surface models’ and ‘parameterisation’/‘parameterization’ were used to search the literature. Further, the main global datasets of relevance to HydroJULES have been summarised. The main finding is that the LEAF-Hydro approach (Miguez-Macho et al., 2007) is one of the most practical methods in the literature for including groundwater simulation in a land surface model. It is recommended that the LEAF-Hydro approach should be tested against existing BGS groundwater flow models for the UK

UK earthquake monitoring 2002/2003

The aims of the Seismic Monitoring and Information Service are to develop and maintain a national database of seismic activity in the UK for use in seismic hazard assessment, and to provide near-immediate responses to the occurrence, or reported occurrence, of significant events. The British Geological Survey (BGS) has been charged with the task of operating and further developing a uniform network of seismograph stations throughout the UK in order to acquire standardised data on a long-term basis. The project is supported by a group of organisations under the chairmanship of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) with major financial input from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). This Customer Group is listed in Annex A. In the 14th year of the project (April 2002 to March 2003), three subnetworks were upgraded with the installation of data loggers running under the QNX operating system, and a strong motion instrument was installed at Hartland in North Devon. The increasing number of acceleration records being captured by strong motion instruments, is feeding into a better understanding of attenuation and seismic hazard in the UK. Some 235 earthquakes were located by the monitoring network in 2002, with 87 of them having magnitudes of 2.0 ML or greater (Annex B). A total of 42 events in this magnitude category were reported as felt along with 6 smaller ones. Nine strong-motion records were captured from six of the nineteen sites now equipped with strong motion instruments. The largest earthquake in the reporting year, with a magnitude of 4.7 ML, occurred near Dudley on 22 September. It was felt up to 337 km away and over an area of 126,000 km2 (Isoseismal 3 EMS) and reached a maximum intensity of 5 on the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS, Annex H). A peak ground acceleration of 153 mms -2 was recorded on the three-component accelerometer at Keyworth, a distance of 83 km from the epicentre. The focal mechanism indicates strike slip movement along near vertical fault planes striking either NNE-SSW or WNW-ESE. The following month, an earthquake sequence commenced near Manchester with 117 events located, 37 of which were felt by the local population. The sequence caused widespread alarm in the greater Manchester area. The largest offshore earthquake occurred in the central North Sea on 12 October 2002 with a magnitude of 3.5 ML, approximately 70 km east of the Shetland Islands. In addition to earthquakes, BGS frequently receives reports of seismic events felt and heard, which on investigation prove to be sonic booms, spurious or in coalfield areas, where much of the activity is probably induced by mining. During the reporting period, data from six sonic events were processed and reported upon following public concern or media attention. All significant felt events and some others were reported rapidly to the Customer Group through seismic alerts sent by e-mail. The alerts were also published on the Internet (http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk). Monthly seismic bulletins were issued six weeks in arrears and, following revision, were compiled into an annual bulletin (Simpson, 2003). In all these reporting areas, scheduled targets have been met or surpassed. Maintenance and protection of historical archives, another primary goal of the project, has continued and has been enhanced by donations of the Soil Mechanics UK data, from a study in the early 1980’s and the British Association for the Advancement of Science Seismological Committee archives. The environmental monitoring stations at Eskdalemuir and Hartland observatories recorded a variety of parameters throughout the year and the data are now accessible on-line through an Internet connection

Proposed methodology for the development of a mining geohazards data layer

This report describes the work carried out for the Mining Geohazard facet of the GeoHazarDs project up to the 31st March 2003 when development work on the mining aspects of the project were suspended. The work carried out so far has been restricted to England and Wales, once the methodology has been verified the area covered will be extended to incorporate Scotland. Work carried out so far has covered • Simultaneous data capture of local knowledge and national data coverages as a foundation for the project. • Establishment of a GIS framework to hold all data produced and utilised by the project. • Explanations of the data structure from capture and manipulation of the Overview ARUP data layer through to the inclusion of detailed local datasets e.g. the Bath stone information. • Proposed methodology using shafts, veins and formations rated on a series of factors with worked examples illustrating strengths and weaknesses of the methods. • Future modifications to the methodology developed so far, looking at spheres of influence rather than raw or generalised themes

Assembly and concept of a web-based GIS within the paleolimnological project CONTINENT (Lake Baikal, Russia)

Web-based Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are excellent tools within interdisciplinary and multi-national geoscience projects to exchange and visualize project data. The web-based GIS presented in this paper was designed for the paleolimnological project 'High-resolution CONTINENTal paleoclimate record in Lake Baikal' (CONTINENT) (Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia) to allow the interactive handling of spatial data. The GIS database combines project data (core positions, sample positions, thematic maps) with auxiliary spatial data sets that were downloaded from freely available data sources on the world wide web. The reliability of the external data was evaluated and suitable new spatial datasets were processed according to the scientific questions of the project. GIS analysis of the data was used to assist studies on sediment provenance in Lake Baikal, or to help answer questions such as whether the visualization of present-day vegetation distribution and pollen distribution supports the conclusions derived from palynological analyses. The refined geodata are returned back to the scientific community by using online data publication portals. Data were made citeable by assigning persistent identifiers (DOI) and were published through the German National Library for Science and Technology (TIB Hannover, Hannover, Germany).Continen

JUNO Conceptual Design Report

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is proposed to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy using an underground liquid scintillator detector. It is located 53 km away from both Yangjiang and Taishan Nuclear Power Plants in Guangdong, China. The experimental hall, spanning more than 50 meters, is under a granite mountain of over 700 m overburden. Within six years of running, the detection of reactor antineutrinos can resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy at a confidence level of 3-4$\sigma$, and determine neutrino oscillation parameters $\sin^2\theta_{12}$, $\Delta m^2_{21}$, and $|\Delta m^2_{ee}|$ to an accuracy of better than 1%. The JUNO detector can be also used to study terrestrial and extra-terrestrial neutrinos and new physics beyond the Standard Model. The central detector contains 20,000 tons liquid scintillator with an acrylic sphere of 35 m in diameter. $\sim$17,000 508-mm diameter PMTs with high quantum efficiency provide $\sim$75% optical coverage. The current choice of the liquid scintillator is: linear alkyl benzene (LAB) as the solvent, plus PPO as the scintillation fluor and a wavelength-shifter (Bis-MSB). The number of detected photoelectrons per MeV is larger than 1,100 and the energy resolution is expected to be 3% at 1 MeV. The calibration system is designed to deploy multiple sources to cover the entire energy range of reactor antineutrinos, and to achieve a full-volume position coverage inside the detector. The veto system is used for muon detection, muon induced background study and reduction. It consists of a Water Cherenkov detector and a Top Tracker system. The readout system, the detector control system and the offline system insure efficient and stable data acquisition and processing.Comment: 328 pages, 211 figure

Footprint of mining sites along the Migori River using Earth observation

This report describes the findings from the Earth Observation (EO) work undertaken along the Migori River (Kenya). The purpose of this work was to identify potential mining sites and assess any changes though time (e.g., distribution and/or size). We present a new dataset of mining extents derived by visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite images. A total of c.30GB of satellite data from Sentinel-2, Pleiades and SPOT-5 covering c. 26,000 km2 has been analysed for the years 2005-2020 (inclusive). A total of 67 mining sites concentrated over an area of 140 km2 have been mapped: 57 of which from satellite and 10 from a field survey. The results have been used to inform our work on the environmental impacts of mining and measures that can be taken to mitigate against these

Improving the location of induced earthquakes associated with an underground gas storage in the Gulf of Valencia (Spain)

On September 2013, increased seismic activity was recorded near the CASTOR offshore underground gas storage (UGS), in the Gulf of Valencia (Spain). According to the reports by the Spanish Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), more than 550 events occurred during two months, the strongest having a magnitude of Mw = 4.2 which took place two weeks after the gas injection stopped. The low magnitude of the events (with only 17 earthquakes having mbLg greater than 3), the lack of nearby stations, and the inhomogeneous station distribution made the location problem a great challenge. Here we present improved locations for a subset of 161 well recorded events from the earthquake sequence using a probabilistic nonlinear earthquake location method. A new 3-D shear-wave velocity model is also estimated in this work from surface-wave ambient noise tomography. To further improve the locations, waveform cross-correlations are computed at each station for every event pair and new locations are obtained from an inverted set of adjusted travel time picks. The resulting hypocentral solutions show a tighter clustering with respect to the initial locations and they are distributed in a NW-SE direction. Most of the earthquakes are located near the injection well at depths of about 6 km. Our results indicate that the observed seismicity is closely associated with the injection activities at the CASTOR underground gas storage and may have resulted from the reactivation of pre-existing unmapped faults, located a few kilometers below the reservoir. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.This research was partially funded by project MISTERIOS (CGL2013-48601-C2-1-R).Peer reviewe