Building the IDECi-UIB: the scientific spatial data infrastructure node for the Balearic Islands University

Technical and methodological enhancements in Information Technologies (IT) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has permitted the growth in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) performance. In this way, their uses and applications have grown very rapidly. In the scientific and educational working fields, different institutions and organisations have bet for its use enforcing information exchange that allows researchers to improve their studies as well as give a better dissemination within the scientific community. Therefore, the GIS and Remote Sensing Service (SSIGT) at the Balearic Islands University (UIB) has decided to build and launch its own SDI to serve scientific Geo-Information (GI) throughout the Balearic Islands society focussing on the university community. By these means it intends to boost the development of research and education focusing on the field of spatial information. This article tries to explain the background ideas that form the basic concept of the scientific SDI related to the concepts of e-Science and e-Research. Finally, it explains how these ideas are taken into practice into the new University Scientific SDI

AQUAGRID: an extensible platform for collaborative problem solving in groundwater protection

AQUAGRID is the subsurface hydrology computational service of the Sardinian GRIDA3 infrastructure, designed to deliver complex environmental applications via a user-friendly Web portal. The service aims to provide to water professionals integrated modeling tools to solve water resources management problems and aid decision making for contaminated soil and groundwater. In this paper, the AQUAGRID application concept and enabling technologies are illustrated. At the heart of the service are the computational models to simulate complex and large groundwater flow and contaminant transport problems and geochemical speciation. AQUAGRID is built on top of compute-Grid technologies by means of the EnginFrame Grid framework. Distributed data management is provided by the Storage Resource Broker data-Grid middleware. The resulting environment allows end-users to perform groundwater simulations and to visualize and interact with their results, using graphs, 3D images and annotated maps. The problem solving capability of the platform is demonstrated using the results of two case studies deployed

Arquitectura GRID Computing como medio para la democratización e integración de datos LiDAR

El procesamiento masivo de información obtenida a través de sensores LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) excede fácilmente las posibilidades de procesamiento de los ordenadores convencionales. Actualmente, organizaciones públicas y privadas acumulan grandes colecciones de datos derivados de este tipo de sensor sin que los usuarios puedan tener acceso a ellos de manera ágil y eficiente. El elevado coste de las licencias y la complejidad del software necesario para procesar un conjunto de datos derivados de sensores LiDAR, reduce significativamente el número de usuarios con herramientas para su explotación a un número limitado de proveedores. Ante esta perspectiva, han surgido nuevos esfuerzos que se concentran en hacer que esta información sea accesible para cualquier usuario. En este artículo se discuten algunas de las soluciones que sirven de apoyo al procesamiento remoto y la accesibilidad de datos LiDAR mediante el uso del estándar OpenGIS Web Processing Service implementado en una arquitectura GRID Computing. Se identifican los resultados de investigaciones recientes y los avances alcanzados en el marco de las Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales. Estos trabajos facilitan el tratamiento, distribución y acceso a los datos en cuestión, y son la base para futuros estudios y propuestas locales y regionale

Procesamiento y accesibilidad de datos LiDAR a través de aplicaciones distribuidas

El procesamiento masivo de información obtenida a través de sensores LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) excede fácilmente las posibilidades de procesamiento de los ordenadores convencionales. Actualmente, organizaciones públicas y privadas acumulan grandes colecciones de datos derivados de este tipo de sensor sin que los usuarios puedan tener acceso a ellos de manera ágil y eficiente. El elevado coste de las licencias y la complejidad del software necesario para procesar un conjunto de datos derivados de sensores LiDAR, reduce significativamente el número de usuarios con herramientas para su explotación a un número limitado de proveedores. Ante esta perspectiva, han surgido nuevos esfuerzos que se concentran en hacer que esta información sea accesible para cualquier usuario. En este artículo se discuten algunas de las soluciones que sirven de apoyo al procesamiento remoto y la accesibilidad de datos LiDAR mediante el uso del estándar OpenGIS Web Processing Service implementado en una arquitectura GRID Computing. Se identifican los resultados de investigaciones recientes y los avances alcanzados en el marco de las Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales. Estos trabajos facilitan el tratamiento, distribución y acceso a los datos en cuestión, y son la base para futuros estudios y propuestas locales y regionales

Integration Of Data Related To Earthquakes From A Variety Of Disciplines In A Web-gis

Tez (Doktora) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2008Thesis (PhD) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2008Yerkabuğu deformasyonu çalışmaları, tekrarlı jeodezik ölçmelerin analizi ve bunların jeolojik ve jeofizik araştırmalardan elde edilen sonuçlar ile birlikte değerlendirilmesine dayanır. Bir disiplinin ürettiği sonuç, diğer bir disiplinin girdi verisi olduğundan, tek tip veri üreten bir çalışmanın, diğer çalışmalardan üretilmiş değişik tipteki verileri kendi verisi ile entegre etmediği sürece anlamlı bilgi üretemeceği açıktır. Bu da göstermektedir ki, çözülmesi gereken problem doğal olarak disiplinlerarası bir karaktere sahiptir. Ancak yer bilimciler genellikle problemin bir yanı üzerine çalışmakta ve sadece istendiğinde verisini paylaşma eğilimindedirler. Bu nedenle kaynaklar, tekrar tekrar aynı çalışmalar üzerinde boşuna harcanmış olmaktadır. Halbuki günümüzde verinin mümkün olduğu kadar çabuk ve efektif olarak bilgiye dönüşmesi gerekmektedir. Bunu gerçekleştirebilmek için hesap ve analiz ortamlarının araştırmacıların, karar vericilerin ve eğitimcilerin masaüstü bilgisayarlarına taşınmış olması gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, çok disiplinli yer bilimleri verilerini, araçlarını ve yazılımlarını birbirine bağlayan ve paylaşımını sağlayan servis odaklı mimari yapıda bir Coğrafi Bilgi Sisteminin oluşturulması ve bu sisteme farklı seviyelerde kullanıcıların (bilimadamı, eğitimci, karar verici vd.) ulaşımının sağlanması ve böylece Türkiye’de depremler ile ilgili çalışma yapmak isteyenlerin, kolay kullanım arayüzü ile interaktif olarak veriye, hesap ve analiz ortamına ulaşmasının sağlanmasıdır.The studies of recent crustal movements are based on analyses of repeated geodetic measurements, and their combination with results of geophysical and geological investigations. It is obvious that a single data producer can not produce useful datasets and information without integrating data from others because one scientist’s results become another’s data. So, the problem to be solved naturally has an interdisciplinary character. However, Earth scientists traditionally work on one aspect of the problem and they have a tradition of sharing of data but they are willing to share it if asked. Because of this, the resources are being wasted in duplicative efforts. However, the goal is for data to evolve it into information, and then into knowledge as quickly and effectively as possible. In order to do this, calculations and analysis need to bring to the desktops of researchers, decision-makers, and educators. The aim of this study is to develop a service oriented architecture based Geographic Information System (GIS) that enables linking and sharing multidisciplinary Earth science data, tools, and software and to provide a wide range of users (scientist, educators, policymakers, etc.) access to the system and in this way to build an easy-to-use interactive access to data and analysis environment to study earthquakes in Turkey.DoktoraPh

Building an Online Learning and Research Environment to Enhance Use of Geospatial Data

Geospatial data availability, interoperability, and integration remain a problem today. Current spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) are of limited use particularly to non-expert user communities. GeoBrain, a NASA funded project, has aimed to address those challenges, facilitate easy use of geospatial data and overcome some limitations of current SDIs through building a data-intensive, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) based online learning and research environment. By adopting the latest developing Web services and knowledge management technologies, this online environment enables easy, open, seamless, and on-demand discovery, access, retrieval, visualization and analysis of distributed geospatial data, information, services, and models from any computer connected to the Internet. Such an online environment is able to serve the different needs of global Earth sciences research and higher education communities, bridge gaps between data user needs and provider capabilities, and greatly enhance use of geospatial data