Benefit of GEOSS Interoperability in Assessment of Environmental Impacts Illustrated by the Case of Photovoltaic Systems

International audienceAssessment of environmental impacts of a power system exploiting a renewable energy needs a large number of geographically-dependent data and of technological data. These data are located in various sources and available in various formats. To avoid the burden of data collection and reformatting, we exploit the interoperability capabilities set up in GEOSS and combine them with other GEOSS-compliant components proposed by projects funded by the European Commission. This is illustrated by the case of photovoltaic systems. A Web-based tool links the various sources of data and executes several models to offer various impacts factors in different areas: human health, climate change, primary energy, ecosystems

Sitting of a solar power plant: Development of Web service based on GEOSS data and guidance

International audienceRenewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy offer a large untapped potential for electricity production. The exploitation of these energies requires accurate knowledge of the resources and of their availability (in space and time) as well as accurate forecasts in the different phases of an energy system life cycle. For instance, the site selection process for development of large solar systems, such as photovoltaic on open land, require data on time-averaged values of solar irradiance from which basic economic assessments of a plant concept can be made. The paper illustrates the exploitation of Earth Observation data in this context. It describes the approach of setting-up a series of Web services that implement key features in Earth Observation data exploitation and illustrate their use through a complex application in the sitting of a solar power plant. The scenario is built on GEOSS interoperability and standard guidance

Environmental impact assessment of electricity production by photovoltaic system using GEOSS recommendations on interoperability

International audienceWithin the Architecture Implementation Pilot (AIP-3) of GEOSS, we have developed a scenario called "environmental impact assessment of the production, transportation and use of energy for the photovoltaic (PV) sector through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)". It aims at providing decision-makers and policy-planners with reliable and geo-localized knowledge of several impacts induced by various technologies of the PV sector. The scenario is implemented in the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) and benefits from the GEOSS interoperability arrangements. The FP7-co-funded EnerGEO project provides a GEOSS compliant Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) that permits to discover the Web Processing Service (WPS) allowing computation of the environmental impact. A WebGIS client provided by the FP7-co-funded GENESIS platform allows users to interact with geospatial data and computation processes. This scenario has proven to be an efficient tool to disseminate knowledge on environmental impacts related to PV because of the GEOSS capabilities in interoperability

Geo-processing in cyberinfrastructure: making the web an easy to use geospatial computational platform

International audienceAccess to data on the web has become routine based upon open standards from IETF and W3C. Access to explicitly geospatial data is routinely done using data access standards from the OGC. Geoprocessing services on the web are now being developed. Processing of data must be done to apply or fuse the data to meet specific applications. Standards and implementations for processing of data on the web are just now becoming established. For geospatial data, the OGC has defined the Web Processing Service (WPS) interface standard. Now is a critical time to bring convergence to WPS profiles that make the web an easy to use geospatial computational service. Access to network accessible processing services is bringing geoprocessing to the cyberinfrastructure

D7.1. Plan for disseminating and communication of the project's results

The Dissemination and Communication Plan will set out the details of the different types of dissemination activities to be undertaken during the project lifetime. In addition to the dissemination approach that will be applied, this deliverable also provides the necessary guidance for an efficient dissemination strategy. The Plan identifies communicating objectives and goals, the target audience, the message, medium and means and the timeline for communicating actions. D7.1 is a way to reinforce this activity in GEOSS (http://www.geo-tasks.org/geoss_portfolio) by trying to stimulate the ENEON to participate in it

D5.1. Common criteria in the project stakeholder and industry challenges

Report gathering the common challenges criteria to be applied in the project through the stakeholder and industry challenges pilot cases

An Architecture for Integrated Intelligence in Urban Management using Cloud Computing

With the emergence of new methodologies and technologies it has now become possible to manage large amounts of environmental sensing data and apply new integrated computing models to acquire information intelligence. This paper advocates the application of cloud capacity to support the information, communication and decision making needs of a wide variety of stakeholders in the complex business of the management of urban and regional development. The complexity lies in the interactions and impacts embodied in the concept of the urban-ecosystem at various governance levels. This highlights the need for more effective integrated environmental management systems. This paper offers a user-orientated approach based on requirements for an effective management of the urban-ecosystem and the potential contributions that can be supported by the cloud computing community. Furthermore, the commonality of the influence of the drivers of change at the urban level offers the opportunity for the cloud computing community to develop generic solutions that can serve the needs of hundreds of cities from Europe and indeed globally.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Integration in GEOSS

Integration and usage of the GEOSS Common service registry in AtlantO

Citizen Science and Smart Cities

The report summarizes the presentations, discussions, and conclusions of the Citizen Science and Smart Cities Summit organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre on 5-7th February 2014. In the context of the Summit, the label Citizen Science was used to include both citizen science projects, and others that are about user-generated content, not necessarily addressing a scientific process or issues. The evidence presented by 27 different projects shows the vitality and diversity of the field but also a number of critical points: • Citizen science project are more than collecting data: they are about raising awareness, building capacity, and strengthening communities. • Likewise, smart cities are not only about ICT, energy and transport infrastructures: Smart cities are about smart citizens, who participate in their city’s daily governance, are concerned about increasing the quality of life of their fellow-citizens, and about protecting their environment. Technology may facilitate, but is no solution per se. • Unfortunately to date there seems to be little synergy between citizen science and smart cities initiatives, and there is little interoperability and reusability of the data, apps, and services developed in each project. • It is difficult to compare the results among citizen science, and smart cities projects or translate from one context to another. • The ephemeral nature of much of the data, which disappear short after the end of the projects, means lack of reproducibility of results and longitudinal analysis of time series challenging, if not impossible. • There are also new challenges with respect to the analytical methods needed to integrate quantitative and qualitative data from heterogeneous sources that need further research. • Building and maintaining trust are key points of any citizen science or smart city project. There is a need to work with the community and not just for, or on, the community. It is critical not just to take (data, information, knowledge) but to give back something that is valued by the community itself. The development of citizen science associations in Europe and the US are important developments that may address some of the points above. There are also actions through which the European Commission Joint Research Centre can make an important contribution: • Map citizen science and smart cities projects, and generate a semantic network of concepts between the projects to facilitate search of related activities, and community building. • Provide a repository for citizen science and smart cities data (anonymised and aggregated), software, services, and applications so that they are maintained beyond the life of the projects they originate from, and made shareable and reusable. • Develop regional test beds for the analysis and integration of social and environmental data from heterogeneous sources, with a focus on quality of life and well-being. • Undertake comparative studies, and analyse issues related to scaling up to the European dimension. • Support citizen science and smart cities projects with the JRC knowledge on semantic interoperability, data models, and interoperability arrangements. • Partner with the European Citizen Science Association, and contribute to its interoperability activities. • Work towards making the JRC, and the European Commission, a champion of citizen participation in European science.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat