EPOS: A Novel Use of CERIF for Data-intensive Science

AbstractOne of the key aspects of the approaching data-intensive science era is integration of data through interoperability of systems providing data products or visualization and processing services. Far from being simple, interoperability requires robust and scalable e-infrastructures capable of supporting it. In this work we present the case of EPOS, a plan for data integration in the field of Earth Sciences. We describe the design of its e-infrastructure and show its main characteristics. One of the main elements enabling the system to integrate data, data products and services is the metadata catalogue based on the CERIF metadata model. Such a model, modified to fit into the general e-infrastructure design, is part of a three-layer metadata architecture. CERIF guarantees a robust handling of metadata, which is in this case the key to the interoperability and to one of the feature of the EPOS system: the possibility of carrying on data intensive science orchestrating the distributed resources made available by EPOS data providers and stakeholders

From Artifacts to Aggregations: Modeling Scientific Life Cycles on the Semantic Web

In the process of scientific research, many information objects are generated, all of which may remain valuable indefinitely. However, artifacts such as instrument data and associated calibration information may have little value in isolation; their meaning is derived from their relationships to each other. Individual artifacts are best represented as components of a life cycle that is specific to a scientific research domain or project. Current cataloging practices do not describe objects at a sufficient level of granularity nor do they offer the globally persistent identifiers necessary to discover and manage scholarly products with World Wide Web standards. The Open Archives Initiative's Object Reuse and Exchange data model (OAI-ORE) meets these requirements. We demonstrate a conceptual implementation of OAI-ORE to represent the scientific life cycles of embedded networked sensor applications in seismology and environmental sciences. By establishing relationships between publications, data, and contextual research information, we illustrate how to obtain a richer and more realistic view of scientific practices. That view can facilitate new forms of scientific research and learning. Our analysis is framed by studies of scientific practices in a large, multi-disciplinary, multi-university science and engineering research center, the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS).Comment: 28 pages. To appear in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST

Construção de um sistema de informação de redes de observação terrestre: com aplicação para o Norte de Portugal

Mestrado em Gestão Ambiental e Ordenamento do Território na Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Viana do CasteloA consciencialização dos problemas ambientais e os impactos que as actividades humanas apresentam sobre os recursos naturais, demonstram a necessidade da realização de Monitorização Ambiental, como forma de quantificar e monitorizar estes mesmos recursos. A criação da directiva INSPIRE vem estabelecer normas e orientações relativas à recolha, tratamento e disponibilização da informação geográfica para que a mesma possa ser parte integrante nos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG) associados a uma Infra-estrutura de Dados Espaciais (IDE) mecanismos, estes que permitem uma agilização nos processos de monitorização, gestão de recursos e projectos que requeiram informação com uma qualidade temática, espacial e temporal. As plataformas Web existentes, vêm facilitar a identificação da informação nomeadamente dos Conjuntos de Dados Geográficos (CDG), identificados no âmbito do Ponto 7 – Instalações de Monitorização Ambiental do Anexo III da Directiva INSPIRE. Após a identificação e caracterização do CDG, pretende-se avaliar a sua qualidade temporal e espacial. A identificação de um total de 125 CDG, permitiu a caracterização da informação com base no catálogo de metadados associado, referente à existência de redes de monitorização, bem como aferir sobre a sua inclusão na directiva INSPIRE, assim como identificar os principais aspectos relativos à sua qualidade espacial e temporal. Relativamente à informação disponibilizada, é constatável uma ausência de informação referente a determinados parâmetros analisados, como o factor escala e quanto à data, apresentando ainda problemas relacionados com a variabilidade do sistema de coordenadas existentes. Observando-se contudo uma predominância das redes de monitorização referentes aos recursos hídricos.The awareness of environmental issues and the impacts that human activity has on natural resources shows the importance of Environmental Monitoring as a way to quantify and monitoring these resources. The creation of the INSPIRE Directive establishes some guidelines for the compilation, treatment and availability of geographic information, so that can be an integral part of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) associated to a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). These mechanisms allow a simplification in the monitoring process, resource management and also provide thematic, spatial and temporal information for projects that require this specialized data. The existents Web platforms, have been simplifying the information identification, namely the Spatial Data Set (SDS), identified in the 7 item- Environmental Monitoring Installations in Annex III of the INSPIRE Directive. After identification and characterization of GDS it‘s necessary to evaluate their temporal and spatial quality. It was identified a total of 125 SDS. The identification and characterization of monitoring networks was possible due to the existence of metadata catalog associated, allowing to determinate the main aspects related to their spatial and temporal quality. Regarding with available information, it was found an information lack related with some parameters, such as scale factor and date, it also has been found problems with the variability of the coordinate system existent. It was observed a predominance of monitoring networks related with water resources