An event abstraction layer for the integration of geosensor data

Time series of observations reflect the status of environmental properties. Variations in these properties can be considered as events when they potentially affect the stability of the monitored environment. Organisations dedicated to analyse environmental change use institutionalised descriptions of events to define the observable conditions under which events happen. This also applies to the methods used to classify and model changes in environmental monitoring. The heterogeneity of representations often causes interoperability problems when such communities exchange geospatial information. To enhance interoperability among diverse communities, it is required to develop models that do not restrict the representation of events, but allow integrating different perspectives on changes in the environment. The goal of the Event Abstraction Layer is to facilitate the analysis and integration of geosensor data by inferring events from time series of observations. For the analysis of geosensor data, we use event processing to detect event patterns in time series of observations. Spatio-temporal properties of the event are inferred from the geosensor location and the observation timestamps. For the data integration, we represent event-related information extracted from multiples sources under a common event model. Additionally, domain knowledge is modelled in a multilevel ontology structure. © 2014 Taylor & Francis

User requirements and future expectations for geosensor networks – an assessment

Considerable progress has been made on the technical development of sensor networks. However increasing attention is now also required for the broad diversity of end-user requirements for the deployment of sensor networks. An expert survey on the user requirements and future expectations for sensor networks was carried out. Both technology and applications are seen as main drivers for sensor network deployment however harmonization of (open) standards to collect, access, manage, and integrate sensor data are considered crucial for further development. Although sensor based applications are increasingly used in every day life, their use in decision making requires further improvement of aspects like privacy, data quality, etc. Finally, next to formal sensor networks, standardization will allow voluntary sensor information to become a significant sensor data sourc