Open Environmental Platforms: Top-Level Components and Relevant Standards

We present our ideas of an open Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform for monitoring, mapping and managing our environment. The envisioned solution bridges the gap between the Internet of Things, Content and Services, and highly specific applications, such as oil spill detection or marine monitoring. On the one hand, this environmental platform should be open to new technologies; on the other hand, it has to provide open standard interfaces to various application domains. We identify core components, standards, and needs for new standard development in ICT for environment. We briefly outline how our past and present activities contribute to the development of the desired open environmental platform. Future implementations shall contribute to sustainable developments in the environmental domain.JRC.DDG.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure

Energy Analytics - Opportunities for Energy Monitoring and Prediction with smart Meters

By 2019, Norway will complete the national rollout of advanced metering systems (AMS) for all customers. Beyond near-time monitoring of voltage quality and frictionless billing of customers, such a rollout opens a host of possibilities. However, a full-scale rollout is not without challenges. For instance, throughput limitations of radio-mesh networks, privacy considerations, and bounds on compute and Storage infrastructure limit the cardinality of metering data to levels below that of which established techniques(for example non-intrusive load disaggregation) require. Pilot projects are now exploring how to mitigate these challenges as well as seeking novel opportunities that open up through data fusion and recent advances in machine learning. In this contribution, we outline the capabilities of the Norwegian AMS system and describe established use-cases and non-intrusive load monitoring. We then discuss a pilot on detection of electric vehicles. Based on preliminary findings, we map the path forward.publishedVersio

Energy Analytics - Opportunities for Energy Monitoring and Prediction with smart Meters

By 2019, Norway will complete the national rollout of advanced metering systems (AMS) for all customers. Beyond near-time monitoring of voltage quality and frictionless billing of customers, such a rollout opens a host of possibilities. However, a full-scale rollout is not without challenges. For instance, throughput limitations of radio-mesh networks, privacy considerations, and bounds on compute and Storage infrastructure limit the cardinality of metering data to levels below that of which established techniques(for example non-intrusive load disaggregation) require. Pilot projects are now exploring how to mitigate these challenges as well as seeking novel opportunities that open up through data fusion and recent advances in machine learning. In this contribution, we outline the capabilities of the Norwegian AMS system and describe established use-cases and non-intrusive load monitoring. We then discuss a pilot on detection of electric vehicles. Based on preliminary findings, we map the path forward.publishedVersio

Future internet enablers for VGI applications

This paper presents the authors experiences with the development of mobile Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) applications in the context of the ENVIROFI project and Future Internet Public Private Partnership (FI-PPP) FP7 research programme.FI-PPP has an ambitious goal of developing a set of Generic FI Enablers (GEs) - software and hardware tools that will simplify development of thematic future internet applications. Our role in the programme was to provide requirements and assess the usability of the GEs from the point of view of the environmental usage area, In addition, we specified and developed three proof of concept implementations of environmental FI applications, and a set of specific environmental enablers (SEs) complementing the functionality offered by GEs. Rather than trying to rebuild the whole infrastructure of the Environmental Information Space (EIS), we concentrated on two aspects: (1) how to assure the existing and future EIS services and applications can be integrated and reused in FI context; and (2) how to profit from the GEs in future environmental applications.This paper concentrates on the GEs and SEs which were used in two of the ENVIROFI pilots which are representative for the emerging class of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) use-cases: one of them is pertinent to biodiversity and another to influence of weather and airborne pollution on users’ wellbeing. In VGI applications, the EIS and SensorWeb overlap with the Social web and potentially huge amounts of information from mobile citizens needs to be assessed and fused with the observations from official sources. On the whole, the authors are confident that the FI-PPP programme will greatly influence the EIS, but the paper also warns of the shortcomings in the current GE implementations and provides recommendations for further developments

Evaluating pedagogical practices supporting collaborative learning for model-based system development courses

Model-based software development (MBSD) has been widely used in industry for its effectiveness of code generation, code reuse and system evolution. At different stages of the software lifecycle, models -- as opposed to actual code -- are used as abstractions to present software development artifacts. In a university software engineering curriculum, compared to other concrete and tangible courses, e.g., game and app development, these levels of abstraction are often difficult for students to understand, and further, to see models' usefulness in practice. This paper presents an evaluation of pedagogical practices supporting collaborative learning for MBSD courses from experiences of teaching them at University of Oslo. The focus is to answer two research questions: 1) What are the challenges and possibilities when using a collaborative learning approach for teaching modelling and architecture? 2) What are the challenges and benefits of having a holistic approach to MBSD courses in light of the requirements of academia and the needs of industry? The term “holistic” is understood 1) as an approach that involves human factors (users), technology and processes, 2) as an approach to teaching MBSD courses where modelling for Enterprise Architecture is taught together with System Architecture and Model-Driven Language Engineering. Empirical data was collected through interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis. The paper’s research results show that three different course perspectives (Modeling for Enterprise Architecture with Business Architecture, System Architecture and Model Driven Language Engineering) are essential parts of teaching modeling courses, and an industry field study shows that industry sees the potential of having junior architects to provide support to a team and solving basic architectural problems

Environmental Information Systems on the Internet: A Need for Change

The cost effective delivery of scientific and policy requirements is a key driver for the realization of global sustainability research, integrated assessment and supporting innovative systems. The next generation of geospatial information infrastructures is proposed as a possible solution. Still, questions such as ‘what does all this mean to environmental information systems’ and ‘what is expected to change’, have only partially been answered. In this paper, we describe the recent challenges for eEnvironment services in Europe, specify desired capabilities and derive according requirements. We identify affected stakeholder communities and depict their involvement in the overall value chain of environmental knowledge generation. Specific examples illustrate individual needs, while a derived description of the value chain indicates more general outcomes. Developmental requirements of future information systems are discussed. The presented work answers the questions above by bridging the gab between stakeholder needs, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development and higher level concepts, such as Digital Earth and Future Internet.JRC.DDG.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure

An Overview of the Linked Data AppStore

This demo/poster paper provides an overview of a Software-as-a-Service platform prototype for data integration on the Web – The Linked Data AppStore (LD-AppStore). It builds upon Linked Data technologies, targets data scientists/engineers and data integration application developers, and aims to provide a solution for simplifying tasks such as data transformation, querying, entity extraction, data visualization, crawling, etc. This paper focuses on the overall architecture of the LD-AppStore, basic data operations supported by the current prototype, and outlines the demonstration of the prototype.publishedVersio

Open Data, VGI and Citizen Observatories INSPIRE Hackathon

In 2016, the INSPIRE Conference hosted the first INSPIRE hackathon on volunteered geographic information and citizen observatories, also known as the INSPIRE Hackathon. The organisers, mostly representatives of European research and innovation projects, continued this activity with the next INSPIRE Conference in 2017. The INSPIRE Hackathon is a collaborative event for developers, researchers, designers and others interested in open data, volunteered geographic information and citizen observatories. The main driving force for the INSPIRE Hackathon is provided by experts from existing EU projects, and its primary objective is to share knowledge and experience between the participants and demonstrate to wider audiences the power of data and information supported by modern technologies and common standards, originating from INSPIRE, Copernicus, GEOSS and other initiatives. This paper describes the history and background of the INSPIRE Hackathon, the various INSPIRE-related hackathons already organised, supporting projects, the results of INSPIRE Hackathon 2017 and the authors’ vision of future activities