This work is produced as part of the York Urban Living Pilot (ULP) project an RCUK funded project to develop the York City Environmental Observatory (YCEO). The project is led by York University with York City Council as lead partners and other organisations including BGS. Split into a number of Work Packages (WPs), WP4 aims to set out the design for the implementation phase of the YCEO. This report forms part of the deliverables of WP4 and is concerned with model integration and aims to determine which models are available for the York area and how they could be integrated into the YCEO.
The information was obtained by internet searches, literature review, and investigating known projects to determine: a) what models are out there and b) how model integration could be undertaken
Evidence showed limited metadata for models of the York area, even though there is knowledge of models available. There is also limited examples of model integration platforms in the “smart city” context or even urban environments. However, exemplars exist including predictive analytics built on open data platforms and workflow approaches such as the Innovate UK funded Tombolo project. Application programming Interfaces (APIs) also offer possibilities in the UK with the Met Office and the Environment Agency making both observed data and model forecasts available via this method. A simple example is presented using APIs to determine when it is safe to row ont eh River Ouse, York.
Model integration is problematic, but it can take many forms and Tombolo offers the opportunity to enable pre-formed solutions to be made available. The YCEO model platform should be based on pre-formed solutions using the Tombolo approach with semantic reasoning at its basis
