International Center for Remote Sensing of Environment (ICRSE)
Abstract
e-Habitat is a Web Processing Service (WPS) designed to compute the likelihood of finding ecosystems with equal properties. Inputs to the WPS, typically thematic geospatial ¿layers¿, can be discovered using standardised catalogues, and the outputs tailored to specific end user needs. Because these layers can range from geophysical data captured through remote sensing to socio-economical indicators, e-Habitat is exposed to a broad range of different types and levels of uncertainties. Potentially chained to other services to perform ecological forecasting for example, e-Habitat would be an additional component further propagating uncertainties from a potentially long chain of model services. This integration of complex resources increases the challenges in dealing with uncertainty. For such a system, as envisaged by initiatives such as the Group on Earth Observation¿s ¿Model Web¿, to be used for policy or decision making, users must be provided with information on the quality of the outputs since all system components will be subject to uncertainty. UncertWeb will create the Uncertainty enabled Model Web by promoting interoperability between data and models with quantified uncertainty, building on existing open, international standards. UncertWeb will thus develop open source implementations of encoding standards, service interface profiles, discovery and chaining mechanisms, and generic tools to realize a "Model Web" taking uncertainty in data and models into account. It is the objective of this paper to discuss the main types of uncertainties e-Habitat has to deal with and to present the benefits of the use of the UncertWeb framework.JRC.H.3-Global environement monitorin
