Spatial Data Infrastructures - trends and impacts on society

Max Craglia Joint Research Centre Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit

Outline

•  Where we were 20 years ago •  Where we are now •  Where we are going •  OR •  From GIS to SDI to Digital Earth

Key research themes early 90s •  NSF-NCGIA

initiatives in the USA 1988-onwards

•  ESF GISDATA programme in Europe 1993-1997

From GIS to SDI

•  Agenda of the late 80s and early 90s very GIS oriented with standard platform being the workstation

•  GIS moves to PCs early 1990s •  WWW created at CERN in 1990, MOSAIC first real

browser in 1993 opens up wide adoption •  NSDI launched 1994 in the US, discussion start in

Europe on a European SDI in 1995 to become eventually INSPIRE in 2007.

First ideas about Digital Earth

“Imagine, for example, a young child going to a Digital Earth exhibit at a local museum. After donning a head-mounted display, she sees Earth as it appears from space. Using a data glove, she zooms in, using higher and higher levels of resolution. ….. Having found an area of the planet she is interested in exploring, she takes the equivalent of a ‘magic carpet ride’ through a 3-D visualization of the terrain.” •  (Al Gore 31/1/1998)

Since then

•  At the time, this vision of Digital Earth seemed almost impossible to achieve given the requirements on access to computer processing, broadband internet, interoperability of systems, and above all data organization, storage, and retrieval.

•  Today rapid advancements in graphics co-processors, and techniques for data storage and progressive visualization, have made most of that vision available to us all.

Multiple developments

•  Google Earth, Bing, etc. •  Spatial data Infrastructures at all levels •  Multiple EU developments: INSPIRE, GMES, SEIS,

Digital Agenda, Research Infrastructures, Innovations Union, Horizon 2020…..

•  Global Earth Observation System of Systems •  Sensors and sensor web •  Social Networks everywhere •  ……

So where are we going ? ... by 2050

9  billion  people:  6  billion  tons  of  GHG  and  60  million  tons  of  urban  pollutants.  

 Resource-­‐hungry:  We  will  withdraw  30%  of  available  fresh  water.  

Risky  living:  80%  urban  areas,  25%  near  earthquake  faults,  2%  in  coast  lines  less  than  1  m  above  sea  level.  

How can we manage change?

•  Mitigation? •  Adaptation? •  International

agreements? •  Public Participation,

dialogue, shared understanding to build trust?

Earth system science needs to model the interactions between nature and society

Nature:  Physical  equa;ons    Describe  processes  

Society:  Decisions  on  how  to    Use  Earth´s  resources  

Key challenges for sustainability research

•  Foster the multi-disciplinary research necessary to improve our understanding of the relationships environment-society;

•  Develop the information infrastructures necessary for policy based on sound knowledge;

•  Communicate science more effectively to decision makers and European citizens;

•  Engage the public in the scientific process (e.g. help monitor the environment they live in).

Multi-disciplinary requirements

•  Easy to find and access data fit for purpose from multiple disciplinary systems

•  Have documentation not just of the data but also of how to use the data across different disciplines to address a problem. From metadata to description of process and ultimately executable workflows as geoprocessing services

•  In the age of BIG data, move the processes to the data rather than the data to the processes.

Linking disciplines: example EuroGEOSS

WP7: Capacity building

WP3: Forestry WP4: Biodiversity WP5: Drought

WP2: Multi-disciplinary interoperability

...

GolbalSoilMap

AEGOS

III. Extend interoperabilityto other SBAs & systems

I. Enable thematicinteroperability &connections local to global

II. Enable multi-disciplinaryinteroperability

WP6: Cost benefit analysis

WP7: Capacity building

WP3: Forestry WP4: Biodiversity WP5: Drought

WP2: Multi-disciplinary interoperability

...

GolbalSoilMap

AEGOS

III. Extend interoperabilityto other SBAs & systems

I. Enable thematicinteroperability &connections local to global

II. Enable multi-disciplinaryinteroperability

WP6: Cost benefit analysis

•  Three year project 2009-2012 focusing on forestry, drought, biodiversity

•  Three interoperability phases

•  Two iterations: •  i) connecting and

focusing on discovery and access to data,

•  ii) moving to models and inclusion of social networks.

Connecting disciplinary service buses

Traditional approaches Heavy on providers

Heavy on users

New approach: Brokering

Because there are many.. .many standards and protocols

OGC WCS 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.2 OGC WMS 1.1.1, 1.3.0 OGC WFS 1.0.0, 1.1.0 OGC WPS 1.0.0 OGC SOS 1.0.0 OGC CSW 2.0.2 Core OGC CSW 2.0.2 AP ISO 1.0 OGC CSW 2.0.2 ebRIM/CIM OGC CSW 2.0.2 ebRIM/EO OGC CSW 2.0.2 CWIC WAF Web Accessible Folders 1.0 THREDDS 1.0.1, 1.0.2 THREDDS-NCISO 1.0.1, 1.0.2 THREDDS-NCISO-PLUS 1.0.1, 1.0.2 CDI (Common Data Index)1.04, 1.3, 1.4 GBIF GeoNetwork catalog service 2.2.0, 2.4.1, 2.6

Deegree (version 2.2) catalog service ArcGIS Geoportal (version 10) catalog service OpenSearch 1.1 with Geo and Time extensions OAI-PMH 2.0 (support to ISO19139 and dublin core formats) NetCDF-CF 1.4 NCML-CF 1.4 NCML-OD GeoRSS 2.0 GDACS DIF File system SITAD (Sistema Informativo Territoriale Ambientale Diffuso) INPE HYDRO (WaterML)

EuroGEOSS brokering framework

Benefits of brokering •  Allow a real Network of Networks (System of Systems)

implementation (bottom-up not top-down) •  No need to “push” a common (federal) Service Bus

specification ! •  Lower entry barriers for Users and Data Producers •  Implements Multi-disciplinary interoperability •  Introduce new capabilities •  Data access, semantic discovery, service composition,

quality, control, ranking, tagging •  Facilitate sustainability •  Accept and support heterogeneity (present and future)

Global Earth Observation System of Systems

•  GEOSS is an intergovernmental initiative overseen by 81 nations and 56 international organizations: the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)

•  GEOSS is a distributed system of systems built on current international cooperation among existing Earth observing and data management systems (in situ and remote sensors and systems).

From GEOSS to Digital Earth

•  GEOSS developing a framework for sharing data at the global level

•  Other platforms in the private sector exist and are very successful (e.g. Google, Microsoft, ESRI)

•  Need for a new reflection and vision •  Vespucci Initiative for the advancement of GI

Science (www.vespucci.org) and International Society for Digital Earth sponsored such a reflection. Position paper in 2012 in IJDE.

A (revised) vision of Digital Earth •  3, 4, n-D: from the global to local (inside buildings, and

under ground and under water) and everywhere on Earth. •  Visualize change through historical data and integrated

models. •  Contribute to a multi-disciplinary shared understanding

of how the Earth system works and impact of human activity.

•  Dynamic, interactive, participative: synthesis of heterogeneous data from people, sensors, statistics, models. People providing data but also making sense of the science and having a say on options and ways forward.

•  Ubiquitous, open and accessible for people and things on line at all times.

•  Easy to use and fun!

Our contribution to realizing it

•  Spatial data infrastructures

•  Multi-disciplinary interoperability

•  Citizen science and social networks

INSPIRE = SDI for Europe and European contribution to GEOSS

•  Established through a European legal act (Directive) in 2007 to support environmental policies, and policies that affect the environment

•  The environment is one of the policy areas for which the 27 Member States of the European Union agreed to share competences as environmental phenomena do not stop at national boundaries.

•  INSPIRE is a decentralized infrastructure based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the (27) Member States (and 22 languages).

•  Implementation 2007-2013 (and beyond) •  JRC is responsible for overall technical coordination of

INSPIRE

From data to processes

•  Major contribution of INSPIRE is developing a shared understanding of data models across disciplines

•  Beyond Search and Access, we need also to develop a shared understanding of what do you do with the data? How do you frame a problem and possible solution according to different disciplinary approaches.

•  This quest requires to describe not just concepts but also processes or workflows, leading to new executable web services that are understood across disciplines.

Business Process Modelling Notation

•  Provides a notation that is readily understandable by the stakeholders of different disciplines.

•  Allows to elicit what experts do to answer a question: what processes, models, data, etc.

•  Creates a standardized bridge for the gap between the business process design and process implementation.

•  Can be serialized into XML languages designed for the execution of business processes, such as BPEL and XPDL, to executing and sharing the workflows between different stakeholders.

Example: how to make a forest map

Workflows described in BPMN

Executable workflows and models can then be integrated by the EuroGEOSS broker and interfaced with other web services.

Moving towards integrated modelling

Citizens as Producers of Voluntary Geographic and Environmental Data

VGI and Forest Fires

•  Build on work at JRC on European Forest Fires Information System (EFFIS)

•  Exploratory research on added value of VGI in different stages of first fires (communicating fire risk, alert of fire, monitoring of spread, assessing damage)

•  Twitter and Flickr main data sources

VGI

SDIs EFFIS

Integration

Citizens + Sensor Web = Observation Web

Whilst citizens provide new opportunities for collaborative and participative science, the development of new sensors and their web-enablement make it possible to move from a static representation of the Earth to one that is dynamic and interactive. New ENVIRO-Future Internet project JRC + key industrial partners in sensor web Applications in Biodiversity, Air, Marine

Bringing all together

•  To understand the complex relationships between the physical environment and human activity, we need a holistic, global and integrated perspective.

•  Effective cross-thematic integrated assessment requires the development of an integrated modeling framework across themes and disciplines.

•  This in turn needs a coherent framework for sharing information across thematic models, in a European and global context.

•  Digital Earth provides such open and shared framework to help communicate science more effectively.

Digital Earth • Digital Earth needs to build on observations coming from heterogeneous networks of sensors, including citizens, that contribute together to measuring the state and response of the environment. • Using these dynamic observations improves our modelling and forecasting capabilities. At the same time, opening the results to the public helps to build trust in science, and address key societal challenges

Key research areas •  Information integration (multi source and heterogeneous, multi-

disciplinary, multi-temporal, multi-resolution, and multi-lingual) •  Space-time analysis and modelling (i.e. universal elements and

language for dynamic modelling, algebra of space-time change) •  Visualization of abstract concepts in space (e.g. low income,

quality of life) •  Computational infrastructures to implement vision (architecture,

data structures, indexing, interfaces) •  Trust, reputation and quality models for contributed information

and services understandable to humans and machines alike (for service chaining)

•  Governance and ethics in a world where everyone and everything is on line at all times.

Conclusions

•  It is inconceivable to build spatial data infrastructures or a global earth observing system without the contribution of the billons of people who inhabit it.

•  For this we need to move beyond the current paradigm, work together towards a new shared vision of Digital Earth, and build the bridges between communities (public and private sector, citizens) so that each can add value for the benefit of all.

•  The technologies to do so are already available. Gathering the will to open our mind is the challenge.

"We  went  to  explore  the  Moon,  and  in  fact  discovered  the  Earth."  Eugene  Cernan  

Thank you for your attention

massimo.craglia@jrc.ec.europa.eu