Data management and collection, an interoperable approach using web service
This research group aims to provide a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) that could be an example of the integrated management of ecological data. The data infrastructures commonly used in other fields are difficult to apply to ecology, due to the wide variety of environments studied (lakes, rivers, sea, forests, agricultural areas, agroforestry systems, etc.) and the significant differences between data collection methodologies. The primary contribution our group is aiming at is therefore to improve the study of data collected and to facilitate their interoperability and preservation by standardizing them. We aim also to associate the data with easily found metadata for retrieving information about data.
To achieve these aims our work has focused on 3 different aspects:
- organizing a structured repository (database) to optimize time and data storage resources, reducing the risk of loss;
- simplifying the collection, storage and analysis of long-term data series or high-frequency data, through the creation of Web Services;
- simplifying the exchange of information and data through web interface displays.
Research and Facilities
Our research group is continuing the development and analysis of various services, preferring open source systems. Web services implemented to date are as follows:
- a website to describe the research and facilities tested and developed by the group (http://www.giida-biodiv.ise.cnr.it);
- a DataBase Management System (DBMS), which contains several databases relating to data, metadata and services data collected by sensors in near real-time;
- a Web Catalog Service (WCS) defining the metadata and data, and where data and services can be found (http://csw.ise.cnr.it);.
- a thematic GeoPortal to distribute and display geographic data and in some cases raw data (http://geoportal.ise.cnr.it);
- a Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) service, providing services such as a Sensor Observation Service (SOS), a Sensor Model Language (SensorML) and Observations & Measurements (O&M) (http://sos.ise.cnr.it).
Some ongoing research projects
Currently the group is involved in 2 different leading projects:
- ENVEurope: Environmental quality and pressures assessment across Europe: the LTER network as an integrated and shared system for ecosystem monitoring (Life Enviroment Project LIFE08 ENV/IT/000339)
- GIIDA (Interoperable, Integrated Management of Environmental Data): an Italian National Research Council (CNR) initiative launched in 2008 as an inter-departmental project
Study sites
Our study area may be regarded as including all the environments studied in the long history of this research institute. These comprise lakes and rivers, and also terrestrial environments, where data on meteorological variables and deposition chemistry are collected. A comprehensive list is outside the scope of this presentation, but we can state that for certain environments the knowledge amassed is extremely extensive, both in time and space. In these environments, which form part of the European Network for long-term ecological research (LTER - http://www.lteritalia.it and http://www.lter-europe.net), data have been collected for different parameters (abiotic, physical, chemical, organic, biotic, bio-chemical, structural-functional and-biotic, etc.) over a period exceeding 20 years.
The environments are Lake Maggiore, Lake Orta and Lake Candia, including their hydrographic network and all the territory included in their catchment area.
Geoportal (http://geoportal.ise.cnr.it) representing lakes Maggiore, Orta and Candia, with their catchment area (red line).
Collaborations
- CNR – ISMAR, Institute of Marine Sciences, Venezia: Implementation of sensor observation service (SOS) for marine platform, Ecological Metadata of dataset using EML languages
- CNR – IREA, Institute for electromagnetic sensing of the environment, Milano: Development of Web Service (Metadata, ThinClient SOS, GeoPortal, etc.)
- University of Genova - Department for the Study of Territory and its Resources: Ecological Metadata of dataset using EML languages, GeoPortal, Implementation of sensor observation service (SOS) for marine instruments
- University of Sassari - Department of Botany, Ecology and Geology: Implementation of DataBase Management System for collected phytoplankton data, Ecological Metadata of dataset using EML languages
- UBA - Federal Environment Agency, Vienna, Austria: collection of available metadata and data with respect to environmental quality parameters for selected indicators and the methodologies applied in the relevant European Networks
Stakeholders
Public institutions: European Union, other research institutes, Ministry of the Environment, region, province, local administration, National Parks.
Staff
Aldo Marchetto geospatial and long term ecology data management expert permanent researcher
Journal publications (some selected papers)
- Oggioni A., D. Manca, P. Carrara, M. Pepe & M. Bastianini 2011. SOS in action: various fields of application. Geophysical Research Abstract, 13: EGU2011 - 13591. eISSN: 1607-7962.
- Nativi S., P. Mazzetti, F. Guzzetti, A. Oggioni, N. Pirrone, R. Santoleri, G. Tartari, A. Viola, & M. Santoro. 2010. The GIIDA project: a spatial information infrastructure for environmental data sharing. Congress Proceedings, GI4DM - Torino 2010.
- Oggioni A., P. Carrara, M. Pepe, D. Manca, C. Giardino & L. Criscuolo 2010. Sustainable water management: an operative test for monitoring lakes through integrated earth sensing. 3rd ISDE DIGITAL EARTH SUMMIT 12-14 June, 2010, Nessebar, Bulgaria. ISBN: 978-954-724-039-1.
- Oggioni, A., P. Carrara, C. Giardino, D. Manca & M. Pepe. 2009. Integrated Earth Sensing: an applicative test for the study of the quality of inland waters. Atti XIII Conferenza Nazionale ASITA, Bari 1-4 dicembre 2009. 7 pp.