The implementation of the INSPIRE Directive in Europe and similar efforts around the globe to develop spatial data infrastructures and global systems of systems have been focusing largely on the adoption of agreed technologies, standards, and specifications to meet the (systems) interoperability challenge. Addressing the key scientific challenges of humanity in the 21st century requires however a much increased inter-disciplinary effort, which in turn makes more complex demands on the type of systems and arrangements needed to support it. This paper analyses the challenges for inter-disciplinary interoperability using the experience of the EuroGEOSS research project. It argues that inter-disciplinarity requires mutual understanding of requirements, methods, theoretical underpinning and tacit knowledge, and this in turn demands for a flexible approach to interoperability based on mediation, brokering and semantics-aware, cross-thematic functionalities. The paper demonstrates the implications of adopting this approach and charts the trajectory for the evolution of current spatial data infrastructures.

1. Max Craglia(1), Stefano Nativi(2), Mattia Santoro(2), Lorenzino
Vaccari(1), Cristiano Fugazza(1)
Inter-disciplinary interoperability for
global sustainability research
(1) EC–JRC, Institute for Environment and Sustainability -SDI Unit
(2) National Research Council of Italy
GEOS 2011 - 4th International Conference on Geospatial Semantics
12-13 May 2011 – Brest, France

2. Outline
2

3. Introduction
Over the next decade the global scientific community must take on the
challenge of delivering to society the knowledge and information
necessary to assess the risks humanity is facing from global change and
to understand how society can effectively mitigate dangerous changes
and cope with the change that we cannot manage. We refer to this field as
‘global sustainability research’ (ICSU, 2010).
3

4. Five ICSU Grand Challenges
2. OBSERVING
Develop, enhance and
integrate the observation systems
needed to manage global and
regional environmental change
1. FORECASTING
Improve the usefulness of
forecasts of environmental
conditions and their
consequences for people
3. THRESHOLDS
Recognizing key thresholds of non-linear changes to improve our
ability to anticipate, recognize, avoid and adapt to abrupt global
environmental change.
4. RESPONDING
Determine what institutional,
economic and behavioral changes
can enable effective steps toward
global sustainability
5. INNOVATING
Encourage innovation (coupled
with sound mechanisms for
evaluation) in developing
technological, policy, and
social responses to achieve
global sustainability
4

5. Global research needs
5

6. Enabling Multidisciplinarity
6

7. The role of public participation
7

8. Outline
8

9. Enabling integration of EO systems
9

10. GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas
10

11. European contributions to GEOSS
11

12. Outline
12

13. The EuroGEOSS Project
13

14. The EuroGEOSS Thematic Areas
14

15. Three Interoperability phases
Connect systems
vertically from
local to global
Connect systems
horizontally
Expand to
additional systems
15

16. Weather
Ecosys.
Ocean
Apply to
… .
Two iterations: Initial Operating Capability
and Advanced Operating Capability
Requirements
GMES
INSPIRE
GEOSS
IOC
Forestry
Biodiv.
Drought
requirements
requirements
requirements
Inputs
NL
MulE-­‐
scale
Work-­‐
flow
Web
2.0
AOC
extensions
16

17. … .
17

18. Outline
18

19. The EuroGEOSS broker
EuroGEOSS Broker
Provider
User
19

20. Services
Data
Catalogs
Registries
OGC
W*S
GEO
Portals
GEO
Clearinghouse
Catalogs
GEO
Registries
Web
2.0
Resources
EuroGEOSS Brokering Platform (GeoRSS support)
BROKER
INSPIRE
Portals
Communi8es
Portals
Web
2.0
clients
20

21. Supported Resource types
• Download/Data/Process Access Services
– OGC WCS 1.0; 1.1.2
– OGC WMS 1.1.1; 1.3
– OGC WFS 1.0.0
• Discovery/Catalog Services
– OGC CSW 2.0.2 core
• CSW /ISO AP 1.0
• CSW /ebRIM AP 1.0
– CSCSW /ebRIM/EO extension package
– W /ebRIM-CIM extension package
• CSW OpenSearch extension
– OpenSearch discovery services
• OpenSearch/FP7 GENESI-DR extension
– GeoNetwork 2.2.0 (or less)
– - GeoNetworks 2.4.1
– Degree catalog service 2.2
– OpenSearch 1.1
– OpenSearch/GENESI-DR
– THREDDS 1.0.1;1.0.2;
– CDI 1.0.4; 1.3; 1.4; 1.6
– GI-cat 5.x; 6.x; 7.x;
– GBIF discovery (REST-Full)
– GBIF access (REST-Full)
– OGC WPS 1.0
21

22. Published Discovery Interfaces
• Published interfaces
– OGC CSW 2.0.2
– OGC CSW 2.0.2 ISO 1.0
– OGC CSW 2.0.2 ebRIM/CIM
– OGC CSW 2.0.2 ebRIM/EO
– OpenSearch
– OpenSearch GENESI-DR extended interface
– GI-cat extended interface
We do not impose one standard but accept
diversity of disciplinary approaches and build
bridges to facilitate communication.
22

23. Outline
23

24. Services
Data
Catalogs
Registries
Data
(Transac@onal)
Data
Data
THREDDS/
OPeNDAP
GEO
Portals
GEO
Clearinghouse
Catalogs
GEO
Registries
Web
2.0
Resources
EuroGEOSS Brokering Platform (GeoRSS support)
BROKER
MD
Editor
INSPIRE
Portals
Communi8es
Portals
Web
2.0
clients
24

25. SKOS/RDF
Semantic Augmentation Component
Semantic
Augmentation
ComponentOpenSearch
Extended
Interface
Thesaurus A
Gazetteer
Adapter
Adapter
(Mediator)
Adapter
Discovery
Broker
CSW/ISO
Thesaurus B
.. .
Client
25

26. The Vocabulary Service
26

27. Available Thesauri
27

28. Semantic Augmentation Component
skos:prefLabel
skos:narrower
skos:narrower
skos:prefLabel
gemet:14937
gemet:14936
gemet:6033
“Географска дължина”@bg
"longitude"@en
“latitude"@en
skos:prefLabel
skos:prefLabel
skos:prefLabel
skos:prefLabel
“co-ordinate system"@en
"Параметър"@bg
“parameter"@en
skos:narrower
skos:prefLabel
gemet:14935
"Координатна система"@bg skos:prefLabel
"Географска ширина"@bg
inspire:1
skos:closeMatch
skos:prefLabel
“Coordinate reference systems"@en
28

29. Harmonization of Thesauri
29

30. SKOS/RDF
Semantic Augmentation Component
Semantic
Augmentation
ComponentOpenSearch
Extended
Interface
Thesaurus A
Gazetteer
Adapter
Adapter
(Mediator)
Adapter
Discovery
Broker
CSW/ISO
Thesaurus B
.. .
Client
30

31. Semantic enhanced functionalities
31

32. Outline
32

33. Process integration
33

34. Modelling Workflows and Processes
34

35. The Business Process Modeling
Notation (BPMN)
35

36. Example of workflow: Forest map
36

37. …….described in BPMN (extract)
• BPMN is a standard and has a precise semantic: each shape, symbol and
connection has a well defined meaning, the participants are clearly identified and
input datasets, intermediate products and final results are represented.
• It is possible to transform the diagram into an XML representation for the
execution of the process and its exchange with other scientists.
37
JRC RSDI Initiative (Michele Chinosi, Nicole Outslander)

38. Outline
38

39. Web 2.0: two-way interaction
39

40. Web 2.0 services analyzed
Service Name Available content type
Twitter short texts
Google Search API Vector data (KML format)
Panoramio Raster data (photographs)
Picasa Raster data (photographs)
Flickr Raster data (photographs)
OpenStreetMap Vector data (OSM format)
Wikimapia Text (place names & descriptions)
Geonames Text (place names)
Geocommons Raster and vector data (maps)
40

41. Web 2.0 resources support
Discovery
Broker
CSW/ISO
Adaptor
Geonames
Twitter
Flickr
OpenStreet
Map
Wikipedia
Adaptor
Adaptor
Adaptor
Adaptor
Geocommons
OpenSearch(-geo) interface
41

42. EuroGEOSS is also…
• Natural Language Processing discover and query interface.
• Cost-benefit analysis for the development of European and
Global Spatial Data Infrastructures.
• Extension of the EuroGeoss multidisciplinary approach to other
disciplines (3rd Interoperability phase):
– Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Marine environments
(May 2011).
– Weather, Ocean and Water domains
(September 2011).
42

43. Conclusions
43

44. For more information…
The EuroGEOSS Project and
Broker (www.eurogeoss.eu)
DEMOS:
44

45. Thank you
for your attention