Constructing a first-generation

cyberinfrastructure to support

ecological forecasting

Understanding and Forecasting Ecological Change: 3rd Annual Symposium

February 20, 2009

Joshua S. Campbell

Cyberinfrastructure

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) is the application of information

technology to the problem of efficiently connecting

data, computers, and people with the goal of enabling

the discovery of novel scientific theories and knowledge.

Utilizes IT

Connecting

Distributed science

Vision

To share KBS data via the web

Identify, Organize, Metadata, Publish

Designed to support ecological forecasting

Land cover

Kansas Field Station and Ecological Reserves (KSR)

Hydrology

Motivation

Unrealized Value

Network Effects

NSF’s vision of Cyberinfrastructure

Sharing is the new research paradigm

Stakeholders

Scientific Community

Increase knowledge inside ecoforecasting community about

available datasets

Participate with a global research community

Public Outreach

Provide decision-makers and citizens access to KBS science

Ecoforecasting and CI

Utilizes a range of atmospheric, geological, hydrological,

ecological, biological, and cultural data

Sorry if I forgot one…

Geography is the unifying framework

GIS provides the computational framework

Maps are a primary data interface

How will users interact with the data?

Designing Cyberinfrastructure (National Academies Workshop, June 2007, http://cyberinfrastructure.us/)

Open standards

Proprietary platforms (linking)

Open source software

Open access publishing

Simplified data licenses (Science Commons)

Access management systems

Data Organization

Datasets

Web Services

Applications

System Design

3 Components

ArcGIS Server

GeoNetwork

KARS website redesign

Redundant and Discoverable

Demos

KSR Web Map

GeoNetwork

Interactive Map

Data Download

Google Earth

ArcGIS REST Services

Web application

is ‘consuming’

two web services

Each web service is

built from individual

datasets

Hyperlink provides

direct access to the

GeoNetwork

metadata catalog

GeoNetwork provides

search capabilities based on:

keyword

geographic location

KBS division

type of data

A built-in interactive map

viewer allows data to be

visualized and queried

prior to download

Data can be downloaded in

a number of formats,

including shapefile, KML,

WMS and REST

Provides direct access

to the ESRI REST

services page

HTML representation of all services running on the server

REST services can be viewed in a number of clients

Google can find and index both attributes and geography

Supported Interfaces and Operations allow direct

programmatic access to the service. This allows the data

to be used in distributed modeling applications, without

having to be downloaded.

Next steps

Increase functionality of the system

Add more datasets

Create ‘geoprocessing’ web services

Increase users

New dynamic-HTML website

Challenges

Technology

Scientific research and IT are two distinct skillsets

WebGIS is not the same as desktop GIS

Culture

Data is power (or so researchers think)

F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)

Extra work to provide metadata

Questions…?

KBS system is still in beta

System is expected to be operational this summer

Email

jsc1@ku.edu