GEOSS Future Products Workshop 2013Summary reportMarch 26-28, 2013

NOAA Science Center, Silver Spring, USA

Joan MasóCREAF

Sponsors:

GEOSS: An Earth Observatory for Europe's CitizensGEOSS: An Earth Observatory for Europe's Citizens

Introduction: From data to information

• GEO aim of achieving interoperability of existing and new systems that provide essential environmental observations and information

• Data streaming from in-situ and remote sensing sensors (Sensor Web), models (Model Web) offers a huge potential to generate a wide portfolio of on-demand and near real time products.

• In the GEO Work Plan these activities are elements of GEO Task IN-05 "GEOSS Design and Interoperability".

Session 1. Overview and Introduction - Policy and Science Vision for GEOSS

Session Agenda Welcome from NOAA

Zdenka Willis, NOAA representative to US GEO

GEOSS Policy Vision Peter Colohan, US OSTP

GEOSS Vision for Water Science Professor David Maidment, Univ. Texas - Austin

Workshop Objectives George Percivall, OGC and GEO IN-05 Task

Policy and Science Vision for GEOSS• How is knowledge discovered? (D. Maidment)

– Deduction from existing knowledge– Experiment in a laboratory– Observation of the natural environment

• Observation is the heart of GEOSS, Crafting geoinformation, the art and science of Earth Observation (D. Maidment)

• Each decision we make influences the state of the planet, it is changing, we have to understand the planet and the impacts of those influences. (P.Colohan)

• Our ability to exchange data brings the imperative to bring all the data forward, for observing the planet. (P.Colohan)• Raison d'être for GEO/GEOSS is data sharing (A. Lauthenbacher)

• Local to Region to Global integration, interoperability (D. Maidment)• Sensor Web Enablement allows us to pull data together (D. Maidment)• International standards, OGC process can make common languages (D. Maidment)

– Build momentum around key datasets, key communities of practice, help them realize the benefits of the standards.

– Different countries have different ways to define things. Semantic integration can help build the ways of conveying information and defining things in a common way.

Policy and Science Vision for GEOSS• GEOSS is a voluntary effort, not a mandate. Three principles (P.Colohan):

– Science based decision making– Open access to data and information– International cooperation

• A very generic approach is very difficult due to heterogeneity of data, models, decisions, etc.

• Environmental policy challenges:– 1. Carbon, quantify and regionally disaggregate to figure out

sources/absorption and retention.– 2. Extremes – “Water is the delivery vehicle of climate change” How are things

changing? water, floods, droughts, freezing, heat waves, sea level, etc. These all affect businesses and commercial interests

– 3. Food security – Seasons changing, global crop production• Full realization of GEOSS seems distant, but we need to take steps in right

direction now.

Session 2. Current GEOSS Architectures - What exists and what is hindering

progress Session Agenda

GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) Doug Nebert USGS

GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEO GLAM)

Kathy Fontaine for Chris Justice & Inbal Becker-Reshef

GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON)

Gary Geller NASA-JPL GEOSS Disaster Management Sensor Web architecture - CEOS

John Evans, NASA/GST

Current GEOSS architecture and users• GEOSS Common Infrastructure

– Operational GCI is in place– Usability issues and challenges– Expressed interest in sensor webs / model webs

• Each building a Community of Practice within science/application area– All looking for variety of data sources/types– Common needs for data discovery, search, access services

• With focus on SBAs, risk of creating new stovepipes?– SBAs have particular interest but GEOSS architecture intended to provide

common capabilities

• The extent of current use is unclear – Users appear to be consumers and providers of data and services

About the data• With regard to openness, who supports it? What is

the business model?– Organizations (such as OGC) that include govt. and

industry partners promote openness– Incentives come from top down – leaders of int’l

organizations• Commercial involvement in GEOSS – as providers and

users of products?– Agriculture given as potential area for data exchange

• Efforts to take in socioeconomic data?– AIP tasks mentioned as mechanism to identify needs for

these data– Classification of disasters by socioeconomic characteristics

Session 3. Sensor Web - Observations for forecasts, on-demand

Session Agenda Theme 1: Integrating in situ, satellite and model forecasts in sensor webs

Crowdsourcing, OpenStreetMap and the Nambia Flood SensorWeb

Dan Mandl, NASA - GSFC Use of open standards to share ocean observing and model data in U.S. IOOS

Eoin Howlett, ASA Science Sensor-Web-technology based Sensor-model integration for supporting the GEOSS societal benefit areas

Liping Di, GMU CSISS Incorporating models into the sensor webs

Sergii Skakun, NASU Theme 2: Enabling on-demand products

Scientific Workflows on the Sensor Web Derek Hohls, CSIR

Integration of data and on-demand data products generation Ingo Simonis, OGC-E

Data Preparedness for Disaster and Events. Ken Keiser, UAH

User-centered goals driving system workflows Pat Cappelaere, NASA - GSFC

Sensor Web Session

• Aims:– to explore techniques to integrate in situ and satellite

observations, and model forecasts in a sensor web architecture, and

– to look at ways to enable users to leverage sensor webs to develop 'on-demand' products.

• Missed opportunity to talk about (J. Maso) • Sensors that auto-declare themselves in the web?• How to go from millions of individual observations to

a structured information?: from observations to products.

Sensor – Model Integration and users

Focus on Sensor – Model• How do you enable better

discovery of workflows that match a given suite of user requirements

• i.e. pattern match between everything from sensor types to decision-support requirements

Focus on the User• How do you deliver to the user

the required products and services with the requisite level of customization

• trade-off question

Session 4. Model Web - Vision and current frameworks

Session Agenda Theme 1: Model Web Vision

The GEO Model Web vision and action overview Stefano Nativi, CNR

The Model Web and the Biodiversity and Ecosystems benefit areas

Gary Geller, NASA-JPL Developing and Validating Model Web Business Processes with the GEOSS User Requirements Registry

Hans Peter Plag, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Univ Nevada

Theme 2: Model Web ImplementationThe ESMF framework

Fei Liu, NOAA The OpenMI and Integrated Environmental Modelling - achieving the vision

Roger Moore, OpenMI Association The Business Model Broker

Mattia Santoro,CNR

User-Requirement Registry (URR)

• Collect, store, publish (Hans-Peter):– Requirements: what to do, who to do it– Lexicons, controlled vocabularies; essential variables

• Integrated into the GEOSS Semantics Registry– Connect Earth observations to societal benefits using

value chains• With the URR you can: – Identify value-adding business processes; with crowd-

sourced input and validation– Analyze goals: gaps; prioritization of users, data &

processes; relevance of data

Model Web Initiative

• Vision: dynamic web of models, integrated with databases and websites consultative infrastructure for asking the URR “what if” questions (S. Nativi)– e.g. How will climate change affect infection rate

of dengue fever in Vietnam?• Huge amounts of data available• Numerous models & modeling frameworks• Links/interfaces needed for connecting vocabularies,

brokers, knowledge bases, business processes how to combine what is needed?

Diversity of Models and Tools• Simulations (OpenModeller, nanoForge, nanoHub)• Frameworks– Object Modelling System– ModCom, Invisible Modelling Environ, OpenMI, ESMF, …

• Controlled vocab’s, thesauri– GEMET, INSPIRE, GCMD, GEOSS, etc– Brokering semantic assets– GEOSS Ontology WG

• Knowledge bases– GEOSS User Requirements Registry (URR)– Gazetteers, including event gazetteers

• The session was about tools to create future products

Vision for Integrated Modeling• Time is as important as space (R. Moore)• Natural events & “black swans” difficult to model (R.

Moore)– Deep Water Horizon– Volcanic ash– Climate, energy, water, health issues

• Depends on trust in framework by users and public (R. Moore)

• Barriers to progress: awareness, confidence, availability, skill base, little R&D program, little uptake among target groups

• Products are the results of chaining models (composed by processes) and data (also sensor)

Model Web• Include modeling/process capabilities as discoverable and

usable GEOSS resources• Challenges

– Manage heterogeneity of resources– Agreed definition of “model” representation– High-performance computing

• Scalable, distributed– Long-term access; standardization vs virtualization

• Model integration and brokering between different platforms– Recognize that GEOSS has different user types, and Model Web

addresses some of them• Work out a short term roadmap for the Model Web,

including effective show cases– Considering low hanging fruits– Integrating existing components

Session 5. Interoperability and Resource Discovery

Session Agenda Introduction and Agenda

Steve Browdy, IEEE, OMS Tech Vision on GEOSS Evolution: Towards a GEOSS for all stakeholders

Roberto Cossu, ESA and GEOWOW Linked Data: Another strategy for discovery and access

William Sonntag, US EPA Unique Identifiers within Systems of Systems

Joan Maso, GeoViQua (CREAF) Brokering for Multi-Disciplinary Interoperability: An EarthCube perspective

Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa, Univ. Colorado Authentication, Single Sign-On, and User Management for GEOSS

Steve Browdy, IEEE, OMS Tech Summary

Steve Browdy, IEEE, OMS Tech Libre Planet

Tommy Heath

Interoperability and Resource Discovery• Two directions:

– GEOWOW – EU FP7 Project • Applies the Discovery and Access Broker – semantically enriched search,

results ranking results– Linked Data

• Government data portals moving this direction• Semantically enriching catalogs will improve discovery

• Authentication, Single-Sign-on (SSO)– Will benefit providers to track accesses (aggregated)– OpenID & SAML2: Need implementations & testing

• GEOSS users; where are the citizens? What are our GEOSS users, and then how can we package the product?– citizen user is hard to predict.

• Helper App are important to facilitate the use of data once discovered

GEOSS Future Products Workshop 2013Thanks!!

Joan.Maso@uab.cat