Networked Environmental Information System for
Global Emissions Inventories (NEISGEI)
“Applying 21st Century Advances in
Information Technology to the Conversion
of Environmental Data into Scientific-,
Management- and Policy-Relevant
Knowledge”
Brooke L. Hemming, Ph.D.
US EPA/National Center for Environmental Assessment
Stefan Falke, Ph.D.
Washington University in St. Louis
Terry Keating, Ph.D.
US EPA/Office of Air and Radiation
Collaborative Science and Management Networks
Advances in information science and technology are driving the trend toward
distributed networks and virtual communities for science and management.
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Cyberinfrastructure
NSF’s initiative to apply new IT to building new ways of conducting collaborative research
http://www.cise.nsf.gov/evnt/reports/toc.htm
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Earth Observation Summit
International effort to build comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation systems
http://www.earthobservationsummit.gov
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Ecoinformatics
EPA’s vision for national and international cooperation in data and technology development
http://oaspub.epa.gov/sor/user_conference$.startup
Integrated Ocean Observing System
International network of ocean related monitoring, assessment, and communication
http://www.ocean.us/
Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery
Network of high-performance computers and software to gain new insights into weather
http://lead.ou.edu/
Virtual Observatory
Network for astronomical data sharing and distributed analysis
http://www.us-vo.org/
Emissions Community Collaborative Activities
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NIF Data standards
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Environmental Information Exchange Network
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Network linking EPA, States, and other partners through the Internet and
standardized data formats
Facility Registry System
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Standard format and submission
NEI XML schema
Standard facility codes and locations
Data Sharing Efforts
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States, Tribes, Local agencies, RPOs
North America
NEISGEI
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Networked Environmental Information System
for Global Emissions Inventories
…is both a conceptual framework and implementation effort for the development
of a fully integrated, distributed air emissions inventory – and the foundation for
an all-media environmental information network
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Tie together data at all spatial and temporal scales using emerging
distributed database technologies
Provide shared, online tools for processing and analysis
Provide for the seamless merging, manipulation and analysis of any webbased -- and desk-top resident -- air quality-relevant data through the
development of emerging Internet-oriented technologies
Make use of existing resources – link and partner with other efforts
Build a broad-based air quality user community: scientists, regulators,
policy analysts and the public
Create the network and toolkit piece-wise, allowing immediate functionality
and value to the air quality community
CAREN: The California Air Resources Network
Eduard Hovy, Jose-Luis Ambite, Andrew Philpot
USC Information Sciences Institute
US EPA
Environmental data sharing among international,
national, state and local governments, the public
and academic and other non-governmental
research organizations is a difficult challenge.
Barrier: Technological incompatibilities
► Barrier: Data format incompatibilities
► Barrier: Financial (staff time) limitations
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Our Solution Strategy (First Step):
Automate the integration of
heterogeneous databases
RPOs
States
Tribes
AQMDs
Municipalities
Use semi-automated information integration
methods to generate translation protocols between
related information sources, e.g.
AQMD and CARB.
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Integrated N. American Emission Inventory Demo
Co-investigator: Greg Stella, Alpine Geophysics
Air pollutant emission inventories for the US, Canada, and Mexico are
compiled and stored using different methods
The Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and the US EPA are
supporting a project to develop a prototype web tool for demonstrating uniform
access to distributed emissions data from North American electricity generating
power plants.
Identify, collect, and review existing sources of electric
generating utility emissions and activity databases, and
provide a summary of the state-of-science
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Build and demonstrate a relational database and web
browser tool to query, retrieve, and explore emissions data
from these distributed databases.
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Fire, Smoke, and Air Quality Network Pilot
► Access to distributed fire related data
Graphical browsing and display
► Online analysis tools
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What’s possible with NEISGEI ?
Collaborative Air Quality Management
Emerging air quality issues require cooperative efforts among multiple
jurisdictions
► Sharing expertise across borders and agencies maximizes program success
and cost effectiveness
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NEISGEI will provide a mechanism for collaborative
work by providing…
► A common, shared pool of data and tools
► A shared analytic tool set designed for interoperability
► Simple browsing through catalogs of emissions inventories,
measurement data, modeling outputs and analysis tools
► An environment in which each participant contributes in their
area of expertise and gains benefit from others.
► A virtual community gathering point
NEISGEI Community Objectives
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Gain new insights by combining skills, data, and tools from multiple
participants
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Provide data access to a broader user base, including the public
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Identify data gaps at multiple spatial and temporal scales
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Enable simplified, multi-party, cross-border collaboration
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Provide environment for new collaborative analysis
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Improve data quality through extended use, verification and versioning
control
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Build and share reusable components across the network
Ex. Emissions Community Resource of Data & Tools
Data Catalogs
Data
Wrappers
XML
Emissions
Inventory
Catalog
Geospatial
One-Stop
RDBMS
Users &
Projects
Comparison
of Emissions
Methods
NEI
Data Analysis
NEON
Activity Data
Emissions Factors
Surrogates
Web
Tools/Services
GIS
Estimation
Methods
Spatial
Allocation
Transport
Models
Model
Development
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See our website for the latest information about the progress of NEISGEI:
» http://www.neisgei.org