Lectures 6 and 7 Spatial Data Infrastructures Partnerships in Action Longley et al. Chapter 19 Partnerships = SDIs, Spatial Data Infrastructures What is a National Spatial Data Infrastructure? “The technology, policies, standards, and human resources necessary to acquire, process, store, distribute, and improve utilization of geospatial data.” Source: Presidential Executive Order #12906 (1994): “Co-ordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure” W. Clinton. Partnerships via NSDIs The problem: Too much data duplication = waste Not enough data duplication = respond to emergencies Ad hoc data sharing has many difficulties Data often tailored to one application Best data often collected in greatest detail at local level but not accessible to regional or national folk Indexes/metadata to available GI unknown until recently No general protocols for any of this until NSDI… Ground Zero site a few days after 9/11; the New York City Emergency Operations Center had been located in the World Trade Center complex and was destroyed (Courtesy James Tourtellotte/MAI/Landove LLC) The depth of flooding in New Orleans as a consequence of Hurricane Katrina on August 31, 2005 (Courtesy NOAA) What does it mean in practice? US NSDI Defined standards (mandated on federal agencies and encouraged for others) Minimizing inconsistency Clearinghouse – metadata descriptions of existing data. Advertising what is available National geospatial data framework - a common “template” on which to assemble other data The US NSDI is composed of Clearinghouse Metadata Partnerships Geo data Standards The data provide a core... Geographic/Geospatial Data Categories of Geographic Data Community-developed data sets single purpose potential re-use common content specification “Framework” data Categories of Geographic Data Framework Specialized Framework Data Federal State Local Private Utilities Elevation and bathymetry Hydrography Geodetic Cadastral Railroads Roads Boundaries Digital orthoimagery Spatial Analysis Base for Other Data Finished Maps Web Sites of the Week Describing your data... Metadata Framework Specialized Metadata: “nutritional” label for GIS data sets Internally - saves 4 hrs research 10 times a year = (4x10x$50) = $2,000 (time it takes to look up or contact someone for information about a dataset) External Questions - refer 30 inquires/year (1hr/inquiry) = (30x1x $50)=$1,500 (time it takes to answer calls from people who want to use the data or find out more about it) Future reuse/enhancement - $5,000 to $25,000 Liability (lawyers, courts) - $$$$ The uses of metadata Provides documentation of existing internal geospatial data resources within an organization (inventory) Permits structured search and comparison of held spatial data by others (advertising) Provides end-users with adequate information to take the data and use it in an appropriate context (liability) Don’t follow Don’t buy Don’t use Never use again… from Bedard et al., U. of Laval Making data discoverable... Clearinghouse (catalog) Metadata Framework Specialized Clearinghouse provides... Discovery of spatial data Distributed search worldwide Uniform interface for spatial data searches Advertising for your data holdings Clearinghouse operates as... Entry point to constellation of servers Collection of distributed servers, using a common protocol (e.g., Z39.50) A virtual “Google” for geographic data This is all “Clearinghouse” Gateway NOAA Web Client Clearinghouse “Nodes” or Servers Oregon USGS NMD NGS Consistent approaches... Clearinghouse (catalog) Metadata Framework Specialized Standards Who builds standards? ISO - Intl Standards Organization FGDC Standards working group in partnership with . . . FGDC Thematic subcommittees Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Concerned organizations Producers and users of geospatial data Types of standards Data content — Common classifications — Common collection criteria Data management Metadata Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) Data transfer protocols (e.g., WMS) Clearinghouse/Catalog & Standards Important differences: Data models, data structures (formats), query languages, (syntactic) meaning of terms in metadata, meaning of values in data (semantic) E.g.: Metadata: – Different metadata standards (ISO vs. FGDC) – Different terms: ‘Seabed’ vs. ‘Seafloor’ ‘Coastline’ vs. ‘Shoreline’ Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) OGC Web Service: OGC specification Interface allowing requests for geographic “resources” across the Web using platform-independent calls Main OGC services: • Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) • Web Map Service (WMS) • Web Feature Service (WFS) • Web Coverage Service (WCS) Catalog Services for the Web (CSW) Example International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN) Connect individual coastal atlases to an integrated global atlas Global atlas ican.science.oregonstate.edu ican.ucc.ie Local atlases … mida.ucc.ie www.coastalatlas.net Catalog Services for the Web (CSW) Example ICAN CSW based on open source GeoNetwork Geonetwork-opensource.org “Seabed” “Seafloor” Atlas X ISO Metadata & MIDA terminology FGDC Metadata & OCA terminology … X Standard & X terminology Next step for ICAN is WMS Linking of terms in metadata helps ultimate link to data: ICAN:Coastline is similar to OCA:Shoreline CSW WMS WFS CSW WMS WFS CSW … WMS X WFS Web Mapping Service (WMS) Example DISMAR: Data Integration System for Marine Pollution and Water Quality. More current projects at http://interrisk.nersc.no/ International Coastal Atlas Network ican.science.oregonstate.edu Partnerships Clearinghouse (catalog) Metadata Framework GEOdata Standards Lots of people involved… Federal government (many agencies) State government Local government Private sector – contractors, value-adders, exploiters Not for profit organizations Citizenry Others… No one is in charge… Data.gov INSPIRE – INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe www.inspire-geoportal.eu The distribution of 3,325 ARGO drifters (buoys) in the world’s oceans at 0605 UTC on March 22, 2009—the data from these buoys are updated in almost real time from satellite observations. The ARGO project is a partnership of 44 countries. Viewing of the ARGO data is facilitated by a GIS viewer. Each drifter collects data on temperature and salinity to 2000 m depth, and their movements indicate the direction and strength of ocean currents—important information for predicting weather. Web Sites of the Week GEOSS – Global Earth Observation System of Systems A Global Spatial Data Infrastructure? Difficult enough to get national players to work together… Is GSDI a process, a general framework or a product? Who are the stakeholders? Who needs it? (military doing what they need themselves?) www.gsdi.org
