Developing a Thesis Outline

Developing a Thesis Outline

So the main question I am going to answer is:

"How can the multiple hydro(geo)logical data sources from many organisations be harmonised and  migrated to a common, open database scheme, that supports data access with 3D and 4D (i.e. spatio-temporal) rendering in a web portal?"

Expected results would be:

• Support for analysis, across regional councils and boundaries
• Seamless data structures for best representation of measurements and hydro(geo)logical structures
• New visualisation and exploration techniques (data navigation)
• Higher interoperability across multiple data sets

Some theoretical thoughts include:

• Gather and evaluate hydro(geo)logical datasets identified as most relevant by stakeholders, with physical and logical representations of attribute and geometry data  and describe in UML models
• Identify key properties  of hydro(geo)logical datasets for proper data representation
• Develop an open data scheme, which integrates key properties
• Derive an open source prototype database and web service architecture
• Create transformation process to migrate gathered datasets into the prototype database
• Create prototype 4D web interface

As time and the thesis advances, there will be probably slight variations in the approach. But literature review and stakeholder consultion have refined these mentioned point for the start of the thesis.

Some sources used for review have been the following:

• Open Geospatial Consortium Inc.,, Draft for Candidate OpenGIS® Web 3D Service Interface Standard  Date: 2010-01-20, Reference number of this document: OGC 09-104r1, Version: 0.4.0, Discussion Paper,
• D. J. Beard, , Using VRML to Share Large Volumes of Complex 3D Geoscientific Information via the Web. In: Web3D, 2006 11th International Conference on 3D Web Technology, Columbia Maryland, 18-21 April 2006, ACM. S. 163-167. Columbia Maryland.
• Zhang, Y., Li, W., Liu, L., Building the Virtual Reality GIS based on Browser/Service, Proceedings - 2011 19th International Conference on Geoinformatics, Shanghai, 2011, ISBN 9781612848488
• David R. Maidment, Richard P. Hooper, David G. Tarboton & Ilya Zaslaksky, Accessing and sharing data using CUAHSI Water Data Services, Hydroinformatics in Hydrology, Hydrogeology and Water Resources (Proc. of Symposium JS.4 at the Joint IAHS & IAH Convention, Hyderabad, India, September 2009, 213-223
• Dieter Hildebrandt, Jürgen Döllner, Service-oriented, standards-based 3D geovisualization: Potential and challenges Original Research ArticleComputers, Environment and Urban Systems,Volume 34,Issue 6,November 2010,Pages 484-495
• Proceedings in 3D of OGC, OGC 3D summit 2011 (September 20^th, Boulder, Colorado), Agenda http://www.opengeospatial.org/pub/www/files/OGC_3D_Summit2011_FinalAgenda_v2.pdf (last date of retrieval: 19.12.2011)
• L. Bodum, and M. Jaegly, The Democratizing Potential of Geographic Exploration Systems (GES) Through the Example of GRIFINOR. , Innovations in 3D Geo Information Systems, 2006, Abdul-Rahman, Zlatanova&Coors
• Fernando R. Salas and David R. Maidment, World Water Online - Proposing An Integrated System for Global Water Information, GEOSS in Americas Symposium – Santiago, Chile, October 6th, 2011
• Chaowei Yang, Robert Raskin, Michael Goodchild, Mark Gahegan, Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure: Past, present and future, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Volume 34, Issue 4, July 2010, Pages 264-277, ISSN 0198-9715