Tartu Geo, a podcast about geography and geoinformatics

Tahmin, a student in our Geoinformatics for Urbanised society MSc programme, and I have been working hard over the last months to record, edit, and polish on our podcast project: a GIS-themed educational podcast from our Department of Geography (Geograafia osakond) here in Tartu, Estonia.

Introducing: Tartu Geo, a podcast about geography and geoinformatics related fields along with education, research, history, philosophy, ground breaking ideas and innovation. The show will also host guests from different sectors who will share insight about their research and work. We try to bring up new episodes every 15 days with exciting and newer topics of geoinformatics and geography. Stay tuned and happy listening.

https://tartugeo-podcast.com/

Please bear with us, we are still amateurs :-D The sound quality in some guest interviews is not great, but overall it is getting better and better as we progress. We have already several episodes lined up, and the podcast can be loaded from all the convenient places like iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and of course you can add the feed also directly to your podcast app.

Please let us know any suggestions or advice that can help us grow. Like always comment, like and subscribe.

GSoC and Master Thesis completed

Busy summer, well or winter, depends on the hemisphere and the full time extent. Last 2-3 months have been packed with work and included about 25.000 air miles (which means concatenated spending several days in airplanes).
I finally managed to finish my Master Thesis "Towards a 4D WebGIS using harmonised datasets: Examined on a New Zealand Example" which examines in the first part existing groundwater-related geoportal projects and scientific applications around the globe, existing and useful, web-based technologies and standards (e.g. OGC) to implement such a portal, a draft architecture. In the second part actual prototypical implementations of a selected subset of the examined standards and and technologies demonstrate their feasibility for the SMART project. I also hold a talk at the GI_Forum conference in Salzburg (proceedings/conference paper).
Furthermore I successfully completed my Google Summer of Code (GSoC) project with the 52°North Initiative, where I implemented an exchangeable encodings mechanism for their Sensor Observation Service (SOS). I additionally implemented a plugin that provides SOS time-series output in the WaterML2.0 format. I could acquire the latest schema, which will be published soon.. we were supposed to write a series of blog articles to document or progress in the project:

• Dynamic output formats for the Sensor Observation Service
• Exchangeable Encodings getting in shape
• Demonstrating Exchangeable Encodings: A Quantum Leap for me

After flying back to New Zealand I was lucky to visit the GeoSciML Face-to-Face-Meeting at GNS Science in Wellington. It was really exciting to meet these people, working on the international standard of a Geoscience Markup Language. also issues around the OneGeology portal have been disussed, as it uses GeoSciML to build up a world geology map. Additionally I could get in touch with one of the inspiring driving persons behind the Canadian Groundwater Information Network and their its sematic foundation, the Groundwater Markup Language (GWML), which itself is derived from GeoSciML.
Now I will dedicate my research to the development of a New Zealand groundwater geoportal within the SMART project, using OGC webservices, GeoSciML and/or GWML, WaterML2.0 and X3D as its foundations to transform and consume all available data relevant to aquifer characterisation and create a completely new, visually appealing 3D/4D view on New Zealand's groundwater resources.

Exciting ;-)

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

Groundwater Resources in New Zealand

Data Synthesis and visualisation for groundwater resources in New Zealand

“As a conservative estimate, better understanding of groundwater resources could lead to improvements in water management with potential to prevent social, cultural, environmental and economic losses of $1 billion or more, about 1% of New Zealand’s GDP. Understandably, central and regional government has identified improved characterisation of groundwater resources as a top research priority.”

The SMART project is about characterisation of New Zealand’s aquifers, to improve ground- and freshwater management (www.smart-project.info).

The main research aims of the SMART project

• focus on novel, passive suite of methods to measure groundwater volume and changes in it over time
• aquifer hydraulic properties
• fluxes of groundwater interchange with surface waters
• water age
• with methods like ...
• ambient noise seismic tomography
• airborne geophysical surveying
• satellite remote sensing
• fibre optic temperature sensing
• novel age tracers

Outcomes shall made available via a web portal and harmonised 3D groundwater database that will meet stakeholder needs for open access, ease of use, and interoperability with existing systems. Furthermore the integration of existing data is crucial.

My Thesis Topics

I contribute in the field of “data synthesis and visualisation” in the form of a prototype 3D/4D WebGIS, data processing and web services to provide harmonised hydro(geo)logical data from multiple sources. Within the works for my Master Thesis until June 2012, I identified following milestones:

• stakeholder consultation - groundwater workshop, visited HBRC and EW
• gather and analyse (sample) hydro(geo)logical datasets from wells, boreholes or pump tests, managed in systems/databases like GGW/NGMP (GNS), Hilltop and Wiski (very popular among regional councils) – Feb 2012
• find a common data scheme/data model, migrate and/or transform data online and provide via web services to connect to a (NZ) SDI or integrate/link in web portal for easy access – April 2012
• identify appropriate technology and standards (ISO, OGC, OASIS … ) 3D/4D visualisation in the web, as aquifers are inherently 3D structures plus time (water time series data -> 4D) – June 2012

The prototype implementations of this thesis will be in test mode, accessible by designated staff and stakeholders. The research about “data synthesis and visualisation” including the topics of this Master Thesis will be continued in more detail by a PhD student from July 2012.

We focus on hydro(geo)logical data. The first steps are about accessing multiple existing sources of data and find a way to publish them via web services (most likely OGC).

Major Challenges include

• complexity of water-related data – many parameters and measurement properties, parameter naming, units etc.
• data policy issues (ownership, restricted access ...)
• data quality and quality and assurance issues – uncertainty, hint/description in metadata
• as existing data often is not accessible outside their environments (GNS network, regional councils’ local data storage), or mostly via manual file-based email/ftp interchange or as “pdf”-reports, the publishing of existing data from multiple sources is anticipated via the web e.g. via WMS, WFS, WCS, WaterML2.0?, SOS, download (shapefile, raster coverage) to allow easy recombination, correlation and analysis at national scale (surpassing regional boundaries)
• find a common data scheme, probably “just” implement a software to access databases and deliver WaterML2.0?! Good idea might be to transform online (e.g. XSLT/WPS web service)
• provide infrastructure, for storage, access, delivery and manipulation of different geodata (vector, raster, time series …)
• Prepare catalogue and provide metadata in standard encodings (XML, OGC web services, ISO 19115/19139 metadata, CSW, CS-W ebRIM/ISO)
• Regarding exisiting methods and infrstructures, like Auscope / SISS (AU), GeoNet (NZ), GENESIS FP7 (EU), CUAHSI (North America)
• Think about GeoSciML for description of geology and geometry, as WaterML is more about time series and measurement data prototypical web 3D/4D map/aquifer visualisation (X3D earth ...)

Hello World

"Hello World"

Obligatory, awkward first post :-)

I am going to post infos about stuff I am actually doing. That mainly includes my UNIGIS studies and the Master Thesis in particular. I am officially matriculated at the University of Salzburg, Austria. I am contributing to their research in the SMART project as a working student in New Zealand. My main interests and recently my main activities lie in the convergence zone of web technologies and GIS. Pretty cool stuff ^^

Cheers,
Alex