“The NESIS Network and its Outcomes for the ICT ... · ICT Roadmap for implementing SEIS , that focuses on what to do for evolving towards a distributed, standards-based infrastructure

“The NESIS Network and its Outcomes for

the ICT Implementation of SEIS”

Giorgio Saio - GISIG

INSPIRE Conference 2011

ICT PSP Grant AgreementNo. 225062

why NESIS

• To provide a coherent ICT roadmap for the SEIS

implementation, with the consolidation of existing best

practice.

• To promote the uptake of ICT solutions to address the

fundamental problems faced by public authorities in

providing information related to monitoring and

reporting environmental data.

• To support a shared vision for streamlining current

information and reporting systems and to promote the

adoption of an interoperable information infrastructure


Criteria

� Awareness that there is not a single model to organise data flow, to be developed upon diverse needs in the topic areas� exploit the lessons of Good Practices

� From local to global and vice-versa, i.e. to improve data sharing at and among all levels� promote the mutual exchange between different level

authorities (Local-Regional-National-European) rather than a one-way flow

� A top down and bottom-up approach� Top down requirements, from the SEIS communication� Bottom-up requirements, from existing Good Practices


Objectives vs. Outcomes� Analysis of the SoP in Environmental Information Systems

and services for monitoring and reporting (from national

to a European synthesis)

� Creation of an inventory of Good Practices and analysis of

them

� ICT Roadmap for implementing SEIS, that focuses on what to do for evolving towards a distributed, standards-

based infrastructure for spatial and non-spatial

environmental information, based on the principles of

shared access

� Guidelines on ICT supporting environmental monitoring and reporting, that focus on how to do it

� Communication forum and network of stakeholders


NESIS Results

� Analysis of the State of Play in the Countries participating in the Network, about the ICT components that will contribute to the development of SEIS

� 12 coutries contributed

� Synthesis of the State of Play at European level of environmental information systems for monitoring and reporting

� Good Practices in environmental data management and methodologies for their analysis � NESIS GP Catalogue (44 GP available)

� A contribution for the SEIS implementation: a proposal for a SEIS ICT roadmap and technical Guidelines

� Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS

� The NESIS Network (43 Members, 24 Countries, starting from 16 Partners, 14 Countries)


I. NESIS approach and SEIS requirementsA combined Top-Down and Bottom-Up approach for the identification of the requirements for the ICT component of SEIS

II. SEIS ICT Component Envisions an overall network architecture for SEIS

III.Guidelines for technical implementationContains the discussion of potential technological

approaches to implement SEIS ICT services and components.

IV.SEIS specific ICT aspectsOther SEIS issues not directly target by INSPIRE

V. Towards SEIS implementationIt proposes a possible action plan for the SEIS implementation

MAIN NESIS OUTREACH“Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS” – Structure

Roadmap: what to do

Guidelines:how to do it


“Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS” – Users

Who should read this document?

This document intends to be a “handbook” suitable for understanding, commenting and amending, and in perspective implementing, the NESIS proposal for SEIS

According to a criterion of role and profile, the following categories of potential users can be identified:

�decision makers and managers, for the Parts I, II, IV and V of the document

�ICT technicians and operators for all Part, with Part III and IV being the most technical


“Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS” – ICT focus

� SEIS envisioned as a network of distributed services

� Under focus on service provider side:

�service interface technology

�metadata elements and encoding

�data exchange models and formats

� Under focus on service consumer side:

�data processing and information synthesis

�data semantics and linked data

� Also discussed:

�handling reference data (e.g. thesauri, global identifiers,

etc)


“Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS” – general remarks

� The Roadmap section defines services on a high level, allowing

to consider different technology options for implementing them

(e.g. SOAP, REST, …)

� Potential technology bindings discussed in Guidelines.

� The document is generally dealing with environmental reporting

issues, but also briefly addressed are:

�voluntarily collected and provided data

�sensor monitoring

� SEIS policy options (under discussion) affect the choice of

technologies and overall implementation approach


“Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS” – ICT direction (1)

� The possibilities for using INSPIRE interfaces and formats for

discovering, viewing and downloading non-GIS data (e.g. SOER,

statistical data, …) were assessed.

� INSPIRE’s OGC services and ISO standards provide indeed

extensibility points for doing that, but things to consider:

� it is not trivial;

� OGC clients unlikely to request non-GIS data from OGC

services, so different client-side tools still required;

� overhead for organisations with only tabular data to offer;

� EEA’s experience: GML and XML Schema based formats in

general are not effective for data analysis and processing.


“Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS” – ICT direction (2)

� Complementary approach: data and metadata exchanged over RDF

syntax and model, based on previously developed ontologies and

taxonomies (RDF Schema, OWL, SKOS, etc).

� Linked Data principles for linking diverse data.

� Semantic Web features for automated data understanding.

� Why?

� universal model: well suited for analysis and processing, same

client-side tools for diverse data

� expressibility of relations between different taxonomies and

thesauri: less streamlining efforts

� easy to link with data from INSPIRE

� doesn’t suffer from constantly changing reporting specs


II. SEIS ICT COMPONENTS

4. Metadata

5. Data Specifications

6. Service Oriented Architecture

Definition of SOA and services, Network Services Architecture

7. Proposed ICT Services

Discovery, View, Download, Data Quality, Feedback, Sensor

Observation, Notification, Registry, Service Chaining

8. Service Security

9. Summary, conclusions, open issues

“Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS” – Contents (1)

I. NESIS APPROACH TOWARDS SEIS REQUIREMENTS

1. Definitions2. Top- down and bottom-up, two complementary vision

3. SEIS Requirements

III. Guidelines for technical implementation:

10. GUIDELINES ON SEIS METADATAExisting standards, The choices for SEIS, SEIS metadata encoding

11. GUIDELINES ON SEIS DATA SPECIFICATIONSModeling approaches and data encodings, XML Schema and XML, OWL, RDF

Schema and RDF

12. GUIDELINES ON SEIS NETWORK SERVICESDiscovery Services, View Services, Download Services, Data Quality

Services, Feedback Services, Sensor Observation Services, Notification

Services, Registry Services, Services Chaining

13. Summary, conclusions, open issues



IV. SEIS Specific ICT aspects

14. Voluntarily provided data

Guidelines on voluntarily provided data,Acquiring voluntary provided data

15. Documents and information products

16. Reporting support

17. Data processing and semanticsProblem background, What SEIS could do?, Potential issues, Potential solutions

18. Linking spatial and environmental domains

19. Streamlining thesauri and other reference data

20. Conclusions



V.Towards SEIS implementation

21. PROPOSED ACTION PLAN FOR SEIS IMPLEMENTATION21.1 General remarks and assumptions

21.2 Legislation’s impact on SEIS implementation

21.3 Implementing Rules and Guidance Documents

21.4 Groups and responsibilities

21.5 SEIS components to be specified

21.6 Reusing INSPIRE IR & DT

21.7 Action plan illustrated

21.8 Action plan

22. SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS

22.1 Next steps towards SEIS implementation



Network exploitation and follow- up initiatives

The NESIS Network is still operational to support the ICT implementation

of a Shared Environment Information System for Europe and the SEIS

initiative, through:

� a NESIS Secretariat supported by GISIG to guarantee the operativeness of the

Network

� a strict link with INSPIRE (NESIS has been registered as a Thematic SDIC and

with EEA, supporting the EEA ICT strategy

� the further development of the NESIS Good Practice Catalogue, to share

experiences on environmental data and information management

� actions devoted to the training and awareness activities

� promotion of new projects and initiatives, such as an Environmental

Thesaurus Framework

� the Network development and enlargement


NESIS: a line of activity within the GISIG Association

NESIS

NESIS as SDIC INSPIRE

Linkage with INSPIRE: NESIS as a Thematic SDIC

I. Collect and describe user requirements related to Environmental policies

II. Submit reference material as input to the Drafting Teams (D6.2, Good Practices, etc)

III. Contribute to awareness raising and training

IV. Contribute, with reference to environmental information management, into the review process and the release of the INSPIRE Implementing Rules


44 Good Practices registered so far




A Training Framework

I. NESIS approach and SEIS requirements A combined Top-Down and Bottom-Up approach for the identification of therequirements for the ICT component of SEIS

II. SEIS ICT COMPONENTS NESIS proposal for a technological Roadmap for the SEIS implementation

III. Guidelines for technical implementationAbout “how” SEIS could be developed

IV. SEIS specific ICT aspects

V. Towards SEIS implementationIt propose a possible action plan for the SEIS implementation

NESIS main outcomes -> Training Courses

A - “Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS”

B - “NESIS Good Practices for SEIS” – about ICT aspects of environmental data management (methods, technology, procedures)


The NESIS network is intended to continue its original objective to support the ICT implementation o SEIS, starting from D6.2 “Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS”, involving other interested stakeholders

May 2008, 16 Members – 14 Countries Now, 43 Members – 24 Countries

The NESIS Network


NESIS Members by Institution type

12%

65%

18%5%

Resarch - University

Public Body

Private Company

Other(77% of them EIONET NFPs)


NESIS and SEIS potential stakeholders

(source EEA)NESIS is an open Network


Next NESIS event: a NESIS Workshop at

You are all invited!


NESIS kick-off meeting Copenhagen 22-23 May 2008 28

Thanks to all the NESIS

Members for the support

during the Project and

for the future of the

Network

Giorgio Saio

[email protected]
