EarthLookCZ - GMES data publication, combination and sharing on the web
Petr Horak¹, Sarka Horakova², Karel Charvat³, Martin Vlk4 ¹WIRELESSINFO, Cholinská 19, Litovel, Czech Republic (
[email protected]) 2 HF Biz s.r.o., Slovanska 21, Sumperk, Czech Republic (
[email protected]) 3 CCSS, Radlicka 28, Praha, Czech Republic (
[email protected]) 4 Help forest Ltd., Slovanska 21, Sumperk, Czech Republic (
[email protected])
Abstract: How to work with GMES data? The EarthLookCZ project looks for solutions to connecting GMES data, how to publish your own data and combine it with others and how to create new services from available data and share them on the web … The technical output from the project, a prototype of the EarthLookCZ portal, is of course only one from the several possible answers to these questions. The project’s solution is based on the idea of implementing several independent tools for geo-spatial data searching, data management and visualization into portal and to give users the possibility of working with their own data together with data from external sources. Also an implementation of INSPIRE principles is one from the most important steps in portal development. EarthLookCZ portal presents a new way of utilizing GMES data. Keywords: GMES; INSPIRE; Spatial data; OGC; Core services.
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GMES
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) is a European initiative aimed at providing stable, reliable and timely services in the fields of environment and security. This initiative is built on the basis of cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA), which ensures the implementation of various spacecraft components and coordination centers in Europe, and the European Commission, which creates a basic concept, defines the priorities and manages the survey and development of services based on local data and data from remote sensing. The GMES together with the planned Galileo satellite navigation system are the main pillars of the European space policy. The introduction of a comprehensive system that will include technology for remote sensing and local data collection and simple distribution methods, will hopefully contribute to the introduction of highly efficient services in various areas. These services exist today, but only at 102
national or regional or field level without important joint coordination. From a pan-European point of view, the crucial thing is to ensure the possibility of using these services repeatedly, organizing and making them available as easily as possible. The first step has been done through the launch of the first "Core Services". It is very important to now find the best way in which we can move forward. For this reason, great emphasis is being placed upon the use of geospatial information and the harmonization and efficient management of spatial data across Europe. Also stress is being placed on the implementation of I3SPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) as a guideline for infrastructure and management for the use and sharing of spatial data.
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Project EarthLookCZ - Introduction
Project EarthLookCZ (www.earthlook.cz) is one of pilot projects developed in the Czech Republic in the ERA-STAR regions framework. The project undertaken by the WIRELESSINFO association aims to verify the validity of spatial data infrastructure quality for GMES in the Czech Republic and is supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. A non-profit association WIRELESSINFO (www.wirelessinfo.cz) is a virtual research centre, which works on information technology development mainly in the areas of forestry, agriculture, environment and e-governance sectors. One of the main goals of the EarthLookCZ project is to support the implementation of GMES in the Czech Republic. The first project report Analysis of GMES introduces GMES tasks in scope of overall European politics in the area of space research and describes present GMES activities at both European and national levels. There is focus on GMES projects, which are currently being solved in the Czech Republic, and activities, which essentially influence solving of the EarthLookCZ project. The main focus of the activities at the moment is the implementation of ISPIRE directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe). One part of the study creates summaries of existing data sources of governmental sector, which might have a prospective connection to GMES activities. From a technical point of view the project aim is the Technological infrastructure proposal based on the implementation of ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards for data sharing and exchange. The objective of the solving is to provide a distribution system that can ensure access to distributed data and metadata through the GMES services and also access to proper GMES data with the possibility to share and publish an organization's own GMES data.
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The prototype of the national GMES portal
Currently, whenever GMES data is available to users on the Internet, it is mainly as simple visualizations in the web map client. This solution makes data visualization possible, but the users have no possibility to use this data for their own purposes. A possible solution is to buy the “hard” data or use the data through standardized web services. Unfortunately only a small amount of GMES data is accessible through standardized web services now, but it seems that data sharing through web services will be the most important part of data exchange in the future. The proposed solution of the GMES national portal in the EarthLookCZ project promotes better access to data. The prototype of the portal is aimed at sharing and publishing raster data (e.g. satellite images, orthophoto, geophysical measurements, climate data) and vector data including basic topographical layers (e.g. thematic environmental data). The main innovation of the project is the ability of users to publish their own data sources on the web and integrate their own data together with external data into new compositions. Afterwards these map compositions may be published in the form of web services (Figure 1). Users can also integrate these new compositions into their own SW solutions. This concept of the GMES portal allows not only common data visualization, but also a preparation of the new data composition by a GIS specialist and its data accessibility to other users; all of it within the portal solution.
Fig. 1. An integration of own and external sources by the new web service creations
National GMES Portal enables an integration of monitoring data that has been acquired using the space infrastructure (satellite images) and the In Situ 104
infrastructure (ground measurements, aerial photographs) together with other data layers, such as general reference data (topographic maps) and thematic data (landscape planning data). Also sources of GMES Core Services built within the basic structure of the European GMES can be accessible from the portal via web services (Figure 2).
Fig. 2. Data source sharing and new services creation
Using the portal functionality, users are also able to upload their own data onto the server and publish it directly from the GMES portal. Users can combine different data sources, create new map compositions and make them available to other users. Availability “data about data” and map compositions is ensured through metadata and catalogue systems. Overview of the basic functionality of the national GMES portal prototype: •
Data sources searching in the Metadata Catalogue – searching for external data sources or own data on the server is provided by metadata catalogue
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External geographical GMES data accessing through web services – it is possible to use external GMES data if it is accessible through standardized OGC web services. Data sources can be national or international including GMES Core services 105
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Your own geo-data can be imported onto a portal and published on the web – the user is able to import his own geo-data onto the server and offer this data to others as a standardized web service. Currently, the data may be imported into file repository, but in future it is also hoped that data can be imported into database PostgreSQL/PostGIS.
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Data management of both the internal and external GMES sources – it is possible to combine external and internal data mutually and create new thematic map compositions from them
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Data visualization in web map client – all internal data, external data and new compositions are visible in a map application built into the portal
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Publishing of new composition in the form of web services – internal data and new map compositions can be published as OGC web services
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Generating of components capable of being integrated onto other web pages – the system enables the user to generate a map application HS(Open)Layers with an open API interface; the user can integrate this with other applications or web sites
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Metadata generating for the new compositions – internal data and the newly created compositions can be equipped with standardized metadata records, which will be available in metadata catalogue
The prototype of GMES portal of the project EarthLookCZ is currently being developed and modified. A present version of the portal is available at www.earthlook.cz/portal or directly from the project main web page www.earthlook.cz. The concept of the portal is divided into 3 main parts (Figure 3): •
Sample map applications and metadata catalogue – public section of the portal where users can work with pre-defined GMES map applications or search for GMES data sources in metadata catalogue.
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GMES data management – the most innovative part of the portal; registered users are able to import their own data onto the portal, create new map compositions, integrate external GMES sources through web services and make them available to other users as a new web service
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Sources of GMES information – links to the most important GMES web sites and public GMES web sources
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Fig. 3. Prototype of the GMES portal
The solution of GMES Data Management is based on the GeoHosting system principles. GeoHosting was developed by WIRELESSINFO members and offers services supporting the creation of a spatial data sharing system with the possibility of publishing data for any user who has access to the Web. The system is based upon open formats and is open for interaction with other SDI platforms. This model supports the re-usability of components and easy building of new applications or their modification. The goal of the design is to re-use existing tools and to define interoperable interfaces for these tools, which will therefore create the possibility of re-using these tools as a part of other applications. For the selection of the components it is important to be familiar with Open Source solutions, but only on such systems which support Open Standards (OGC and ISO) Currently, Data Import and Map Management components are implemented into GMES portal prototype. Data Import is an application for the management of spatial data. It supports the management of data in databases or files. It supports the export and import of this data and also publishing and updating of related metadata. In databases, it is possible to store both, vector and raster data, including their attributes. Also for 107
file oriented storage, it supports both vector and raster data. From raster formats, it currently supports IFF/GeoTIFF, JPEG,GIF, PNG, BMP, ECW, from vector formats ESRI Shapefile, DGN, DWG, GML The Map Management application is a software tool for users who want to publish or create new map projects and compositions. It supports the publication of spatial composition from locally stored data (fields or databases-stored in the Data Import application), with external WMS, WFS data services. It supports visualization in web browsers using such clients as OpenLayers, GoogleMaps, DHTML client, Desktop viewer, GoogleEarth, DIS Janitor. It can also publish data as OGC WebMapService (WMS), OGC WebFeatureService (WFS). All published data is also connected with metadata stored in Micka metadata catalogue. Use possibilities of the portal: The main importance of the GMES portal having the possibility of creating new map compositions from available GMES data sources and publishing of these compositions in the form of new web services. Figure 4 uses as an example of a composition compiled of data available via WMS (Web Map Services) from these organizations: CZUK – Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre, Cenia – Czech Environmental Information Agency and FMI (Forest Management Institute).
Fig. 4. Examples of map compositions
Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre provides data in the form of cadastral map, Cenia agency provides orthophotos and Forest Management Institute the forest typological map. A new developed composition can be published as a new WMS service, which can be used for example by workers doing the measurement in the field. There is obviously a possibility to connect also other web services into these compositions, Service), like WFS (Web Feature Then the final composition could be used for visualization of the actual meteorological sensors values, river level monitoring and so on.
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Conclusion
The prototype of the EarthLookCZ portal illustrates possible ways for GMES data utilization in accordance with INSPIRE principles. Users of the portal can search for information regarding GMES on both a national and international level. When they are registered, they are able to actively work with available external data sources, but they can also use their own data for integration with external sources, create new map compositions and make them available to other users. Publication of their own data or map compositions is joined with synchronous publication of their metadata; this functionality ensures that the new data is searchable for other users. An interaction with GMES core Services is desirable; practical examples should be available in the last period of the EarthLookCZ project. Project EarthLookCZ does not propose to put in practice a full-value application but within the scope of a prototype to test new styles of work with spatial data in web applications. Portal functionality is of course obtainable also by other SW tools utilization, nevertheless these tools are generally expensive or high special skills are required to use them. The prototype of the project EarthLookCZ portal solutions makes these possibilities accessible for smaller organizations, schools and persons; currently these methods would be practically unavailable for them. People can test functionality of the portal after registration on the present link www.earthlook.cz/portal.
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Annoni, A., INSPIRE / GMES / GEOSS, presentation. COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES): From Concept to Reality {SEC(2005)}. Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, Final Report for the GMES Initial Period (2001-2003). EarthLookCZ, report D12 - Specifikace GMES serveru, 2008. EarthLookCZ, report D18 - Prototyp1, základní funkcionalita, 2008. Harris, R., Professor - GMES AND INSPIRE - Legal and Policy Issues http://www.cenia.cz. http://www.czechspace.cz, http://www.czechspace.cz/cs/gmes. http://www.earthlook.cz/portal. http://www.gmes.info. http://www.opengeospatial.org. SDĚLENÍ KOMISE RADĚ A EVROPSKÉMU PARLAMENTU, Evropská vesmírná politika, {SEK(2007) 504}, {SEK(2007) 505}, {SEK(2007) 506}. SMĚRNICE EVROPSKÉHO PARLAMENTU A RADY o zřízení Infrastruktury pro prostorové informace v Evropském společenství (INSPIRE) PE-CONS 3685/2006. Šobra, J., GMES, presentation.
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