Geospatial Data Curation & interoperability in the COBWEB project –

citizen science & crowdsourcing for environmental policy

Didier G. Leibovici & Mike JacksonUniversity of Nottingham (COBWEB partner)

didier.leibovici@nottingham.ac.uk

Chris HigginsCOBWEB Project Coordinatorchris.higgins@ed.ac.uk

European projects: Citizen Observatories

Community-based & crowdsourcing

www.citizen-obs.eu/

These 'citizens' observatories' will include community-based environmental monitoring, data collection, interpretation and information delivery systems. This will require the development of highly innovative monitoring technologies, like low-cost micro sensors that can be embedded in smartphones. Citizens shall then be able to collect environmental data on a range of parameters, automatically transmit this data to suitable data repositories and exchange their knowledge and experience within a Citizens' Observatory framework which enables citizenship co-participation in community decision making and cooperative planning

environmental exposure

air quality, noise

health

water management

floods and drought

species distribution, flooding and land cover and use

environmental governance

seawater colour, transparency and fluorescence

management of the coastal zone

water quality

odour perception, discomfort and nuisance

ambient odour exposures

Essential context – WNBR

• UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programmes World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR)– Sites of excellence to foster harmonious integration

of people and nature for sustainable development through participation, knowledge sharing, poverty reduction and human well-being improvements, cultural values and society's ability to cope with change, thus contributing to the Millennium Development Goals

• 610 reserves in 117 countries

COBWEB Biosphere Reserves

• Germany: Wadden See and Hallig Islands• Greece: Mount Olympus & Gorge of Samaria• Left open possibility of expansion to further

European and non-European BR’s

UK (Wales): Biosffer Dyfi– Development work

concentrated here

FP7 COBWEB project: pilot case studies

6

EO enhancement: content (linked data), accuracy (bidirectional)

Contribute to: land cover, habitat, biodiversity

Data existing:optical, radar ,LiDAR, … plant ontologies?

Citizen Observations:vegetation (species, communities, etc.) biophysical (moisture, greenness, phenological state)

Biological monitoring: content (linked data), accuracy (bidirectional), timely and updated information

Contribute to: environmental policy, habitatData existing:RSPB, linked to EO derived data,

Citizen Observations:Species and habitat related information (fauna, flora)

Flooding: timely information, finer scale,Calibrating flood models (hydraulic and erosion),Validation of flood extents and water pathways

Contribute to: environmental policy, warning systems (hazards and risks)Data existing:Historical data, floodplains, flood risk maps, weather data,Network of sensors

Citizen Observations:Time tagged photo (flood limits, colour [sediment transport])

mobile data capture & Quality Assurance / Conflation

Key components of the COBWEB architecture• Portal software & Survey Authoring tool survey management & for mobile app building

• Quality Assurance & Conflation QA workflow authoring tool, WPS

• Multi-source RetrievalMiddleware Service for Sensors (SIXTH /SWE and GeoPkg)

• Access control and privacysingle sign on, federation

• Co-design projects– Biological monitoring– Flooding– Validation of Earth Observation products

Data life cycleGeneric SDI-QA-Fusion-Decision

 QAQC service:-enriches the data collected with quality metrics, update them as new data comes in-feedbacks on existing data with quality metrics-qualifies users with quality metrics by direct assessments or profilingconflation service:-retrieves relevant information-compares and re-use informed quality of data-combines the information to achieve better quality meta-quality decision service:-compares policy requirement and achieved data quality-elaborates new data collection requirements-estimates the potential impact of current data quality in the policy decision-making

.Workflow authoring toolBPMN encoding

.ontology supportSKOS encoding

.running WPS or app

The QA workflow is composed of more than one QCinto a workflowthat may loop back /feedback to the user or to other users etc.to get additional information.(confirmatory / ensemble / linked data )

Interoperability example QAQC with authoring tool and WPS calls

QAwAT

QAwOnt

QAwWPS

A flooding data capture QA workflow

Qualifying the observations, the users and the authoritative data

Quality elementsObs /Auth - ISO19157 standardAuth - GeoViQUA-feedback modelUser -COBWEB-StakeholderQuality Model

QAQC: the COBWEB QAQC / 7 pillars

Meek, S Jackson, M Leibovici, DG (2014) ) A flexible framework for assessing the quality of crowdsourced data.AGILE conference, 3-6 June 2014, Castellón, Spain

Quality elements created concerning the Observation the User and the Authoritative

data

Interactivity with the user (messages)

Similar QC in different pillars for different quality elements

Modifications and accumulations of quality elements throughout the QA workflow