Introduction to the COBWEB project

Citizens’ Observatories Projects Coordination Workshop,

Brussels.29th Jan, 2013

Chris Higgins,Project Coordinator,

EDINA National Data Centre,University of Edinburgh.chris.higgins@ed.ac.uk

The bare bones…

• Research project started Nov 2012 for 4 yrs• Crowdsourced environmental data to aid

decision making• Introduce quality measures and reduce

uncertainty• Fusion of crowdsourced data with reference

data…• Spatial Data Infrastructure - like initiatives

– National SDI’s in UK, Greece and Germany– INSPIRE– GEOSS

FP7-ENV-2012 observatories

Name Lead Topic

Citclops Barcelona Digital Centre Tecnològic (Spain)

Coast and ocean

optical monitoring

WeSenseIt University of Sheffield (UK)

Water Management

CITI-SENSE Nilu (Norway) Air quality

Omniscientis Spacebel (Belgium) Odour monitoring

COBWEB UEDIN (UK) Various

Project PartnersUniversity of Edinburgh Wendy MacAdie, Pete O’Hare UK

University of Nottingham Mike Jackson UK

Aberystwyth University Steve Walsh UK

Welsh Assembly Government Simon Agass UK

Environment Systems Limited Steve Walsh, Jamie Williams UK

Ecodyfi UK

Open Geospatial Consortium Europe Bart De Lathouwer UK

University College Dublin Gregory O’Hare IR

Technische Universitaet Dresden DE

Secure Dimensions GmbH DE

University of Western Greece GR

OIKOM – Environmental Studies Ltd GR

GeoCat BV NL

Essential context – WNBR

• UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programmes (MAB) World Network of Biosphere Reserves– 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

• Main route to citizen engagement• Chair of UK MAB on COBWEB Advisory Board• 610 reserves in 117 countries

– But we are concentrating on three…

COBWEB Biosphere Reserves

1. UK (Wales): Biosffer Dyfi– Development work concentrated here

2. Germany: Wadden See and Hallig Islands

3. Greece:– Mount Olympus– Gorge of Samaria

Left open possibility of expansion to further BRs later in project

Status at moment

• Kickoff Nov 15th, 2012, in Edinburgh with associated press release

• Still mostly in project setup mode• Initial website up by end of month• Consortium meeting April:

– Website plus content management system – Communication plan– COBWEB technical architecture– Technical Work Packages kickoff– Initial outputs stakeholder engagement

WP2: Stakeholder Engagement (Welsh Gov)

• Engage the main target stakeholder groups to elicit requirements

• Encourage broad involvement in the project across sectors, e, citizens, public sector, private sector, academia

• Effectively feed user requirements to the rest of the project to ensure COBWEB is user driven

• Establish and maintain alignment between project deliverables and policy drivers

• Encourage take up of project deliverables and results during and beyond the project’s life

Stakeholder Engagement – GEO-IX

• GEO Plenary main annual GEOSS event• Impression was that mainly political/admin with

technical aspects peripheral• Presented COBWEB at:

– EC Side Event– Poster at booth – Authentication Workshop

• Implications for Cit. Obs. Coordination:– Opportunity to mention all projects– Flyers would have been good– Brazil was a long way to go…

Stakeholder Engagement – OGC TC

• Again attempting to stimulate discussion. • COBWEB using OGC processes, eg,

– GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilots– Interoperability Experiments– OWS– OGC Network– OGC/AGILE/EuroSDR Persistent Testbed

(PTB)

• Would be happy to meet up at TC’s!

Stakeholder Engagement – UKEOF

• UK Environmental Observation Framework– "facilitate the ongoing environmental evidence required to

understand the changing natural environment and its societal interactions, thus guiding current and future environmental management, policy, science and innovation priorities for economic benefit and quality of life“

• Producers of report Understanding Citizen Science & Environmental Monitoring Dec 2012

• Data Advisory Group is the UK forum with responsibility for the INSPIRE theme environmental monitoring facilities

WP3: Citizen Observatory Framework (UCD)

• Design of the COBWEB Portal & COBWEB framework;

• Implementation of the COBWEB portal;• Implementation of the COBWEB framework;• Integration with other relevant WP’s

resulting in the final COBWEB platform;• Production of necessary documentation

including user guides.

WP4: Citizen observatory mobile data collection, validation and quality system (UNOTT)

• Design the prototype mobile phone data collection sub-system

• Design and develop the back-end server based system for dynamic model-based data validation and quality assurance.

• Field test and iterate as necessary the prototype citizen mobile data collection system and ensure that it is compatible with work done under WP5 (privacy assurance and access control) and provides a citizen friendly intuitive data collection component for the demonstrator development (WP6)

WP5: Privacy assurance and access management (SECD)

• “Data collected should be made available through the GEOSS without any restrictions”

• “…addressing questions of privacy…”• COBWEB about environmental, not personal data• Some kinds of protected data that may be

encountered during the project:– Personal information, eg, expert or novice

observer– Location protected Species– Reference data from European National

Mapping and Cadastral Agencies

WP6: Demonstrator Development (UCD)

• Minimum of 3 demonstrators in each of the three subject areas

1. Creation and validation of data products from EO data

2. Biological monitoring

3. Flooding

• Proven working under different conditions in different Biosphere Reserves

• Additional demonstrators in response to community consultation

• Option of a non-EU international demonstrator towards the end of the project

WP7: Data and knowledge management (UEDIN)

• Maximise use and reuse of Citizen Observatory data and information.

• Working within the GEOSS framework, establish a suite of common methodologies, standards and guidelines for data archiving, discovery and access for use by the WNBR.

• Create Biosphere Reserve data repositories compliant with the above and demonstrate how the process is repeatable with other Biosphere Reserves and interoperable with other standards compliant data infrastructures

• Establish metadata and quality guidelines for use with crowdsourced data

• Modified GeoNetwork catalogue software capable of handling crowdsourced “sensor” metadata, privacy and concomitant data access

WP8: Testing and validation (ENVSYS)

• Test the approach taken by the project and assess its feasibility for operational implementations

• Develop and document a test environment incorporating test criteria and test cases for testing and validating project outputs

• Test the data and services provided by COBWEB for the three pilot case study subject areas, validated initially in the Welsh Biosphere Reserve

• Test and validate the data and services provided by COBWEB for other BR’s, eg, in Germany and Greece

• Document the approach so that it may be used for other reserves within the WNBR

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Some COBWEB testbed considerations

• UNESCO WNBR as a global testbed environment • Link up with other related testbed initiatives?• Sustainability an ongoing problem• Continue with the PTB?

– OGC (University Domain Working Group)– Association GI Laboratories Europe (AGILE)– EuroSDR

• Attempt to develop links with existing academic sector SAML federations?

• Use OGC interoperability experiment process?

WP9: Dissemination, exploitation and usage (ENVSYS)

• Gain maximum exposure for and raise awareness of the project with all relevant stakeholders

• Encourage enthusiastic involvement in the project

• Encourage take up of project deliverables and sustained results during and beyond the project’s life

• Evaluate and assess business models predicated on COBWEB technology and outputs

• Evaluate and assess applications for the data and services produced by COBWEB

Any questions?

chris.higgins@ed.ac.uk