building a first generation cyberinfrastructure to support ecological forecasting
DESCRIPTION
Presentation summarizes my work at the Kansas Biological Survey to construct a cyberinfrastructure in support of ecological forecasting. The goal was to identify, organize, metadata, and publish databases available at the KBS. The system uses a hybrid stack built around ESRI ArcGIS Server and the metadata catalog GeoNetwork.TRANSCRIPT
Constructing a first-generation
cyberinfrastructure to support
ecological forecasting
Understanding and Forecasting Ecological Change: 3rd Annual Symposium
February 20, 2009
Joshua S. Campbell
Cyberinfrastructure
Cyberinfrastructure (CI) is the application of information
technology to the problem of efficiently connecting
data, computers, and people with the goal of enabling
the discovery of novel scientific theories and knowledge.
Utilizes IT
Connecting
Distributed science
Vision
To share KBS data via the web
Identify, Organize, Metadata, Publish
Designed to support ecological forecasting
Land cover
Kansas Field Station and Ecological Reserves (KSR)
Hydrology
Motivation
Unrealized Value
Network Effects
NSF’s vision of Cyberinfrastructure
Sharing is the new research paradigm
Stakeholders
Scientific Community
Increase knowledge inside ecoforecasting community about
available datasets
Participate with a global research community
Public Outreach
Provide decision-makers and citizens access to KBS science
Ecoforecasting and CI
Utilizes a range of atmospheric, geological, hydrological,
ecological, biological, and cultural data
Sorry if I forgot one…
Geography is the unifying framework
GIS provides the computational framework
Maps are a primary data interface
How will users interact with the data?
Designing Cyberinfrastructure (National Academies Workshop, June 2007, http://cyberinfrastructure.us/)
Open standards
Proprietary platforms (linking)
Open source software
Open access publishing
Simplified data licenses (Science Commons)
Access management systems
Data Organization
Datasets
Web Services
Applications
System Design
3 Components
ArcGIS Server
GeoNetwork
KARS website redesign
Redundant and Discoverable
Demos
KSR Web Map
GeoNetwork
Interactive Map
Data Download
Google Earth
ArcGIS REST Services
Web application
is ‘consuming’
two web services
Each web service is
built from individual
datasets
Hyperlink provides
direct access to the
GeoNetwork
metadata catalog
GeoNetwork provides
search capabilities based on:
keyword
geographic location
KBS division
type of data
A built-in interactive map
viewer allows data to be
visualized and queried
prior to download
Data can be downloaded in
a number of formats,
including shapefile, KML,
WMS and REST
Provides direct access
to the ESRI REST
services page
HTML representation of all services running on the server
REST services can be viewed in a number of clients
Google can find and index both attributes and geography
Supported Interfaces and Operations allow direct
programmatic access to the service. This allows the data
to be used in distributed modeling applications, without
having to be downloaded.
Next steps
Increase functionality of the system
Add more datasets
Create ‘geoprocessing’ web services
Increase users
New dynamic-HTML website
Challenges
Technology
Scientific research and IT are two distinct skillsets
WebGIS is not the same as desktop GIS
Culture
Data is power (or so researchers think)
F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)
Extra work to provide metadata
Questions…?
KBS system is still in beta
System is expected to be operational this summer