Community research in the field of

systems’ architecture and SDI

Examples of Integrated Projects contributing to INSPIRE

EnviroInfo2005 - INSPIRE WorkshopBrno, 7 September 2005

Michel SCHOUPPEEuropean Commission

Directorate General Information Society and MediaICT for the Environment (DG INFSO. G5)

michel.schouppe@cec.eu.int

Main instrument to fund Community research (EU Treaty)

Pluri-annual since the 80ies; ongoing 6th FP: 2002-2006

R&D in support of EU policies and EU RTD policy (ERA)

Calls for proposals addressing thematic priorities

Peer-reviewed by external evaluators

Implemented notably through trans-national,collaborative research

Different instruments for knowledge creation,coordination, innovation and dissemination

Community ResearchCommunity ResearchEU Framework ProgrammesEU Framework Programmes

Including ICT for the

Environment

Including Integrated Projects

• Integration of the critical mass and resources needed NOT just few sub-projects sharing a common

management and dissemination structure

• Holistic approach of a complex, multi-dimensional issue

• “Europe to take the lead and set standards in this field” NOT just a big Specific Targeted REsearch Project

FP6 Integrated ProjectsFP6 Integrated Projects

Training

Ethical aspects, science-society Ethical aspects, science-society dialoguedialogue

Technology transfer, Technology transfer, exploitationexploitation

RTD 4

RTD 1

RTD 2

RTD 3

RTD 5

Demonstration

ManagementManagement

Information and computational resources are spread over many levels of administration.

Various organisations operate legacy systems in isolation.

Many of them are reluctant to changing their existing systems. An integrated infrastructure which requires large re-engineering efforts

of existing systems usually fails.

Organisations are reluctant to grant data access to other organisations. A data policy for sharing data is required (e.g. INSPIRE)

Current situationCurrent situationOrganisations & ProceduresOrganisations & Procedures

Information resources are extremely heterogeneous. in terms of semantics, information models, internal architectures,

technical implementation and so forth.

Existing information is hard to access;Cross-system search remains problematic. Search, navigation, retrieval often stops at a high level. Often, individual search interfaces are developed for individual domains

and business processes and do not understand others. Users have to manually search different systems.

Existing information is hard to integrate; Cross-use of information is virtually not happening. Spatial and non-spatial information in two different information worlds.

Multi-linguality and multi-terminology remains an obstacle

Current situationCurrent situationTechnical issuesTechnical issues

ICT for the EnvironmentICT for the Environment(IST Call 2, 2003)(IST Call 2, 2003)

Focus on “Improving Risk Management”

Objective: “… to foster the emergence of a European info-structure and service platforms which will facilitate the use of interoperable components and sub-systems …”

Focus on: “… Research to help the development of a European info-structure and associated services for crisis management. In particular, actions to improve co-ordination towards the harmonisation and standardisation of ontologies and sophisticated metadata architectures taking into account the requirements developed under the INSPIRE initiative …”

Integrated Projects “… shall help develop, principally, common open platforms for software and services supporting distributed information and decision systems for risk and crisis management…”

Post Disaster•Lessons learnt •Scenario update•Socio-economic and environmental impact assessment

Response•Dispatching of resources•Emergency telecom•Situational awareness•Command control coordination•Information dissemination•Early damage assessment•Emergency healthcare

Disaster Management CycleDisaster Management Cycle

Prevention and Mitigation•Hazard prediction and modeling•Risk assessment and mapping•Spatial Planning•Structural non structural measures•Public Awareness & Education..

Preparedness •Scenarios development•Emergency Planning•Training

Reconstruction•Spatial planning•Re-establishing life-lines transport &communication infrastructure

Alert•Real time monitoring & forecasting•Early warning•Secure &dependable telecom•Scenario identification• all media alarm

Two Integrated ProjectsORCHESTRA and WIN

ORCHESTRA

The Wide Information Network (WIN) Project

To design, implement, validate an Open Software Architecture for Risk management

Spatial and non-spatial data Multi-risk (fires, floods, man-made disasters, oil spills)

across boundaries of organisations and regionsFrom September 2004 till August 2007

Distributed ServicesDistributed ServicesCommonCommon principles principles

Service #1Service #2 Service #3 Service #4

Service #n

o.s. o.s. o.s. o.s.

backup

CASCADEDSERVERS

Risk management infostructure core services are about easily connecting to net-centric services

Risk management infostructure core services are about easily connecting to net-centric services

Perspective:access to information and services

if & when required

Distributed plug ‘n play of information, meta information and service

components

Common Architecture PrinciplesCommon Architecture Principles

Focus on existing systems, making them interoperable and filling the gaps

Scope for broad information domains with varying data standards and service requirements

Exploitation of current/emerging open ICT and geospatial standards (W3C, OMG, OGC, ISO, WSI...)

Consideration of the semantic and multilingual issues within Europe’s environmental information-based systems

Results will feed back to standard bodies for global consensus

agreement

Use of ontologiesUse of ontologiesto enhance interoperabilityto enhance interoperability

Focus will notably be on:

Syntactic interoperability to allow physical connectivity through exploiting common syntax and structural levels

Semantic interoperability to build general agreement on the eaning that is given to labels assigned to features

Ontologies to specify conceptualization in a domain of knowledge (i.e. different risk domains)

Mapping of ontologies: inter-operability between information sources (i.e. multi-risk scenarios)

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Towards a Service-Oriented Architecture

Natural progression following the advent of XML and Web Services on the Internet platform Loose coupling

Location transparency

Based on open standards

Best flexibility if combined with OpenGIS

Generic services will be developed that are building blocks for many risk management applications

Generic means useful for more than 1 application, and not tied to a specific location.

Risk management applications can easily be build on top of these generic services, by integration of location specific information with the generic services

Risk management applications build using the info structure should be interoperable and easier to integrate into multi-risk, cross border situations

Generic servicesGeneric services

Step-wise approachStep-wise approach

ORCHESTRA and WIN will contribute validated approaches for enhanced technical and semantic interoperability to INSPIRE and GMES

Agreement to follow common design principles Agreement to jointly work on common terminologies Participation in the drafting/piloting of INSPIRE Implementing rules,

especially in the risk management domain Spatial Data Interest Communities (SDIC) Initial focus on Implementing Rules expected to be adopted in 2007

(creation and up-dating of the metadata, network services, third parties use of the upload services, monitoring and reporting, access and right of use of spatial data sets and services for Community institutions and bodies)

Later contributions on Implementing Rules expected to be adopted in 2009 (use of spatial data sets and services by third parties, harmonised spatial data specifications of Annex I and for the exchange of Annex I, II and III)

Cooperation with GMES services (2008+) Future use of the WIN/ORCHESTRA architecture by GMES services Collaboration with ESA on interfaces with space data observations

Thank you for listeningThank you for listening

ORCHESTRA: http://www.eu-orchestra.orgWIN: http://www.win-eu.orgINSPIRE: http://www.ec-gis.org/inspire/GEO: http://earthobservations.org/GMES: http://www.gmes.info/EU-MEDIN: http://www.eu-medin.orgFP7: http://www.cordis.lu/fp7Information Society Technologies (IST):

http://europa.eu.int/information_society http://www.cordis.lu/ist/

DG INFSO Unit “ICT for the Environment” http://www.cordis.lu/ist/so/risk-management/home.html -Mailbox: INFSO - G5@cec.eu.int