sr02

Information Systems in Earth Management

Kick-Off-MeetingUniversity of Hannover19 February 2003

Projects

GEOTECHNOLOGIENScience Report

No. 2

Information System in Earth Management

ISSN: 1619-7399

Geoinformation and geoinformation systems (GIS) - as tools to deal with this typeof information - play an important role at all levels of public life. Daily a hugeamount of geoinformation is created and used in land registration offices, utilitycompanies, environmental and planning offices and so on. For a national economygeoinformation is a type of infrastructure similar to the traffic network. Variousscientific disciplines investigate spatial patterns and relations, other disciplines aredeveloping concepts and tools for doing these types of investigations.

In Germany a national programme »Information Systems in Earth Management«(Informationssysteme im Erdmanagement) was launched in late 2002 as part ofthe R&D Programme GEOTECHNOLOGIEN. Goal of the programme is to improvethe basic knowledge, to develop general tools and methods to improve the inter-operability, and to foster the application of spatial information systems at different levels.

The currently funded projects focus on the following key themes: (i) Semanticalinteroperability and schematic mapping, (ii) Semantical and geometrical integrationof topographical, soil, and geological data, (iii) Rule based derivation of geoinfor-mation, (iv) Typologisation of marine and geoscientifical information, (v)Investigations and development of mobile geo-services, and (vi) Coupling informa-tion systems and simulation systems for the evaluation of transport processes.

This abstract volume contains the descriptions of the funded projects which havestarted so far. The internal kick-off-meeting was held at the University of Hannover,19th of February 2003 as a get-together of all participants. Upcoming meetings willbe open to a broader spectra of interested visitors.

The GEOTECHNOLOGIEN programme is funded by the Federal Ministry

for Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Council (DFG)




Projects

No. 2

Number 1

Impressum

SchriftleitungDr. Alexander RudloffDr. Ludwig Stroink

© Koordinierungsbüro GEOTECHNOLOGIEN, Potsdam 2003ISSN 1619-7399

The Editors and the Publisher can not be held responsible for the opinions expressed and the statements made in the articles published, such responsibility resting with the author.

Die Deutsche Bibliothek – CIP Einheitsaufnahme

GEOTECHNOLOGIEN; Information Systems in Earth Management,Kick-Off-Meeting University of Hannover19 February 2003, ProjectsPotsdam: Koordinierungsbüro GEOTECHNOLOGIEN, 2003(GEOTECHNOLOGIEN Science Report No. 2)ISSN 1619-7399

Bezug / DistributionKoordinierungsbüro GEOTECHNOLOGIENTelegrafenberg A614471 Potsdam, GermanyFon +49 (0)331-288 10 71Fax +49 (0)331-288 [email protected]

Bildnachweis Titel:Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, 2003

Preface

Geoinformation and geoinformation systems(GIS) – as tools to deal with this type of infor-mation – play an important role at all levels ofpublic life. Daily a huge amount of geoinfor-mation is created and used in land registrationoffices, utility companies, environmental andplanning offices and so on. For a nationaleconomy geoinformation is a type of infra-structure similar to the traffic network. Variousscientific disciplines investigate spatial patternsand relations, other disciplines are developingconcepts and tools for doing these types ofinvestigations.

In Germany a national programme »Informa-tion Systems in Earth Management« (Informa-tionssysteme im Erdmanagement) was laun-ched in late 2002 as part of the R&D Pro-gramme GEOTECHNOLOGIEN. Goal of the pro-gramme is to improve the basic knowledge, todevelop general tools and methods to improvethe interoperability, and to foster the app-lication of spatial information systems at diffe-rent levels.

In an initial phase (2002-2005) a total sumof nearly € 4 million will be invested by the Federal Ministry of Education andResearch (BMBF).

The currently funded projects focus on the fol-lowing key themes:

(i) »Semantical interoperability and schematicmapping«

(ii) »Semantical and geometrical integration oftopographical, soil, and geological data«

(iii) »Rule based derivation of geoinformation« (iv) »Typologisation of marine and geoscienti-

fical information« (v) »Investigations and development of mobile

geo-services«(vi) »Coupling information systems and simula-

tion systems for the evaluation of transportprocesses«

The main objective of the kick-off meeting»Information Systems in Earth Management«was to bring together the scientists and inve-stigators of the funded projects to presenttheir ideas and proposed work plans to eachother; several projects are interlinked andcould therefore benefit from synergies. For allupcoming meetings further visitors fromGermany, Europe and overseas are welcome toshare their interests and results.

Ralf BillAlexander Rudloff

Table of Contents

Projects

Semantic Interoperability by Means of GeoservicesSemantic Problems in Three Use Cases and Approaches for Potential Solutions .......................................................1 - 16

MAR_GISMarine Geo-Information-System for Visualisation and Typology of Marine Geodata .......................................................17 - 22

Implementation of the European Water Framework Directive: ISSNEW – Developing an Information and Simulation System to Evaluate Non-Point Nutrient Entry into Water Bodies .....................23 - 30

Geoservice Groundwater VulnerabilityDevelopment of an Information Infrastructure for the Rule-based Derivation of Geoinformation from Distributive, Heterogeneous Geodata Inventories on Different Scales with an Example Regarding the Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ....................................................................31 - 36

Advancement of Geoservices..............................................................37 - 50

New Methods for Semantic and Geometric Integration of Geoscientific Data Sets with ATKIS – Applied to Geo-objects from Geology and Soil Science ...........................................................51 - 62

List of Participants ..............................................................................63

Authors’ Index....................................................................................64

1. IntroductionThis paper describes the main goals and the firstresults of the research project Semantic Inter-operability by means of Geoservices (meanInGS).The project started in October 2002 as part of theresearch and development programme Geotech-nologies. The three partners working on this pro-ject are Delphi InformationsMusterManagement(DELPHI IMM) Potsdam, Center for ComputingTechnologies (TZI) Bremen and Institute forGeoinformatics (IfGI) Münster.

The Problem – Schematic and SemanticHeterogeneityThe results of geoscientific research projects sup-ply large, valuable datasets and powerful tools forthe accomplishment of existing research tasks. Acontinuing use of these results, especially by insti-tutions that were not involved in the original pro-jects, often proves to be difficult. In order to over-come these problems syntactic, schematic andsemantic interoperability have to be achieved.

The problem of syntactic heterogeneity emer-ged as a result of mostly native data formatsand the development of monolithic or proprie-tary systems. The World Wide Web (WWW)supplies the basic infrastructure for the distribu-ted use and multiple exploitation of data andsystems (systems interoperability), while appro-ved geoinformation technology standards deve-loped by the OpenGIS-Consortium (OGC) andthe International Organisation for Standardi-

sation (ISO) provide the essential basis for syntac-tic interoperability and cataloguing of geoservicesand -data. Developing geodata infrastructureslike GDI-NRW (Kuhn et al. 2001) give examples ofwhat can be accomplished by this approach andpoint out which challenging interoperabilityissues (e.g. GI service chaining) remain.

Although the basis for syntactic interoperabilityexists in many cases the usability of informationthat results from geoscientific research projectsfor institutions from different information com-munities (ICs)1 will remain limited, because theyare confronted with schematic and semanticheterogeneity.

These kinds of heterogeneity are a basic charac-teristic of all information sources. The use ofindividual parameters during the process of datacollection, modifications and complements inthe nomenclature, other or improved data col-lection methods and last but not least anothersense (another viewpoint) of the 'world' arecauses for this heterogeneity.

1 »An Information Community is a collection of people (a

government agency or group of agencies, a profession, a

group of researchers in the same discipline, corporate part-

ners cooperating on a project, etc.) who, at least part of

the time, share a common digital geographic information

language and share common spatial feature definitions.

This implies a common world view as well as common

abstractions, feature representations, and metadata.«

(OGC 1999)

Semantic Interoperability by Means of GeoservicesSemantic Problems in Three Use Cases and Approaches for Potential Solutions

Bernard, Lars (1); Haubrock, Sören (2); Hübner, Sebastian (3); Kuhn, Werner (1);

Lessing, Rolf (2); Lutz, Michael (1); Visser, Ubbo (3)

(1) Institute for Geoinformatics (IfGI), Münster, E-Mail: bernard@ / kuhn@ / [email protected]

(2) Delphi InformationsMusterManagement (DELPHI IMM), Potsdam, E-Mail: soeren.haubrock@ /

[email protected]

(3) Center for Computing Technologies (TZI), Bremen, E-Mail: huebner@ / [email protected]

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In order to overcome the problems resultingfrom schematic and semantic heterogeneitiesin typical geodata infrastructures, themeanInGS project will develop and implementa concept to use existing and newly createdtechnologies. Building on an existing datainfrastructure intelligent geoservices will bedesigned and developed for achieving schema-tic and semantic interoperability in the geoda-ta processing. A great importance is attachedto the practical usability of the results. The pro-ject aims at the following advantages for geo-scientific aspects:- exchange of results between different geo-

scientific projects,- utilisation of legacy geoscientific databases,- utilisation of the databases for projects outsi-

de of the geoscientific context,- avoidance of not updateable secondary data

repositories.

Starting SituationThe basis for the developments within the pro-ject is a model for geodata infrastructures thatcurrently emerges in the national and interna-

tional context within the framework ofOpenGIS and ISO. First implementations existin the form of so called »geoportals« and cata-log services. In the following illustration thestate of the art model is described shortly.

A number of ICs has gathered sets of basic anddomain-specific data for their own use.Furthermore, each IC has implemented asystem to offer their data to other ICs usingmultiple components (see Figure 1).Apart from the data itself, a metadata catalo-gue is necessary as well as a thesaurus and agazetteer. In order to enable users to accessthe data from »outside« the system, the func-tionalities of selecting, transforming and mapserving have to be realised. One major problem is the fact, that not all ICsdo have all of these components. If they do so,the entries in the metadata catalogue willoften not be matchable among different ICs.

Figure 1: Information flow in current implementations of a geoportal.

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Offering metadata and data as described infigure 1 is already possible. However, in orderto link multiple implementations to each other,intensive coordination efforts are necessary. Inorder to make it possible to compare and eva-luate results from different ICs, some majorsemantic problems have to be solved.

StructureIn the following section the aims of the threeproject partners, Delphi InformationsMusterManagement (DELPHI IMM) Potsdam, Institutefor Geoinformatics (IfGI) Münster and Centerfor Computing Technologies (TZI) Bremen willbe described. The main part of the paper willthen outline three use cases that have beendeveloped. These will serve as a source foridentifying and classifying practical problemsthat are caused by schematic and semanticheterogeneity and provide the framework forthe development and implementation ofmethods and technologies to overcome theseproblems.

2. Aims of the Project Partners

Delphi IMMIt is the aim of Delphi IMM to extend theirtechnology MSPIN (Software Tools for themediation of spatial information) with seman-tic functionality for facilitating the searching incatalogues and the rendering of geodata. IMMfocuses on the procedures of mapping geoda-ta as well as the definition of user-specificviewpoints. The latter is a special goal of IMM.By implementing this, a customer could phrasehis queries for geodata so that data providerscan carry out a direct mapping of their data tothat query.

IMM emphasizes on the integration of remote-ly sensed data into a service chain. The classi-fication of this data has to be implemented asan automatic service.

Through an iterative approach in the followinguse cases issues of semantic interoperability

are addressed step by step. The use cases des-cribed below serve as a guideline with respectto the investigation of the available data sour-ces and the query formulations. An intensiveinformation exchange with the two projectpartners is intended.

IfGIThe goal of the Institute for Geoinformatics inthe meanInGS project is to specify services forsemantic translation and to test them withingeodata infrastructures. The methods andtechniques will be developed and tested in thecontext of well-defined use cases from thedomain of geosciences. This will ensure thatthe application will be pragmatic and that theresults will be useful for the domain of geo-sciences.

The first aim of the IfGI project work is to iden-tify, analyse and classify problems in the usecases caused by semantic heterogeneity. Theseproblems will form the basis for the develop-ment of services for semantic translation bet-ween catalogues, and between user require-ments (or questions) and the services registe-red in these catalogues. This will require theextension of existing metadata models andcatalogue services to include information onservices (rather than only on data). This exten-sion will provide the information that is neces-sary for an algebraic model of the semantics ofuser data. Finally, for testing the functionalityof existing Web Map Services (WMS), WebFeature Services (WFS) and Web CatalogueServices (WCS) might have to be extended.

TZIThe goal of the Center for ComputingTechnologies (TZI) is to apply methods andtechnologies that were gathered in a numberof recent research- and PhD projects to a prac-tical use-case that is rooted in a functionalgeodata infrastructure. Thematically, thesemethods and technologies are focussed onintelligent information retrieval and semanticdata integration of geospatial data. Techni-cally, they are centred around logic reasoning

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based on qualitative conceptual, spatial andtemporal models.

Within the meanings project, the TZI will ana-lyse the chosen use-case regarding the need ofsemantic data integration and intelligent infor-mation retrieval. The methods and tools men-tioned above will then be customised to fit wit-hin the chosen geodata infrastructure to fulfilthe relevant tasks identified in the use case.This includes the implementation of conceptu-al, spatial and temporal ontologies specific tothe use case. All components will be integra-ted in the geodata infrastructure, tested and, ifnecessary, modified and improved to meet therequirements of the use case.

3. Use Case Descriptions

Use Case I – Detecting Hazard Areas du-ring Flooding EventsThis use case is about visualising and simula-ting the water levels in a river catchment aswell as detecting and visualising potentialhazard areas due to flooding. Informationsystems in the context of civil protection haveto use comprehensive and up-to-date datasetscovering the whole catchment area. Instead,current applications in this field are at mostvery specific and static approaches. Further-more, these systems are established after theincident has happened due to the problems inquickly gathering the appropriate data. Re-mote sensing components have not been inte-grated in such systems in an operational man-ner so far.

A fundamental difference between this appro-ach and established ways is the implementa-tion of the following aspects: - integration of heterogeneous datasets from

different information communities,- use of nearly real-time data, derived from

· quasi-continuous measurements and· remotely sensed data,

- integration of services processing remotelysensed data,

- dynamic selection and coupling of multiplemodels for simulation and evaluation.

The aim of this use case is to evaluate how aservice can be used as an interface for gathe-ring spatially distributed and heterogeneousdata and providing this data to a user-selectedmodeller. However, it is not the goal of the fol-lowing scenarios to create a complex modelthat could lead to realistic forecasts in its simu-lations.

In the context of this project it is rather impor-tant to work on the integration of heterogene-ous datasets, to implement new automatedservices, to establish a generic service chainand to overcome further semantic problems,e.g. the issue of mapping between differentnomenclatures. Hereby, the results of otherresearch projects can be integrated. An inten-sive information exchange between the part-ners is intended.

In the following scenarios, an infrastructurewill be proposed for the catchment of the Elberiver. This stream covers multiple regions resul-ting in different competences for the data.Currently, a great effort is put into several rese-arch projects targeting an integrated informa-tion system on the Elbe river (Bundesanstalt fürGewässerkunde 2000). Due to the severe floo-ding events back in summer 2002, the benefitof an effective and fast-working informationsystem became clear (Ministerium des Innerndes Landes Brandenburg 2001).

Depending on the stage in the implementationprocess two different user groups exist. In thefirst and second scenario, a basic description ofthe current situation in the river catchmentarea has to be visualised. Apart from the gene-ral public using the technology of the Internet,the potential users include experts in the fieldof river management. These experts have acertain interest in rapidly gathering the mostup-to-date datasets to get an overview of thecurrent situation in the catchment.

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Figure 2: Flow of information in the first scenario.

In the third and fourth scenario, generic com-ponents are used in the service chains. Thisenables scientists to apply their own modelwith the most up-to-date and realistic data-sets. Furthermore, different models can becompared to each other by dynamically choo-sing the appropriate model at runtime.

In the following the single components andinteractions of a dynamic approach are sket-ched in four scenarios. Starting with a ratherstatic approach, the generic aspect is going toincrease in the second and especially in thethird and fourth scenarios, leading to newsemantic difficulties.

Scenario 1: Visualising the Hot SpotsIn this first step, the objective is to visualise thewater levels and potential hazard areas due toflooding in the catchment. The necessary geo-data comprise the river network itself (as aGML feature collection (OGC 2002b)) and thecurrent water level measurements (as spatially

anchored datasets or features). The major taskin this approach is to collect the distributeddatasets and assign them to certain segmentsin the river network (spatial join).

The hydrological model in this scenario is sta-tic. Thus, only the spatial extent selected by theuser and the current time are dynamic para-meters in the process chain. To receive the userrequirements an input form is provided by theclient service (step one). The user can select acertain area of interest and choose betweendifferent periods of time (e.g. current situationor several past situations). With this approachthe syntactic frame of the request can be stan-dardised. Since the user can only choose bet-ween given options, no semantic problemsoccur when the query builder compiles theOGC-conformant query files (step 4). Only onespecific hydrological model is used, so thedatasets needed for its simulations can be sta-tically implemented in the system.

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In step five the query is passed to the geopor-tal, which serves as a hub to the single infor-mation communities providing their metadataand data repositories. Due to the fact thatseveral institutions are responsible for thedatasets of a large river network, they must becompiled from several databases and synchro-nised with each other. In this scenario thequery for up-to-date water levels must beexpanded to the public authorities of at leastfour federal states and at the national level.Only the union of these datasets provides anoptimum coverage of the whole area.

It cannot be expected that the datasets arecompatible with each other: in two catalogssome attributes can describe the same contentwhile being labelled differently and vice versa.Therefore, the syntactically conformant queryhas to be mapped to the metadata of the cata-logs. This mapping can take place on the clientside (i.e. geoportal) or on each of the serversides (metadata catalog system). The technolo-gy to perform the mapping has to be develo-ped in the scope of this project.

In the next step, the different databases can bequeried using the specific metadata descrip-tions that have been mapped to the basequery in the step before.

Once the data have been collected in the geo-portal, another service (the semantic data con-solidator) will have to compile them to a singlehomogenous dataset. Especially the mappingof relevant attributes to each other (in this casethe measurements) is an issue to be solved.Problems can occur in the case that the metricunits are different from each other or the tem-poral context of the measurements is not spe-cified equally. Some institutions might holddata about the same gauge, so duplicates haveto be filtered out.

In the next step, the modelling service has tointer- and extrapolate the discrete water levelmeasurements over the whole stream sectionwhich has to be evaluated. Finally, the resulting

estimation will be composed to a map indica-ting the user which areas are potentially athigh risk. The assessment whether or not ariver segment is at high risk will be based on avery simple reasoning provided by the model inthis scenario.

The scenario described above is rather static,but already faces some semantic problems. Inthe next scenario, this concept is extended byanother service leading to new aspects of sem-antic interoperability to be solved.

Scenario 2: Integration of Remotely Sen-sed DataFor estimating the situation in the river catch-ment more realistic, the datasets received bysome tens of discrete gauge measurementsunequally distributed along the river are insuf-ficient. In order to get the »overall picture«,remote sensing data can make a crucial contri-bution.

The methods used in remote sensing provide avery fast and objective assessment of the situ-ation in a large area of interest (in this case inthe whole river catchment). Thus, the integra-tion of remotely sensed data can show theflooded areas in the river catchment as well.On the other hand the measurement data isstill necessary since remotely sensed data onlyprovide a view in two dimensions (in the caseof optical sensors), i.e. the areas covered bywater can be extracted, but not the waterlevel.

For this reason, a new service has to be esta-blished in the chain. The raw image data can-not help the normal user to find the regionsthat have been flooded. To interpret the datacorrectly classification experience is required.Therefore a classification service has to fill theblank between data collection and interpreta-tion of the data by the user. This classificationis intended to be fully automatic in order toprovide a service at runtime. As a result, theclassified flooded areas can be visualised toget-her with the water levels in a map.

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After the steps 1 to 11 from the first scenariohave been passed through, the extracted riversegments can be used as input for the classifi-cation service. In step 13 the image data isrequested for the area of interest. Those partsof the image that are overlapping the river seg-ments can then be used as training data forcalibrating the classification rule network. Addi-tional information on how to construct the clas-sification rules can be derived from a knowled-ge base. In a last step, the classification itselftakes place and creates a feature collection ofthe areas that are flooded (see figure 3).

Scenario 3: Dynamic Modelling andPredictionIn this scenario the hydrological model isexchangeable. The user is intended to selectthe model of choice from a list. More sophisti-cated models need many data inputs, especial-ly if they aim to make forecasts. The informa-tion about the datasets needed for the simula-tions is therefore depending on the model thatwill be used and has to be acquired at run-time. The hydrological model needs to compo-se formalised requirements in terms of thedata needed for the simulation. The syntax of

these compilations can be standardised using acertain XML-scheme, but the meaning of theattributes needed remains vague. They have tobe mapped to the available datasets in thegeoportal in the next step.

In this scenario a simple model has to be builtwhich uses additional datasets, e.g. soil typeswith different transmissibility rates for estima-ting the runoff in an area. These additionaldatasets lead to more semantic problems: eit-her the classification of derived attributes isalready existing in the different datasets andhas to be mapped to each other, or it has to beclassified by another model using empiricaldata from a knowledge repository.

By choosing the model at runtime, the servicechain has to be established dynamically. Theappropriate workflow is similar to the one des-cribed in the road blockage estimation usecase (»Ad-hoc Service Chaining«, see below).

Figure 3: Integrating the classification service.

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Scenario 4: Coupling Multiple ModelsThe latter scenarios comprise the hydrologicalmodelling of the river network. In the next stepthe advantages of a standardised generic servi-ce chain structure are exploited by adding afurther modelling component, e.g. a systemfor the estimation of chemical exposure ratesin the aquatic environment.For this scenario an existing model will be usedand adapted to the required interface format. One option is to use and adapt the GeographyReferenced Regional Exposure AssessmentTool for European Rivers (GREAT-ER) (Matthieset al. 2001).

Problems Caused by Semantic Hetero-geneityIn order to establish a flexible, generic systemfor time-critical disaster management somesemantic problems occur and have to be sol-ved. The data to be processed in this use caseoriginate from multiple information communi-ties resulting in heterogeneous formats, diffe-rent spatial and temporal resolutions as well asother types of semantic heterogeneity (e.g.naming conflicts). Additional services arerequired and have to be implemented. Onenew service is the automatic extraction of theflooded areas out of the raw image data.

Thus, the major problems in terms of semanticinteroperability refer to the semantic metadata

interpretation (e.g. do the datasets represen-ting water level measurements belong to thesame variable?), the semantic data interpreta-tion (mapping between different nomenclatu-res, e.g. porosity of soil or vegetation classes)and data fusion (pre-processing the data forfurther utilisation). Furthermore, the integra-tion of remotely sensed data by implementinga new service for automatic classification isassociated with tremendous semantic pro-blems.

Use Case II – Estimating Road Blockageafter StormsThe use case is set in the area of disastermanagement and mitigation. Storm eventsmay cause severe road blockage by windfalltimber, especially on roads that run throughforest areas. In December 1999 the winterstorm »Lothar« caused an accumulation ofabout 30 million solid cubic metres in windfalltimber in Baden-Wuerttemberg. For a few dayssome villages were cut off from the rest of theworld because of road blockage and it remai-ned extremely dangerous to stay in the affec-ted areas because of the devastated state ofthe forest (Gemeindetag Baden-Württemberg2000).

The main actor in the use case is a person in

Figure 4: Workflow with pluggable proceeding models.

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the agency responsible for ensuring road safe-ty. In Baden-Wuerttemberg this is the ForestryDirectorate. After a heavy storm they coordi-nate the assignment of the GovernmentalDisaster Relief Organisation (TechnischesHilfswerk, THW) and of the Federal ArmedForces in the disaster area. They have to keeptrack of where and how much help is needed bythe local authorities to clear the road blockagesas quickly as possible. In order to coordinate theclearing operations effectively a rough estima-tion of the roads that are most likely to be affec-ted by fallen timber is required.

GIS SupportThe estimation of roads likely to be affected bythe storm can be supported through GIS ana-lysis. The analysis is based on the assumptionthat those forest stands with overaged trees bemost strongly affected by storms. At what agea tree can be called overaged depends on itsspecies.

At first a selection of forest areas that arepotentially at risk from wind throw based onthe information of species and age is made.Secondly the result is intersected with roaddata in order to identify the roads that runthrough stands with overaged trees. In orderto perform this analysis the user needs to haveaccess to data of the local street network aswell as data of forests that contain detailedinformation about tree species and age. If thisinformation is not available, the analysis can-not be accomplished.

GI Web Service SupportThe application of GI web services providingand displaying the information could help toachieve a more flexible flow of informationinstead. GI web services can provide access toup-to-date data as well as the flexibility toextract the required information out of severaldata resources by combining them.

In the next section the state-of-the-art scenariois described where generic Web FeatureServices (WFS) and Web Map Services suppor-

ting Styled Layer Descriptor (WMS/SLD) are sta-tically chained to form a complex service forestimating road blockage after storms. Thisscenario was realized in the just finished GDINRW Testbed II, the second testbed of theGeodata Infrastructure Initiative of NorthRhine-Westphalia (Bernard 2002).

Starting from this scenario, two future scena-rios are developed describing how (1) remotesensing data could be incorporated to gainadditional information and (2) a more flexibleway of service chaining can be achieved byapproaching the problem of semantic inter-operability.

Scenario 1: Chaining Distributed WebFeature and Web Map ServicesIn the context of the GDI NRW Testbed II a»road blockage« service for the use case des-cribed above was implemented. This sectiondescribes the existing implementation andsketches how including remote sensing datacould extend it.

Scenario 1.1: Current Implementation

The »road blockage service« (http://xtra.inter-active-instruments.de/demo/demo-wfs.html)lets the user select a lower age limit for trees,a certain tree species on which to constrain thequery and a maximum number of forest featu-res to be returned. The service returns a mapof the road network against a topographicmap with those roads highlighted for which ablockage is most likely.According to (ISO/TC-211 & OGC 2002) the»road blockage« service represents an aggre-gate service (opaque chaining). In a black boxmanner it accesses a number of OGC-confor-mant WFS (OGC 2002b) and WMS/SLD (OGC2002c;2002a) provided by different membersof the GDI NRW:- a WFS hosted by the Institute for Geo-

informatics in Münster serving forest featuresfrom a database provided by the NorthRhine-Westphalian Department for Forestry,

- a WFS hosted by interactive instruments

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(http://www.interactive-instruments.de/) ser-ving road features from a database contai-ning the North Rhine-Westphalian road net-work,

- a WMS hosted by the North Rhine-West-phalian agency for data processing and stati-stics (LDS, http://www.lds.nrw.de/) providingtopographic maps, and

- a WMS hosted by interactive instruments fordisplaying the above-mentioned features in amap.

The data and services are annotated accordingto the current International Standard forGeographic Information Metadata Services(ISO/TC-211 2001) resp. for GeographicInformation Services (ISO/TC-211 & OGC2002). The implemented data model is confor-ming to the XML schemas of the OpenGISGeographic Markup Language Implementa-tion Specification (GML 2.1.1).

Scenario 1.2: Including Remotely Sensed DataThe first query in the chain described in theprevious section looks for forest areas that are

potentially at risk from wind throw, i.e. thatcontain trees of a specified species and age.The database on forests of the ForestryDepartment offers this information, but onlyfor forests that are state property. It does not,however, contain any information on privatelyowned forest areas. This is a fundamental pro-blem with geographic data because the con-tent (i.e. attributes) are intimately tied to theapplication context or discipline for which thedata was collected. In order to get a fully satis-factory response for a request (i.e. one contai-ning privately and publicly owned forest stands)it is desirable to have access to additional datasources that contain information about forestareas. Thus, it will eventually be possible to dyna-mically choose the most suitable source ofinformation or to combine several sources toanswer the given question.In the »road blockage« use case the dilemmathat precise information is only available forpublicly owned forests could be solved withthe help of remote sensing data. In this exten-ded scenario at least three additional servicesare required:- a service providing the remote sensing data

Figure 5: Flow of information in the state-of-art scenario.

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for the given area,- a service for identifying forest areas in remo-

te sensing data, and- a service for estimating areas with overaged

trees from remote sensing data

The information on age and tree species that isavailable for the forest areas that are state pro-perty (provided through the Forestry Depart-ment’s WFS) could be used as training data forthe classification and the estimation services.However, even with this training data an auto-matic classification for identifying areas withoveraged trees from remote sensing data is avery difficult task. Therefore the estimation ser-vice might require a »human in the loop« forcontrolling the classification.

LimitationsAs the services used in the chain were notdeveloped specifically for the service chain des-cribed, this scenario illustrates the benefits ofinteroperability standards, at the same timerepresenting the state of the art in the area ofGI service chaining. However, the scenario alsohas a number of limitations.

In order to be able to implement the client

application the provider had to have knowled-ge of the services’ existence, their capabilitiesand their application schemas. The client appli-cation only works with these specific servicesand application schemas. Furthermore it can-not be reused for the execution of differentchains as its workflow management is tied tothis specific chain.These limitations are addressed in a second,more flexible scenario, which is presented inthe following section.

Scenario 2 – Ad-hoc Service ChainingThe second scenario describes a workflow-managed (translucent) service chain (ISO/TC-211 & OGC 2002). While the ISO/TC 211 stan-dard only states that in such a scenario a pre-defined chain is selected by the user, we furt-her assume that the chain definition does notexist at the time the user poses his question,but that it is assembled in an ad-hoc fashion bya workflow (composition) service. Accordingly,the user should be able to specify his question ina generic user interface, provided by appropri-ate human interaction services. Registry servi-ces should help the user to further specify hisquestion by providing (semantically rich) infor-

Figure 6: Flow of information in the »remote sensing« extension to the state-of-the-art scenario.

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mation on available services. Workflow servi-ces will then be responsible for composing andexecuting a chain that answers the questionthus, that the semantics of the answer matchthe semantics specified by the user. This inclu-des the subtasks of translating the user’squestion into formal requirements, generatinga solution strategy to solve a complex problemwith several smaller tasks, matching the requi-rements to the capabilities of the available ser-vices and offering some quality measurementsto evaluate the fitness of use of the servicechain's results.

The flow of information is depicted in Figure 7.First, the user has to enter his query. In order toassist the user in this task, this will have to bea highly interactive and iterative rather than alinear process (1a-d). In order to do that, capa-bility descriptions of available services are mat-ched against the user requirements. That willrequire information on the available servicesand data from the registries as well as formali-zed domain knowledge. The query entered by

the user is then translated into a workflow des-cribing a service chain (2). Queries against thecomponents of the chain have also to be for-mulated in appropriate query languages (3).The execution of the actual service chain (asdescribed in the first scenario) is controlled bythe workflow management service.

Problems Caused by Semantic Hetero-geneityThe forestry data as well as the road data that isto be processed in this use case can originate inmultiple information communities, resulting inheterogeneous data models. The main focus inthis scenario will be to integrate informationfrom different sources (e.g. Forestry Directorateand remote sensing data) to derive new infor-mation (e.g. likelihood of storm damage forroads) and to automate this process.Thus, the focus is on semantic metadata inter-pretation (e.g. do the datasets representingforests refer to the same kinds of forests?), thesemantic data interpretation (mapping bet-ween different nomenclatures, e.g. forest vs.

Figure 7: Flow of information in the »remote sensing« extension to the state-of-the-art scenario.

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woodland) and matching of service capabilitiesto human (for service discovery) and ultimatelyservice requirements (for automatic servicecomposition).

Use Case III: European Water FrameworkDirectiveThis use case deals with the semantic problemsthat will arise from the implementation of theWater Framework Directive (WFD) of theEuropean Union (European Commission 2000)from December 22nd 2000. Within three yearsthis directive will have to be implemented intonational law.

The WFD aims at bringing all surface waterbodies and the ground water to at least a»good state« until the year of 2015. The defi-nition of contiguous River Basin Districts (RBD)should prohibit that administrative and politi-cal borders obstruct the water protection andencourages an integrated view on the riversand their catchment areas.

The foundation for all decisions to be madeand tasks to be carried out in the scope of theWFD is an extensive river basin management(Vogel 2002) which is based on the repetitivecontrol of a variety of biotrophical and abio-trophical parameters. A combination of thesecriteria provides a possible rating between»bad« and »very good« for each river basin.However, the exact specifications of theseparameters are still in progress.

The survey of the required data is no singletask but implies a permanent monitoring ofthe river state and results in the creation ofregular reports for the European Commission.Additionally, the WFD attaches great impor-tance to providing the collected information tothe interested citizens of the countries involvedin the project.

The implementation of the WFD results in thenecessity of governmental organisations at alllevels (from local authorities, local environmen-tal agencies and water federations, to federal

environmental ministries, national environ-mental agencies, and the responsible institu-tions in the EU) to exchange and aggregatesubstantial data. Furthermore, it is reasonableto provide the collected data for scientific pur-poses and third parties. Additionally, it isimportant to be considerate to the demands ofinforming the public, since only by ensuring asimple access to the information, transparencycan be guaranteed. Thus, the citizens of thecountries involved form a user group with itsown, specific characteristics.

Due to the necessity of agencies and organisa-tions to co-operate across all administrativeand political borders, manifold semantic pro-blems on several levels occur. On the onehand, the data are of a very heterogeneousnature, because they have been gathered bydiverse institutions with varying methods andtherefore exist in different formats, temporalresolutions and with different meanings. Thesedata have been collected over years andshould be made available for future needs.However, no exact specifications on themethods for collecting the data have been for-mulated until today, making a further usabilityof the data difficult. Solving these problems byproviding innovative approaches is the goal ofthis project.

On the other hand there are considerabledemands on the interoperability of metadata.Up to now, all participating institutions usetheir own classifications and ratings in order todescribe water bodies, their basins and protec-ted areas, and to indicate the measured waterquality.

In the same way, the consequences of humaninfluences (settlements, sources of pollution,etc.) have to be categorised into object classi-fication schemes. Also on this level, extensivedatasets have been built up over the years,which should be made available for furtheruse, too. Although national standards formetadata specifications will be established inthe future, the need of a semantic translation

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of the describing data between the Europeancountries will exist further on.

In the current stage of the implementation ofthe WFD, the responsible local and regionalauthorities are creating an inventory of theavailable natural resources. This phase is due tolast until 2004. The activities related to the cre-ation of an inventory include the cataloguingof legacy data as well as intensive acquisitionof new data. As the standardisation of a num-ber of methods and criteria for key parametersis not yet completed, these activities cause theneed for data integration in the future. Oneexample is the classification of river types, forwhich several competing classification sche-mes (using fish populations, using geomor-phologic parameters, etc.) exist. Anotherexample is the evaluation of water qualityusing biological parameters. Here, some indi-cator organisms are classified, but the respecti-ve analysis methods are not. The following usecase scenarios will explore the specific needs oftranslating between different classificationschemes, providing these tasks as services,aggregating several services into service chainsand using remote sensing methods to supportthe monitoring process.

Scenario 1: Semantic Translation of theRiver Unit Classification CriteriaIn the framework of the WFD each river basinhas to be subdivided into several smaller riverbasin units, which will be classified independent-ly from the other parts. This subdivision is orien-ted on meaningful biological or geomorphologicfactors including the prevalent fish population(Böcker 2002) or the sediment type of the river.This is done mainly because it is not useful tocompare a region that is near to the source ofthe river to a region that is near to the estuary.Since several classification schemes are alreadyin use and will be used in the future in the par-ticipating countries, the translation betweenthese schemes has to be carried out. Thereforethis scenario will lead to a semantic translationservice that is based on ontologies describingthe used classification schemes. With the help

of the service two tasks can be carried out:- A given river unit can be (re-)classified using

a different classification scheme.- A given classification can be translated into a

different classification scheme.Thereby the interoperability of organisationsusing various schemes will be guaranteed.

Scenario 2: Search for the Reference RiverUnitBased on the service developed in the first sce-nario, a very important task can be carried outmore easily: the search for the reference riverunit. The rating between »bad« and »verygood« is not an absolute but a relative assess-ment, which is based on a comparison to anot-her river or river unit. This river with a givenrating has to be as similar as possible, i.e. itshould own the same biological and geomor-phologic characteristics. It can run, however, –maybe partly – in a country that uses a diffe-rent classification scheme. This leads to thedemand of translating a particular classifica-tion from one scheme to another one as des-cribed in the scenario above.

Some additional information is needed to deci-de whether a selected river unit is suitable as areference, including parameters like altitudeand climate. The result of this scenario is inten-ded to be a map of Europe with all eligiblerivers or river units being marked as potentialcandidates.

Using the technology of OGC-conformant ser-vices, a service chain has to be implementedand extended by the service of searching forthe reference unit.

Hereby, two different sub-scenarios are concei-vable. In the first one a classification is confi-gured and arranged based on the whole rangeof known schemes and parameters. In thesecond scenario, an already classified river orriver unit acts as the starting point for sear-ching for all equivalents. In both sub-scenariosthe query can be modified in several steps

14

including the degree of accordance in order tocontrol the number of resulting hits.

Scenario 3: Semantic Translation of theWater Quality CriteriaIn contrast to the factors that are used to divi-de a river into several river units, the parame-ters that have to be measured to determinethe water quality are already specified in theWFD. Although the parameters themselves arefixed, the methods to perform these measure-ments are not. For example, when countingelements of plankton, organisms from diffe-rent levels of the biological taxonomy can beselected as indicators. Since institutes perfor-ming the examinations have used and will usedifferent organisms, a translation service isneeded.

This scenario is similar to scenario 1 and willproduce in a first step a single service. In thenext step, this service will be inserted into theexisting service chain to allow a transparentmapping between the used quality criteriaschemes.

Scenario 4: Remotely Sensed Data forMonitoring TasksAnother very important task prescribed by theWFD is the permanent monitoring of the waterquality and the anthropogenic changes of thewater bodies. Especially sources of pollution(point sources or diffuse sources) need to becontrolled intensively in order to improve thebasic conditions of the rivers. This is an expen-sive task, both in terms of time and money.

The usage of remotely sensed data for monito-ring campaigns will be evaluated in this scena-rio. In a first step, the applicability of normaloptical data will be examined, which includesthe detection of pollutants like oil and chemi-cal substances. In a later step, infrared andhyperspectral data could be used to detect pol-lutions that are not visible in the normal spec-trum. As with the other scenarios above, thesetasks will be provided as services, with theopportunity to include them into static or ad-

hoc service chains.

Problems Caused by Semantic Heteroge-neityThe Water Framework Directive of theEuropean Union, which has to be implementedwithin three years by all member states, causesa variety of semantic problems. In order to esta-blish interoperability between both govern-mental and non-governmental organisationsthrough all administrative and political bordersand on several levels, the syntactic and seman-tic heterogeneity arising from the differentclassification schemes used by the participantshas to be overcome. Therefore the WFD is notonly an ideal basis for further research in sem-antic translation and for meaningful use casesbut also a task for which a concrete solution isrequired within a restricted period of time.

4. Conclusions

Exemplarily, several semantic problems thatarise in the framework of geodata infrastruc-tures have been pointed out. In order to solvethese problems, the next step for the projectpartners is to refine the structure of the usecases and to work out the semantic problemsmore precisely. The services have to be speci-fied and matched against the current specifi-cations of the OGC and ISO.

In order to apply their concepts, the projectpartners are going to establish an internal geo-data infrastructure that serves as an environ-ment for testing the scenarios and implemen-tations as well as for providing their services.

5. References

Bernard, L. (2002): Experiences from animplementation Testbed to set up a nationalSDI, in: Ruiz, M., M. Gould & J. Ramon (Ed.):5th AGILE Conference on GeographicInformation Science 2002, pp 315-321.Böcker, K. et al (2002): Zwischenergebnisse

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der Erarbeitung des Flussgebietsplans desWupperverbandes. In: 5. Symposium Flussge-bietsmanagement beim Wupperverband - Re-gionales Wasserwirtschaftsforum, pp 27-32.Wupperverband, Wuppertal.

Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (2000):Internationaler Workshop im Rahmen derMachbarkeitsstudie für ein computergestütz-tes Entscheidungsunterstützungssystem (Decision Support System, DSS) für die Elbe,URL: http://www.bafg.de/html/aktuell/ workshop_dss.htm

European Commission (2000): Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of theCouncil of 23 October 2000 establishing aframework for Community action in the fieldof water policy, URL: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/water-framework/index_en.html

Gemeindetag Baden-Württemberg (2000):Zum zweiten Mal innerhalb eines Jahrzehnts:Verheerende Stürme in Baden-Württemberg.

ISO/TC-211 (2001): Text for DIS 19115Geogaphic information – Metadata, Inter-national Organization for Standardization.

ISO/TC-211 & OGC (2002): Geogaphic infor-mation – Services, Draft ISO/DIS 19119.OpenGIS Service Architecture Vs. 4.3. DraftVersion, International Organization forStandardization & OpenGIS Consortium.

Kuhn, W. et al. (2001): Referenzmodell 3.0 -GDI Geodaten-Infrastruktur Nordrhein-West-falen. Land NRW (Ed.), Media NRW, Band 26.

Matthies, M et al. (2001): Georeferencedsimulation and aquatic exposure assessment,in: Wilderer (Ed.): Water Science & Technolo-gy 43(7), pp 231-238.

Ministerium des Innern des Landes Branden-burg (Ed.)(2001): Brandenburg kommunal,34, pp 3-9.OGC (2002a): Styled Layer Descriptor

Implementation Specification (GML), Version1.0.0 OpenGIS Project, URL: http://www.opengis. org.

OGC (2002b): Web Feature Server InterfaceImplementation Specification, Version 1.0.0OpenGIS Project, URL: http://www.opengis.org.

OGC (2002c): Web Map Server InterfaceImplementation Specification, Version 1.1.1OpenGIS Project, URL: http://www.opengis.org

OGC (1999): The OpenGIS Abstract Specifica-tion. Topic 14: Semantics and InformationCommunities, Version 4 OpenGIS Project,URL: http://www.opengis.org

Vogel, W. R. (2002): The EU – Water Frame-work Directive – A Challenge for InformationManagement. In: Pillmann, W. & Tochter-mann, K, (Ed.): Environmental Communi-cation in the Information Society, EnviroInfoVienna 2002 16th Int. Conference: Infor-matics for Environmental Protection, part 2,pp 556-560. GI Gesellschaft für Informatik,Bonn.

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MAR_GISMarine Geo-Information-System forVisualisation and Typology of Marine Geodata

Extended Abstract

The general availability of basic information,here especially marine geodata, is one founda-tion for a pertinent and fruitful discussion wit-hin social communities. Subjects like environ-mental protection or sustainable developmentand use of marine and terrestrial naturalresources require access to a multitude of dif-ferent detail information as well as scientificexpertise and management tools.

Besides environmental topics well establishedin ongoing discussions, like species protectionor water quality issues, it is foreseeable thatthe economic use of the seabed is gaining con-siderably more public attention in very nearfuture. Examples for economic use are: offsho-re wind power plants, offshore platforms, sandand gravel dredging, and waste dumping. Forenvironmental management and to reconcilethe intentions of different stakeholders, mari-ne habitat mapping is applied in the US andCanada to identify different sediments andprovinces at the seafloor. By such means theinterests of fishery and natural protectionmight be combined.

Currently, the multitude of information aboutmarine geological, geochemical, and biologicaldata and spatial patterns as well as economic

use in coastal areas and along continental mar-gins increases tremendously. Consequently, several national and international projects aspi-re the built up of data base managementsystems combining meta-data and measuredvalues for scientific needs and managementpurposes. One example for such an attempt isthe information system PANGAEA of theAlfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI, Bremerhaven)and Center for Marine Environmental Science(MARUM, Bremen); since 2001 part of theWorld Data Centre. Delivering project data tothe general public and scientific community isalso supported by the funding guidelines of EUprojects.

Compared to the increasing amount of dataand information about marine research (Fig.1), only very few concepts and techniques areapplied for efficient visualisation and optimalutilisation of present and upcoming data sets.There is, for example, a considerable need fora generalised analysis and synthesis of seafloordata, clustering the multitude of detail infor-mation. This includes spatial budgets of geolo-gical and biogeochemical cycles and character-isation of provinces at the seafloor based onthe combination of several information layers.

Especially the classification (typology) of theseafloor, an approach well established in terre-

Schlüter, Michael (1); Schröder, Wilfried (2); Vetter, Lutz (3)

(1) Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar und Meeresforschung, 27515 Bremerhaven, Am Handelshafen, PO-Box 120161,

Germany, Tel.: (0471) 4831 1840, Fax: (0471) 4831 1425, E-Mail: [email protected]

(2) Institut für Umweltwissenschaften (IUW) und Forschungszentrum für Geoinformatik und Fernerkundung,

Hochschule Vechta, Postfach 1553, 49364 Vechta, Germany, Tel.: (04441) 15 - 559, Fax: - 464,

E-Mail: [email protected]

(3) Fachbereiche Geoinformatik sowie Umweltplanung, Fachhochschule Neubrandenburg, Postfach 11 01 21,

17041 Neubrandenburg, Germany, Tel.: (0395) 5693 - 222, Fax: - 299, E-Mail: [email protected]

17

strial geoscience and documented in form ofgeological maps, soil maps, and other thema-tic maps, is often a prerequisite for manage-ment needs and is the main objective ofMAR_GIS. The typological approach, combi-ning by multivariate statistics and geostatisticalmeans several information layers for theassignment of areas of the seafloor to types,allows comparisons of geographical differentregions. Therefore, this approach is relevant forassessment and modelling of temporal andspatial changes of the marine environment.This is one of the key issues of the BMBF rese-

arch program »Information Systems in EarthManagement«. Besides scientific needs, thetypological approach supports managementdecisions related to upcoming economic use ofthe seafloor as offshore wind power plants,offshore platforms and pipelines, seafloorcable deployments, sand and gravel dredging,and declaration of protection zones.

The superordinate objective of the MAR_GISproject is the development of a general con-cept for the analysis of spatial data including atypological approach suitable to identify diffe-rent provinces at the seafloor. This objectivewill be verified by regional case studies. Forthese purposes, coastal regions of the BalticSea, the North Sea and continental margin ofthe Norwegian Sea were selected.

Figure 1: Examples for different data types derived onvery different scales by marine research: (A) large scalebathymetric data, (B) sediment bottom profiling and highresolution bathymetry, (C) multibeam, side scan sonarimages and still photography obtained by AUV and ROC(see Fig. 3), and (D) point measurements as sediment andpore water profiles and spatial distribu-tion of benthiccommunities.

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Objectives and Approach of MAR_GIS

The MAR_GIS project has three closely relatedtasks: (1) coupling of Geo-Information-System(GIS) to local data base management systems(DBMS) and geodata base server, (2) integra-tion of point and polygon information, rasterdata, and meta-data about marine-geodata,marin-biological, and bathymetric data for thecoastal proper of the Baltic Sea, North Sea, andcontinental margin of the Norwegian Sea intothe GIS, (3) spatial subdivision of the seafloorinto distinct provinces, based on measureddata, GIS technology, multivariate statistics,and geostatistics.

By combination of Geo-Information-Systemslike ArcGis objectives as (1) the integration ofmarin geoscience and life science data withinthe GIS environment, (2) the compilation ofspecific regions such as protected areas andregions of economic use and integration inGIS, (3) the combination of different informa-tion layers by GIS techniques (e.g., overlayingof bathymetry with maps of sediment facies orcarbon content) to derive an overview aboutspatial interrelations, (4) the comparison of dif-ferent multivariate statistical techniques (whichare applied e.g., in terrestrial geoscience fortypological purposes) with respect to theirapplicability for marine geoscience, and (5) theapplication of selected multivariate proceduresand multicriteria decision analysis to decipherthe typology and to assign provinces at theseafloor of our target areas (Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Typology concept to derive benthic provinces incoastal areas, by combination of different informationlayers in GIS and multivariate statistics.

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The generalised consideration of large datasets by a typological approach aims (1) to iden-tify different provinces at the seafloor (2) tosupport the scientific synthesis of various mari-ne geoscience information, (3) to provide akind of reference frame for multi-disciplinaryresearch, (4) to enhance considerations andmodelling of temporal and spatial relations-hips, and (5) to provide a first step towardsimproved coastal zone management of theseafloor.

The realisation of our objectives includes theapplication and modification of commercialGIS-software as well as the coupling of multi-variate statistics and advanced geostatical pro-cedures with GIS. The applied methods are clo-sely linked to the different objectives and tar-gets of the project:

Target 1: Coupling of Geodata-DBMS toMAR_GIS: The commercial and widely spreadGIS software ArcInfo and ArcView as well asthe freeware program ArcExplorer (ESRI) willbe applied as basic framework of MAR_GIS.Interfaces to geo-database-server and localDBMS like MS ACCESS or DBase will be provi-ded by OOP (object oriented programming)source codes written in C++ and Delphi. Oneexample for the integration of data basemanagement systems and GIS functionality is afront end program, written by one of theMAR_GIS partners as part of the EU ProjectSub-GATE, allowing to select profile data bySQL queries and GIS-functionality, visualisationsediment and pore water profile data, and theexport for numerical modelling. The develop-ment of specific import interfaces, connectingDBMS and GIS provides flexible data accessfor end users of geodata. Complex routinesand procedures associated to the data importinto GIS will be encapsulated and simplified bysoftware modules.

Target 2: Integration of measured data andmeta-data: Especially for surface sediments ofthe Baltic Sea, North Sea and continental mar-gin of the Norwegian Sea published and unpu-

blished marine geodata will be integrated inthe GIS. For example, following parameterswill be considered: grain size distribution, claymineral composition, accumulation rates,organic carbon content, opal and CaCO3 con-tent. For the Norwegian Sea, a considerablepart of this data compilation was gathered wit-hin the EU project ADEPD. Additional datamining will be done by Geo-DBMS queries(e.g., PANGAEA, EU projects, CZM depart-ments) and by incorporation of georeferencedthematic maps. These will be considered asclassified raster data sets within the GIS.Disadvantages of commercial GIS Softwarewith respect to specific visualisation of marinedata like concentration-depth diagrams or tri-angle diagrams are coped with by providingflexible program routines. Object oriented pro-gramming and application of COM (CommonObject Model) provides high modularity andportability of the source code.Integrated part of MAR_GIS is a mata-database management system, which was develo-ped within a previous research program. Thissystem provides a direct relation betweenmeta-data and real-world items (points, geo-graphic objects, facts) and allows MAR_GISenhanced information capabilities. This means,based on specific research tasks MAR_GIS pro-vides information about all available data(including maps, charts, photos, and datatables), applied methods for data acquisition,and date of survey or measurement. Thesystem allows distributed acquisition of meta-data and is windows- and network-based andavailable via internet to users of MAR_GIS, the-refore.

Target 3: Classification of geodata by multiva-riate-statistics and geostatistical techniques. Inmarine geoscience data acquisition includesmeasurements of metric and non-metric scaletypes. An example for non-metric data sets arearbitrary (with respect to physical-chemical SIunits) classified raster data like sediment typesand facies. Metric data sets are items as orga-nic carbon content or grain size which can bederived by measurements at distinct sites

20

(point data sets). By geo-statistical methods asvariogram analysis and Kriging, contour plotscan be derived. Combination of different infor-mation layers requires statistical procedurescapable to handle data of metric and nonme-tric scale, to derive a spatial classification sche-me and to identify provinces at the seafloor.Therefore, for the analysis and aggregation ofdata within MAR_GIS, following –dependenton scale types- techniques will be applied:Association- and Correlation analysis, vario-gramm analysis and kriging, cluster analysis,classification and regression trees (CART), andChi square Automatic Interaction Detection(CHAID).

From our perspective, the time and cost effi-cient management of geodata and the provi-sion of geoservices is of specific importanceconsidering the upcoming availability of inno-vative marine technology as Remotely Oper-ated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Under-water Vehicles (AUV). These devices (Fig. 3) areequipped with a multitude of sensors as micro-bathymetry, high performance video, and che-mical sensors providing access to very detailedinformation about the seafloor in coastal areasand the open ocean. Besides marine research,including habitat mapping, such devices areapplied by offshore industry for surveys, under-water constructions, pipeline inspection,

search and rescue operation, and repair.

As part of the specific research program»Information Systems for Earth Systems: FromGeodata to Geoservices« of BMBF and DFGthe identified targets and the typologicalapproach of MAR_GIS is considered as a prere-quisite for management issues related to thecoastal seafloor. It provides a frame work forimproved application of large environmentaldata sets, allows enhanced visualisation ofmultiple information layers, and supportsmodelling of temporal and spatial interrela-tions of coastal and ocean regions.

Figure 3: Innovative marine technology as RemotelyOperated Vehicles (ROV) Victor 6000 (IFREMER; France)and Cherokee (MARUM, University of Bremen) andAutonomous Under-water Vehicle (AUV) as Odyssey III(AWI in 2003) caries a multitude of sensors and pro-videsdetailed information of the seafloor. These devices areused for marine research as well as by off-shore industry.Coupled data managements systems and GIS allows effi-cient access and analysis of these geodata.

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IntroductionOn 22.12.2000 the »Directive of the EuropeanParliament and of the Council 2000/60/ECEstablishing a Framework for CommunityAction in the Field of Water Policy« – the Euro-pean Water Framework Directive (WFD) –came into effect as a basic framework forEuropean procedure in the area of watermanagement. It is now being integrated intonational law.

Implementing the legal and obligatory guideli-nes of the WFD has lead to a number of newrequirements to be met by water managementadministrations. Not only does additional infor-mation about the state of water managementresources need to be collected and systemati-cally prepared but also, extending on this data,all relevant water bodies in Germany need tobe documented and assessed. If the waterdoes not hold to the called for ecological andthe physical/chemical parameters, then stepsare to be set up and undertaken appropriate tomeet WFD requirements. All of these activitiesare to be carried out within a governmentallycontrolled plan undergoing a multi-step pro-cess of open participation from the public.

With regard to time EC has stipulated that allsuch measures must be set up by 2009 withthe fulfilling of WFD requirements to take

place no later than 2015. If one considers,however, the processes in the water cycle overtime, it appears questionable whether it is pos-sible to meet the requirements in every casewithin six years, and with the currently availa-ble technology to take the most sound, opti-mal measures in meeting the WFD require-ments. This leads to two consequences, apartfrom the earliest possible undertaking ofappropriate initial measures: (1) Measuresshould be introduced based on efficiency anddifferentiated according to specific place andtime so that within the given time frame atleast initial effects (e. g. a reverse trend in thewater pollution levels) can be demonstrated,and (2) In determining the appropriate measu-res, tools must be available that explicitly sup-port the specific location and time require-ments in allocating the courses of action.

The input of plant nutrients into water bodiesover the last decades has contributed to along-term worsening in their chemical andecological state: nitrogen (in the form of watersoluble nitrates having extensive effects ongroundwater composition) and phosphorus(usually bound with soil particles entering loticwater through water erosion) have lead toeutrophication thereby damaging the habitatfunction of much of the surface water up tothe coast areas of the Baltic Sea and the North

Dannowski, Ralf (1); Michels, Ingo (2); Steidl, Jörg (1); Wieland, Ralf (1);

Gründler, Rainer (2); Kersebaum, Kurt-Christian (1); Waldow, Harald von (1);

Hecker, J. Martin (1); Arndt, Olaf (2)

(1) Zentrum für Agrarlandschafts- und Landnutzungsforschung (ZALF) e. V., Müncheberg, Institut für

Landschaftswasserhaushalt, E-Mail: [email protected]

(2) WASY Gesellschaft für wasserwirtschaftliche Planung und Systemforschung mbH, Berlin

Implementation of the European WaterFramework Directive: ISSNEW – Developing anInformation and Simulation System to EvaluateNon-Point Nutrient Entry into Water Bodies

23

Sea. The goal of countries bordering the BalticSea (HELCOM) to reduce nutrient input intothe Baltic Sea by 50 % between 1985 and1995 was reached in Germany just for phos-phorus. For nitrogen – which despite a gradu-al reduction in the total load stems more andmore from non-point agricultural sources – eff-orts came up short. Halving the amount ofnitrogen within a ten year period is illusorybecause of decades of delay regarding the sub-surface transport alone. Long-term change inexcess nitrogen, nitrate transport, and nitratedecomposition in the groundwater are combi-ned in »spacetime behaviour«, in complicatedand location-specific ways (Fig. 1). Predictingthe development of nitrogen load can thusonly be based on time-consuming and expen-sive so-called »emissions assessments.« Theseinput analyses, which track the subsurfacetransport processes of nitrogen from the rootzone to surface water, require high-resolution,complex model studies, if possible supportedby GIS. The necessary location and time speci-fic evaluation of measures to reduce non-pointnitrogen input into water bodies requires sce-nario analyses based on process-oriented anddistributed hydro-geological models connec-ted with capacious geo-databases.

Furthermore, the WFD is the cause and basis ofrethinking environmental procedure. A newaspect consists of river-related regions projects,something which the WFD unconditionally sti-pulates. As a rule multiple organizations andcountries will be needed to work together.From the perspective of IT, this entails suchtopics as multiuser access, client/server, anddata storage, among many others. Yet thereare also large hurdles concerning non-coordi-nated data collection, non-standard data struc-tures, unknown access paths to the data, orthe problematic further application of thedata, to name just a few. If one examines thecurrent practice of using GIS systems in watermanagement, one will find primarily individuallocations and file-based works including file-sharing over network data servers, heteroge-neous, inconsistent data records, missing linksof individual topics and much more which pre-vents efficient and high-quality work. SomeGIS and data banks are linked where specificapplications or a specific person is usuallyresponsible for maintaining the data. This listcould go on and on. All of these practiceseventually lead to problems with the upkeepand use of spatial reference information thusultimately preventing the implementation ofthis technology as a strategic instrument toobtain information.

Figure 1: Illustration of possible paths of non-point source nitrogen flow from agriculture, modified acc. toDannowski et al. (2002).

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ObjectivesISSNEW aims at the preparation of equipmentthat meets the essential parameters of theWFD in the form of a market-ready productfamily to supply many of the current WFD obli-gations with efficient solutions. Therefore, thefollowing components must be included:1. GIS and Data bank based information

system for the gathering, structuring andvisualization of geo-data and simulationresults on non-point nutrient input in waterbodies (ground and surface waters).

2. Simulation system for the evaluation ofthe effects on the water quality that themeasures against non-point nutrient flowfrom agricultural lands and input into waterbodies have.

3. Bi-directional intelligent interfacesbetween the information and simulationsystems.

Consequently, through the components them-selves and especially through their effectivecollaboration the following goals are to be rea-ched:· Extending on a standardized informationstructure taking into account the importanceof simulation models, a platform-inde-pendent, completely component based soft-ware system for data storage, analysis, andpresentation to be made available.

· The already existing large geo databases aswell as the ones still to be collected as plan-ned for river catchment areas to be suppliedperformantly by the implemented informa-tion system, improved, and optimally furtherprocessed.

· Against the background of the WFD imple-mentation, an improved management ofknowledge to be made possible through theintegration of space-time-based, scenario-capable simulation and modelling softwarefor non-point nutrient input into the groundand surface waters.

· For the further development of geo servi-ces, internet-oriented solutions for generalaccess to the planned data bases independentof location to be made available.

Method and Conception

Information systemThe basis for the ISSNEW information system isto be the ArcGIS8 product family in connectionwith the new, integrated geo database formatfrom the ESRI company. Graphics, attributes,and meta information will be consistentlyadministered through the Basis-GIS withoutadditional applications or even a person tomaintain them. If the information is stored in aData Base Management System (DBMS) thenall the possibilities offered are per se at one’sdisposal: client/server architecture, backup andrecovery functionality, access protection on theuser (login) level, and allocation of accessrights in the server, to only name a few.

With the use of a DBMS, a further componentnecessarily moves into the foreground: datamodelling (DM). An intensive and wellthought-out DM is crucial for the performanceof a system according to various criteria (con-tent, consistency, performance). With the clas-sic version (ER-modelling), information groupsare displayed with their attributes (entities) andtheir relationships to each other. This is the firstessential requirement for a standardization ofthe data to be collected for general use or forsimple exchangeability. For the development ofapplications and the inclusion of process orbehavioural models (e. g. for nitrogen trans-port), moreover, it is effective to be object-oriented already in the phase of the datamodelling. The Unified Modeling Language(UML) has been established for the descriptionlanguage. Along with the use of relationships(associations) there also arises the possibility ofusing so-called generalisation, compositions,and aggregations. Class diagrams, whichrepresent the found business classes necessaryfor the system with their entities and methods

25

as well as their relationships to each other,form the basis for using these features. Theyare created in the framework of ISSNEWthrough a case-tool (Microsoft’s Visio 2000).

In this way all constructs of object-orientedprogramming are available, leading to a modelbased system that can also supply guidelinesfor the development of applications and inte-grating models. The consequence is a strongparallelism of the processes. While on the onehand the person modelling the data can stillfine-tune the model using specialization rela-tionships, the basis model remains unmodifiedand stays ready for the application developer.There is no longer any more waiting for a finis-hed data model.

Through the use of ESRI products along withthe standardized, object-oriented, software-independent documentation of the futuresystem, functioning components from theUML documentation can be generated auto-matically via UML. The geo database (GeoDB)guarantees the constant storage of geoobjects(topology and entities) in a databank that canbe related in any way, and also the integrationof relationships, rules, and so-called value lists.The advantage of this approach is that thecomplete system can be used directly after thedata modelling through the Arcinfo8 orArcView8 component ArcMap, even whenspecific user interfaces are not yet available.One can thus expect a fast »return of invest-ment«, something which is of essential impor-tance in view of the extremely narrow timeframe of the WFD.

Along with the data modelling and implemen-tation of data models for WFD-relevant infor-mation, specific user interfaces will be realisedin the course of ISSNEW for the administering,evaluating, analysing, and aggregating of theintegrated data within the information system.It is also planned to develop methods whichallow entry masks to be generated dynamical-ly at runtime on the basis of data models andto allow these to be available to the user over

the internet for data processing. This paves theway for a three step user system. The first stepuses exclusively the implemented data modelover ESRI products without specific interfaceprogramming (work in tables with alphanume-ric information). In the second step, maskgenerators are used to make generic interfacesavailable from the existing meta information inthe geo database (relationships, value lists,rules) at runtime. In the third step, specific userinterfaces are programmed via componenttechnology.

Simulation systemOn the basis of previously illustrated processcharacteristics of non-point nutrient input, aseparation of the transport paths into inde-pendent or almost freely standing compart-ments is possible. This leads to the result thatevery individual process can be described withseparate yet linked simulation models:· SOCRATES for the process-oriented model-

ling of plant growth, of the surface waterbalance and of nutrient conversion processesin the plant roots zone (Wieland et al. 2002,Mirschel et al. 2002),

· FEFLOW for the deterministic-numeric simu-lation of flow and transport processes in thegroundwater (Diersch 2002),

· MODEST – Modelling of non-point nitrogeninput via subsurface trails – for GIS baseddistributed quantification of non-point sub-surface nitrogen input from agriculturalareas into the lotic waters of unconsolidatedrock regions (Dannowski et al. 2002).

The modelling of nitrate transport in thegroundwater (long term components) canoptionally be carried out with the FEFLOW pro-cedures or the MODEST approach. Denitrifica-tion can be modelled through a first orderkinetics (Michaelis-Menten). Additional reac-tion relationships can be integrated into thegroundwater simulation systems via chemicalsub-models. As a supplement to both thegroundwater simulators, it is planned to

26

modularly add further model components fornon-point nitrogen input into lotic waters thathave been developed and tested in the pre-vious work of the ISSNEW team. For instance,the nitrate influx from the unsaturated zoneneeds a further source instruction with theaccompanying field data. In order to determi-ne the load and time course of nitrate enteringgroundwater, it is necessary to integrate a fluxcalculation for the groundwater recharge andfor nitrogen that can be realised through theSOCRATES model or an additional verticalcomponent from MODEST to be developed.

In this way the model components make up thecurrent state of research for formation andinput processes in agricultural areas. This stateof knowledge is to be incorporated into the pro-ject for the implementation of the WFD in theform of software products. The interrelationsbetween the ZALF model components (ground-

water recharge, nitrogen input into the ground-water) and the WASY software FEFLOW, theways in which they can compliment the analysisand evaluation of non-point nutrient input forthe WFD as well as the references to the infor-mation system in general – all of these are to becarried out and used in ISSNEW and will lead toa noticeable enhancement and increased appli-cability of the project results.

For development, verification, and validationof the models to be integrated, there is a pilotarea in northeast Germany (catchment area ofthe Uecker river) that likewise serves as thebasis for ZALF research. An extensive data basisalso exists for this pilot area that is continuallysupplemented through further results fromexperimental systems analyses and from themonitoring of ground and surface waters.From there data can be called up directly bythe simulation system.

Figure 2: Illustration of the interactive graphical mapping of input data and the corresponding model parameter using a dialog of the simulation system FEFLOW.

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Intelligent InterfacesFor connecting the information system withthe simulation system, there are presently twoalternative standard approaches. In the firstapproach, the data is exported via routines ofthe information system in such a way that theycan directly be read in the simulation systemwith its own model input routines. In thesecond approach, the simulation system has aninterface that is able to read the data stream inthe respective format of the GIS system. Theseapproaches are principally always tied withmultiple and explicit activities such as export/import of the data and work with at least twodifferent programs. This procedure does not,however, correspond to the requirementsmade of an integrated system. Modern soft-ware architecture offers possibilities to adjustthe interface processes to the demands of suchsystems.

For ISSNEW, therefore, an intelligent data ex-change between models and/or external appli-cations is planned. The basis for this exchangeis provided by the GIS system which makesavailable standard component-based accessmodules, and the information system, whichmakes available meta information in relation toits structure. Thus it is possible to select thestructure of the system dynamically with thehelp of the access modules of the informationsystem which are integrated as components inthe simulation system. The simulation systemmust be able to display the structure of theinformation system within its program interfa-ce as clearly and efficiently as possible on theone hand, and likewise efficiently display itsown model parameter-structure on the other.The task of the user consists in planning a so-called mapping. This means assigning individu-al information levels of the information systemto their corresponding model levels. This takesplace with the help of interactive graphics. If,for example, the nitrate input concentrationinto the ground water, as output of theSOCRATES or MODEST modules, exists as apolygon distribution with attributes in theinformation system, then the user must assign

this data to the model parameter “initial con-centration”. The interface employs the regio-nalisation methods available in the simulationsystem. Parameterisation (selection of GIS dataand execution of methods) will only then bestarted when the parameter-mapping hasbeen completely defined by the user.

The goal, finally, is to arrive at a completelyautomatic generation and parameterisation ofa model via these mapping methods (Fig. 2). Indoing so, the generation of the model takesplace in the same manner. All relevant inputinformation needs likewise in this case to bemapped. This includes, among other things,the state of the lotic and lentic waters, para-meter distribution borders, (subsurface) catch-ment borders, relevant water drawings anddischarges, etc. This information is used inorder to generate automatically an optimalFEM network that then goes through parame-terisation.

Before beginning the concrete generation andparameterisation for a new model, the outerboundary of the modelling domain must be setthat then serves as a spatial selection criteriafor the transfer of data from the informationsystem. The spatial selection is in turn realisedwith the help of the components of the infor-mation system integrated into the simulationsystem.

All in total, this method contributes to a reduc-tion of the time necessary to construct andimplement scenario models, this meaning alsodecision support systems.

Conclusion

From the conception presented for the ISS-NEW project it is concluded that a new stan-dard of GIS-based tools for scenario compu-tations related to water and nutrients at thelandscape scale can be provided.The preservation of water bodies resultingfrom the WFD implementation is part of the

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ZALF context as a partial goal for long-termland development. Model components will beused and further developed in a research andmodel association of ZALF that form the basisof a decision support system for long-termland use management. This program is com-plemented by experimental systems analysisand field monitoring in the Uecker pilot area.WASY GmbH is bringing into ISSNEW especial-ly its worldwide leading 3D simulation systemfor groundwater flow and transport processesFEFLOW and an extensive knowledge of theESRI company’s products (ArcSDE, ArcInfo,ArcView, ArcObjects, ArcIMS).

Co-operation between a Research Centre andan SME, both of them qualified in hydrologicalmodelling, water management, as well as GISand geo database management, appears avery powerful form of developing technologi-cal progress by merging their experiences forthe requirements of the WFD implementation.

References

Dannowski, R., J. Steidl, W. Mioduszewski & I.Kajewski (2002): Modelling SubsurfaceNonpoint Source Nitrogen Emissions into theOdra River. Proc. Int. Conf. »AgriculturalEffects on Ground and Surface Waters«,1.10.-4.10. 2000, Wageningen, TheNetherlands. In: IAHS Publ. 273 »AgriculturalEffects on Ground and Surface Waters«,Wallingford, 219-225.

Wieland, R., W. Mirschel, H. Jochheim, K.C.Kersebaum, M. Wegehenkel & K.-O. Wenkel(2002): Objektorientierte Modellentwicklungam Beispiel des Modellsystems SOCRATES. In:Gnauk, A. (ed.): Theorie und Modellierungvon Ökosystemen – Workshop Kölpinsee2000. Shaker Verlag, Aachen.

Mirschel, W., R. Wieland, H. Jochheim, K.C.Kersebaum, M. Wegehenkel & K.-O. Wenkel(2002): Einheitliches Pflanzenwachstumsmo-dell für Ackerkulturen im Modellsystem

SOCRATES. In: Gnauk, A. (ed.): Theorie undModellierung von Ökosystemen – WorkshopKölpinsee 2000. Shaker Verlag, Aachen.

Diersch, H.J.G. (2002): FEFLOW Finite ElementSubsurface Flow and Transport SimulationSystem – User’s manual/Reference manual/White papers. Release 5.0. WASY Ltd, Berlin;2002.

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1. Introduction

The increasing demand for geodata, both onthe part of planning authorities and also fromthe general public as well as the federal soiland groundwater protection legislation requi-res an integrated procedure to an extent thathas not been achieved yet. This is reflected inthe Water Framework Directive adopted by theEuropean Parliament, which proclaims a trans-media, sustainable water protection and com-mits the participating countries to manageresources relative to river basins. Here variousdisciplines are working together on the sameplanning object thus overcoming administrati-ve boundaries.

Difficulties arise in the field of spatial data gathered on different scales by various institu-tions and therefore frequently only availablewith different degrees of accuracy or differentdata structures.

The present project intends to eliminate someof these obstacles to utilize geodata invento-ries for example by systematically interlinkinginternet technology and geoinformatics. Theproject benefits from the different perspectivesof the institutions involved fromthe Helmholtz

Association of National Research Centres, uni-versities and the private sector.

2. Objectives

The overall goal of the project is to develop aninformation infrastructure in order to processdistributive, heterogeneous geodata invento-ries into geoinformation in a rule-based man-ner and independent of scale. A geoservice willbe made available going beyond the actualprovision of geodata by developing approa-ches for interlinking distributive geodata irre-spective of scale, which can then be transfer-red to various issues. The geoservice to bedeveloped should provide all future users anintegrated system that informs them about allavailable data and enables criteria to be selec-ted on the basis of which suitable data can bedefined, analysed and linked.The new developed infrastructure will bedemonstrated by an example regarding ground-water vulnerability. Rules will be compiled andimplemented permitting consistent spatialinformation to be derived and displayed fromgeodata recorded on different scales and indifferent formats. Three scale levels will be

Development of an Information Infrastructure for the Rule-based Derivation ofGeoinformation from Distributive, Heterogeneous Geodata inventories on Different Scales with an Example Regarding the Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment

Azzam, Rafig (1); Bauer, Christian (1); Bogena, Heye (2); Kappler, Wolfgang (3);

Kiehle, Christian (1)*; Kunkel, Ralf (2); Leppig, Björn (1); Meiners, Hans-Georg (3); Müller, Frank (3);

Wendland, Frank (2); Wimmer, Guido (1)

(1) RWTH Aachen, Lehrstuhl für Ingenieurgeologie und Hydrogeologie (LIH), Lochnerstr. 4-20,

52064 Aachen, Germany.

* Contact: [email protected], www.geodienst-schutzfunktion.de

(2) Forschungszentrum JülichGmbH (FZJ), Systemforschung und Technologische Entwicklung (STE),

52425 Jülich, Germany

(3) ahu AG, Wasser - Boden - Geomatik, Kirberichshof 6, 52066 Aachen, Germany

GEOSERVICE GROUNDWATER VULNERABILITY

31

considered: the microscale (~1:5000), themesoscale (~1:25,000) and the macroscale(<1:50,000). The results on the individual scalelevels are conditioned by different input data,different geometrical accuracies and algo-rithms.

In the work, priority is given to the realizationof a flexible geodata network constructed withthe involvement of the data providers andpotential users. In order to identify the widerange of requirements of the potential endusers, are to be intensively involved in the pro-ject by means of several workshops. This inclu-des, for example, the Geological Survey inNorth Rhine-Westphalia, the North Rhine-Westphalian State Environmental Agency, theState Surveyor's Office in North Rhine-Westphalia, the government environmentalagencies as well as local authorities and priva-te institutions (e.g. water utilities).

3. Groundwater vulnerability assessment

The »concept for determining groundwatervulnerability« (after Hölting et al. 1995) in twocatchment areas of North Rhine-Westphaliaserves as a geoscientific case study. Hetero-geneous, geological conditions (areas of solidand unconsolidated rock) occur in the catch-ment areas of the Rur and Erft as well asregions characterized by intensive anthropoge-nic activities (lignite and hard coal mining, agri-culture and forestry, urban areas).Furthermore, the study area crosses federaland national boundaries.Three scale levels areconsidered (see Fig. 1, page 33):

- Saubach catchment area, 16 km2 (microscale,scale considered 1:5,000),

- Inde catchment area, 353 km2 (mesoscale,scale considered 1:25,000),

- Rur and Erft catchment area, 4125 km2

(macroscale, scale considered <1:50,000)

The input data are incorporated in a staggeredresolution corresponding to the individualscale ranges.

The Hölting method consideres certain soil-physical, hydrological and geological parame-ters with respect to their influence on the resi-dence time of the leachate and the degrada-tion potential in soil. The assessment is perfor-med as a standardized, parametrical assess-ment system. The subareas of »soil«, »rate«,»rock type of the individual strata« and theirthickness, as well as »suspended groundwaterlayers« and »artesian pressure conditions« areconsidered separately and given a dimension-less point value. The subpoint values are offsetby an assessment algorithm and then reclassi-fied in five intervals (vulnerability function classes).

Determination of the groundwater vulnerabi-lity represents a suitable framework for deve-loping a prototype systems architecture intwo respects:

1. The groundwater vulnerability is of actualinterest for different disciplines and at diffe-rent levels of consideration. Groundwatervulnerability maps are being increasinglyused as a basis for environmental compati-bility studies, for planning and licensing pro-cedures and for the estimation of diffusepollutant inputs into the groundwater.

2. Basic data from different scale levels alsoenable the input data, parameters and algo-rithm to be varied in a meaningful manner.

It is to be expected that the assessment of thegroundwater vulnerability on different scalelevels will supply different results for one area.These differences are determined by the para-meter variation, which in spatial terms essenti-ally depends on two factors. On the one hand,the content-related differentiation of the inputdata concerning soil properties and land usediverges on the different scale levels (accuracy);on the other hand, the data differ with respectto spatial precision. Both factors jointly deter-mine the significance and validity of the infor-mation derived.

32

In order to investigate the influence of theparameters on the groundwater vulnerabilityat different scale levels, the influence of one ofthe area parameters regarded as particularlyimportant on the groundwater vulnerability isstudied on each scale level. ahu AG will thusundertake a detailed study of anthropogenicinfluences, e.g. due to urbanization and aban-doned industrial sites. LIH will make a moredetailed study of the influence of the geologi-cal structure, whereas in a subproject STE atFZJ will place special emphasis on the regiona-lization of climate data and on determining the

leachate rate required for calculating thegroundwater vulnerability according to Höltinget al. (1995).

Ultimately, a method in the sense of link ruleswill be determined by processing the indivi-dual scale levels and studying selected scaleeffects. Requirements for the individualsystem components will be derived fromthese rules and integrated into the informa-tion infrastructure.

Figure 1: Location of the study areas.

33

4. Development of an Information Infra-structure

The information infrastructure to be developedwill be implemented according to the three-tier model on the available data , analysis andpresentation of geoinformation. The threeindividual tiers are the presentation -tier, theso-called »business logic-tier« and the data -tier (see Fig. 2).

Establishing this information infrastructurestarts by defining the tools and standards to beused. Considerable space is occupied here bythe specification of interfaces for communica-tion between the system components. Theoverall system will access distributed data andconsist of various services. On the user side,access to the assessment maps generated onthe fly from current basic data will be providedvia a web interface.

4.1. Data-tier: Use of distributed hetero-geneous geodata inventories

In order to determine the protective function,distributive data are used which have theirown internal structure and specific content(subject-related and/or spatial). The system willbe able to process data from various providers.

In order to simulate the distributive data stora-ge, the geodata are stored at the different sitesof the three project partners.

The interfaces to be applied must be defined inorder to use distributive data. This refers bothto the management of the data inventoriesand their description (metadata). Interoperabi-lity is ensured by primarily using standards fromthe OpenGIS Consortium, the Object Manage-ment Group and the WorldWideWeb Consor-tium for access to the different data pools.

Data are made available to the geo-applicationserver by introducing them into the system viaa standardized metadata format which is eva-luated in the business logic-tier by a catalogueservice (see Section 4.2).

4.2. Business logic-tier: Processing geoda-ta into geoinformation

The functional performance of the businesslogic-tier involves a linking of the required basedata from distributive data providers, depen-ding on the level of resolution, to obtain thegroundwater vulnerability. It thus forms thecore of the information infrastructure; it is acti-vated via the user interface and accesses thedata -tier. Since previous forms of information

Figure 2: System diagram.

34

supply, which were generally exclusively restric-ted to the provision of base data, are not suf-ficient for interlinking data on different scales,an intelligent information infrastructure is cre-ated here that generates useful informationfrom base data. In this way, the user does notobtain a further data set but rather specificinformation which is made more concrete bytext definitions, diagrams and tables.

In all processes within the business logic-tier,priority is given to the aspects of interoperabi-lity, independence of manufacturer and pro-spects for the future. In the final phase ofimplementation, the business logic-tier willprovide three web services:

1. Catalogue services which process and storeregistration information for the other servi-ces and the available data. Apart from thefeatures of the services, information on thedata available is also stored here; both servi-ces and also data are managed.

2.Control services that ensure the scalability ofthe information infrastructure, the session-management, web site generation and datamining.

3.Geoservices that process distributive datainto homogeneous information; they are thecore of the information infrastructure. Geo-services are divided into:

a. Base services: combining heterogeneousdata formats into uniform, open and ven-dor-independent data formats. This inclu-des, for example, the derivation of a para-meter from a certain data inventory (e.g. nFK from BK 50). This also includesservices for geodata processing (neigbor-hood analyses, union, etc.)

b. Integrative services: compilation of baseservices for uniform derivation of infor-mation from geodata (e.g. the derivationof the groundwater vulnerability from

various input parameters) as well as generalization and validation.

4.3. Presentation-tier: interface betweenuser and geoservice

The presentation -tier enables the user toobtain information on the basis of a specificproblem definition; the widest possible rangeof forms of representation should be availablehere in a freely selectable mode (e.g. diagrams,PDF documents, geoinformation etc.).

Communication with the geoservice »ground-water vulnerability« will be performed via agraphical user interface which communicateswith the business logic-tier via the internet. In this way, the presentation -tier is platform-independent.

5. Pilot Operation

During the development of model applica-tions, the information infrastructure will becoordinated and evaluated with users fromlocal government, universities and the privatesector. Pilot operation after the developmentphase will serve to validate the informationprovided for defined applications with respectto content appropriateness for the geosciencesand also technically. Ultimately, this will enablean assessment of the system to be made alsowith respect to its transferability and practica-bility.

6. References

Hölting, B., Haertlé, T., Hohberger, K.-H.,Nachtigall, K.-H., Villinger, E., Weinzierl, W.,Wrobel, J.P. (1995): Konzept zur Ermittlung derSchutzfunktion der Grundwasserüberdeckung.Geologisches Jahrbuch Series C, No. 63.Schweizerbartsche Verlagsbuchhandlung,Stuttgart.

35

AbstractThe combination of the internet and mobilecommunication technologies offer new per-spectives for the geosciences, by providinglocation independent access to distributedgeodatabases. New geoservices will contributeto a faster availability and an increasing dataquality of environmental information. Theseservices have to be designed for usage by sta-tic and mobile users through internet basednetworks. Beside the important aspect of datamanagement for geoservices, data acquisitionund visualization of multidimensional geodataare predominant factors. They are still topics offurther research. Particularly the low perfor-mance and heterogeneity of not yet standardi-zed mobile devices represent major problems.The project partners from Vechta, Karlsruhe,Heidelberg and Munich complement their dif-ferent expertises in the areas of acquisition,management, usage and visualization of geo-data, respectively.

1. Objectives and conception

Objective of this project is to develop an ove-rall concept for acquisition, management,usage and visualization of geodata for mobilegeoservices. The technical feasibility andacceptance of the used methods within thegeosciences will be shown by components of aprototype system.

Within the project different aspects of geoda-ta processing have to be examined: on the onehand a central server unit should allow geoda-ta access from different sources. Data are pro-vided to another kind of components, themobile devices, through standardized geoservi-ces from heterogeneous data sets as separateobjects. The mobile device, which is carried bythe user, allows for online communication tothe data provided by the server unit. Using theconnection to external sensors and measuringunits the mobile terminal can use the transmit-ted data on site directly. Functionalities whichare adapted to the used object structures areoffered to the user. This allows an on site mani-pulation of proper data sets, when the neces-sary acquisition and transmission of geoobjectsto the server are not possible online. Further-more, augmented reality components (AR)have to be taken into account for visualizingthe database query results. This should allowfor mobile on site acquisition of spatial objectsin the final stage of the project. Fields of appli-cation are all tasks where no visual objects (e.g.geological structures, soil parameters, DTM,upcoming engineering projects, boundaries ofparcels, supply lines in the underground) canimprove the on site data acquisition. In figure1 the proposed system architecture is present-ed. The client applications at the Karlsruhe,Heidelberg and Munich nodes focussing on ARviewing, acquisition, update, use, analysis andvisualization of geodata, are connected with a

Breunig, Martin (1); Malaka, Rainer (2); Reinhardt, Wolfgang (3); Wiesel, Joachim (4)

(1) Research Centre for Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing, University of Vechta, P.O. Box 1553, 49364 Vechta,

Germany, E-mail: [email protected]

(2) European Media Laboratory GmbH, Villa Bosch, Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 33, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany,

E-mail: [email protected]

(3) Universität der Bundeswehr München, GIS Study Group, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85577 Neubiberg, Germany,

E-mail: [email protected]

(4) Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (IPF), University of Karlsruhe, Englerstr. 7, 76128 Karlsruhe,

Germany, E-Mail: [email protected]

Advancement of Geoservices

37

database component for a service-oriented3D/4D-GIS (node Vechta) and with other geo-services at the server sites.

The project partners have separated the deve-lopment of the above-described tasks as fol-lows:

- Development of web based GIS componentsfor online access of spatio-temporal objectsin geoservices (Vechta);

- mobile acquisition, updating, usage/analysisand visualization to geodata (Heidelberg,Munich);

- online visualization, processing and acquisi-tion of 3D datasets with a mobile terminalbacked up by augmented reality (AR)(Karlsruhe);

- definition of standardized interfaces for geo-services (Munich).

During the development of all components themain intention is to use intensive and methodi-cal research to ensure an ideal usage of newtechnologies within newly developed workflows. The need for a mobile geographic datamanagement tool (particularly for the mobiledata acquisition) is obviously existing in all dif-ferent disciplines of the geosciences. A fewexamples shall be pointed out exemplarily. Thequalified and methodical specification of thesesscenarios will be described in a following paper.

- The transmission of just measured values intoremote databases facilitates the use of thenew findings and information to other usersand this data is available for further data pro-cessing. The results of this processing has to

Figure 1: System architecture.

38

be made at the disposal of the field workerimmediately. So data with high relevance tothe present situation (e.g. meteorologicaldata) is fast and easily achievable for themobile user.

- In the opposite direction, all the data storedon the heterogeneous distributed databasesare placed at the field workers disposal.There is no necessity to take all potential nee-ded data out to the field. On the contrary,you can decide on the spot which data isneeded and should be transferred to themobile device. Newly acquired data could becompared with data stored in the databasesand the attained knowledge supports thedetermination of the next measurementspot, without the necessity to interrupt theprocess of data acquisition by returning tothe office.

- The integration into the geographic datainfrastructure (GDI) currently under develop-ment facilitates furthermore the possibility toachieve data without knowing its concretelocation of storage. E.g. a geologist who hasproblems to determine the actual strata dueto a highly complex terrain morphology willbe able to get further information about thearea by sending requests against a catalogueserver. Data registered at this server will bedelivered to the user by further services. Theuser will receive parts of satellite images forinstances. To take these images to the field iscommonly restricted due to their immensesize. If it happens in the field that only smallparts are needed, the necessary request (spe-cifying the required sector) could be sent to aremote server which starts the transmissionof the demanded data. Of course transmis-sion capacities have to be taken into consi-deration.

2. State of the scientific and technicalknowledge

In the mid nineties a new generation of lap-tops enabled users to use spatial data offlinewithout using a wired connection to a databa-se. Due to the lack of mobile communications,offline data had to be synchronized before andafter the mobile data acquisition process. Theimprovements in wireless communication ena-bled the user to connect to a spatial databasein the field in general and even to manipulatethe data (see ORACLE’s and Autodesk’s MAUIproject: http://www.gis-news.de/news/auto-desk_ora_palm.htm). But these approachesrely completely on proprietary systems and arefocussed on technical implementation. Therehas not been any scientific investigation onthese questions yet.

Naturally the heterogeneity of multiple spatialdata sources is not taken into account – appli-cations for common usage of spatial data havenot been provided so far. Progress in the fieldof mobile geocomputing, online access to spa-tial databases and integration of external data-bases brings us in a leading position within thespatial scientific community (Caspary and Joos2000).

Geodata access over internet and wirelesscommunication is just in the beginning of itsdevelopment. But there are several standardi-zation efforts around which try to accommo-date W3C standards (W3C 1998). OGC (Joos2000, OGC 2000) is currently working on aXML-based representation of simple geogra-phic features: GML. Further investigations haveto be made, if these specifications meet therequirements in practice.

Prerequisites for mobile geoservices are inno-vations in the field of mobile technology andwireless communication. Recently a new datacommunication standard GPRS (General RadioPacket Service) was launched in Germany. Inthe next couple of years the changeover fromGSM/GPRS to UMTS (Universal Mobile

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Telecommunications System) is awaited. Mobile devices for location based services arecurrently in rapid development and have veryshort innovation cycles. Additionally, the mobi-le hardware platforms are diverse (display size,computing performance, data rate) and thereare many different system architectures around(Laptops, PDAs, cell phones, card phones).Because of that, it has to be investigated whichdata transformations and server applicationshave to be developed to achieve a commonrepresentation of spatial data on mobilesystems.

3. Integration of the project in researchprograms and networks

Within the 5th frame program (5.RP) of theEuropean Community the research in the fieldof ”User-friendly information society (IST)” hasbeen funded. The objective of the first maintask “Services for citizens” is to provide userswith an easy and cheap access to top qualityservices for different purposes. The goal is toallow an easy internet access to common com-prehensible information within the EU.Supplementary to this main goal, during theproject “Advancement of Geoservices” thedevelopment and access to high-end geoservi-ces especially designed for geoscientificexperts is intended. Within the project themain focus is not to provide EU citizens withlocation based services, but rather the deve-lopment of location independent services forinternet based and mobile access to geoscien-tific relevant information.

4. Expected research results and referen-ces to actual social discussions

An efficient handling of the valuable resourcesof geoinformation is one of the major challen-ges nowadays. In 80% of all decisions in priva-te and public areas direct or indirect spatialinformation are involved, but there are still nosystems, not to mention applications, which

are capable of processing distributed andheterogeneous data and provide them for furt-her use. Still there are no possibilities to modi-fy existing heterogeneous data sets simultane-ously by ensuring the consistency of the diffe-rent databases during those updates. Theimportance of this topic is reflected in the»grossen Anfrage« of 29 representatives in theGerman Bundestag from 12th April 2001(printed matter 14/3214). The economy alsopays great attention to this matter, whichresults in significant investments in standardi-zation promoted by the OGC and ISO. By acti-ve participation in these panels the latestresults in these areas are available andshould be taken as the basis of the projectdevelopment.

The intended development of new conceptsand techniques for the management of spatialand time based objects for mobile geoservicescould be groundbreaking for other areas ofapplications too (e.g. life services and bioinfor-matics). Moreover an efficient internet basedand mobile access to spatial and time basedinformation offers new possibilities for theusage of geoinformation systems (GIS).Particularly mobile geoservices are enabled toaccess by the development of open systemarchitectures basic functionalities of GIS, e.g.data visualization or data base queries.Furthermore, the development of concepts fornew efficient access technologies, databasequeries and user interfaces for mobile locationindependent services offer a great innovationpotential. Especially in this area intensive rese-arch is required on the national level. It couldbe expected that other key points of geotech-nologies will benefit of the developed softwareconcept in an advanced state of the project.The prospects of success are considered asexcellent as partners from informatics and thegeo-environment are involved.

The high availability and rising quality of infor-mation on our environment can play a majorrole in the management of social tasks in timesof increasing globalization. The new technolo-

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gies for usage of mobile geoservices developedwithin this project can easily be transferred toInternet services. Furthermore, the public avai-lability of documented geodata results in acost-saving for upcoming data acquisitions andwill become a major aspect for the maintenan-ce of our information- and knowledge society.

5. Description of project parts

5.1. Project »Development of component-software for the internet-based access togeodatabase services«

responsible: Martin Breunig, Research Centrefor Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing (FZG),University of Vechta

AbstractThe project aims to make a contribution to3D/4D geodatabase research for the develop-ment of new component-based and mobilegeoinformation systems. The application of re-usable database software shall enable the userto compose own geoservices with pre-definedcomponents. This procedure is similar to thesoftware engineering process supported by aCASE tool. The idea is to compose the functio-nality of different geoservices by object-orien-ted editors, user-defined data types and accessmethods in a service framework. The approachintends to eliminate one of the most obvious weak points of today´s geoinformationsystems: their closed system architecture. Thissituation can only be improved by providing anopen data and function access. Therefore theefficient spatial and temporal access to geoda-ta managed by new geoservices is a centraltask for the development of new geoscientificinformation systems. Furthermore, the projectaims at examining the efficient access to geo-database services via the WWW. The represen-tation and the efficient management of staticand dynamic geoobjects in databases have tobe examined in detail. Easy-to-use plug-intechnology shall ensure a high acceptance ofthe developed software by the user. Finally, in

close cooperation with the project partners, itis planned to transfer a set of selected func-tions of a platform-independent mobile geo-service prototype with the help of a laptop orhandheld client.

5.1.1. Preparatory work

The group of Martin Breunig has been workingin several projects developing extensible geo-database and geoinformation systems(Waterfeld and Breunig 1992; Bode et al.1994; Balovnev et al. 1997; Alms et al. 1998;Breunig 2001; Breunig et al. 2003). Further-more, the experiences gained in the completedIOGIS project (Voss und Morgenstern 1997)and in the Collaborative Research Centre 350,both at the Institute of Computer Science III ofBonn University (group of Armin B. Cremers),open new perspectives for the development ofinternet-based access techniques for spatialand temporal objects (Breunig et al. 1999;Breunig 2001; Breunig et al. 2001).

Concerning the development of open spatio-temporal database services the group also pro-motes a close exchange with the groups of theformer European CHOROCHRONOS projectand with other international groups (Worboys1992; Snodgrass et al. 1996; Brinkhoff 1999;Sellis 1999; Güting et al. 2000).

5.1.2. Objectives and Conception

The objectives of the project can be formula-ted in the following three steps:1) Concept for the management of spatio-

temporal objects within client-server archi-tectures for (mobile) geodatabase services:Hitherto, such objects being variable inspace and time, cannot be managed effi-ciently by mobile clients of a databasemanagement system. Therefore new waysfor the representation and the retrieval ofthese objects have to be developed. Further-more, the distribution of the functions for

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high-class database queries upon the clientand the server have to be examined.

2) Development of component software forthe access to geodatabase services:Databases will play a central role in thedevelopment of new geoservices (Brinkhoff1999; Dittrich and Geppert 2001; Friebe2001). However, the efficient access to spa-tio-temporal databases from the WWW andthe filtering of geodata for mobile geoservi-ces are still subject of research. For example,functions for the processing of geometric2D and 3D objects (e.g. in boundary repre-sentation) have to be developed and com-posed in a single component as part of ageoservice.

3 Evaluation of the concepts developed in thesteps 1) and 2) for the application field ofgeology:The software developed in the project shallbe evaluated with a suitable applicationcoming from the field of geology. Weexpect that by the evaluation new impulseswill be given for the development of mobi-le services. The experiences are also expec-ted to be transferable to other spatial appli-cation fields within and outside the geo-sciences like geomatics and bioinformatics.In future, mobile geoservices will also bemore important for the flexible manage-ment of early diagnosis and the handling ofenvironmental monitoring.

Methodically, one of the main ideas of object-oriented software technology shall be pursued:the re-use of geospecific database componentsoftware shall be used for the examination ofthe internet-based database access to spatialand temporal objects in new geoservices(Snodgrass et al. 1996; Szypersky 1998; Sellis1999; Dittrich and Geppert 2001; Friebe2001). Within a layer-architecture, applicationindependent basic and advanced servicesshall be developed as tailored services for spa-tial applications. As OGC and AGILE member,the University of Vechta is also up to date

concerning the current international standar-dization efforts.

5.2. Project »Development of mobile com-ponents and interfaces for geoservices«

responsible: Wolfgang Reinhardt, AGIS,University of the Bundeswehr Munich; RainerMalaka, European Media Laboratory GmbH,Heidelberg

AbstractThis part of the project deals with the develop-ment of a mobile client for visualization andmanipulation of spatial data. The potential ari-sing from the online access to multiple hetero-geneous spatial databases, will be investiga-ted. In respect of international standardizationefforts, required interfaces will be designed.Further investigation is required on assuringthe consistency of the database during datatransfers between database and mobilesystems. During the conceptual phase, diffe-rent system architectures for the mobile clientwill be considered and a concept for a mobileclient-server spatial data infrastructure will bedeveloped. A very new approach, supportingthe user during the data acquisition process iscombined under system aided data acquisition.The results of these investigations will betested by the development of a prototype forthe proposed system.

5. 2.1. Preparatory Work

The GIS lab at the University of the Bundes-wehr (AGIS) is a member of the OGC and takespart within the standardization process ofISO/TC211. AGIS is experienced in the field ofmobile GIS and location based servicesthrough the projects VISPA, ALOIS and PARA-MOUNT (Caspary and Joos 2000; Heister et al.2000; Leukert and Reinhardt 2000; Löhnert etal. 2000; Reinhardt 2001; Reinhardt and Sayda2001; Sayda and Wittmann 2001).

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The Project VISPA (Virtual Sports Assistant) fun-ded by the EU is accomplished by AGIS andIfEN GmbH. In this project a prototype for amobile value added service for mountaineers isdeveloped. The system is based on a mobiledevice, which can be used by the mountai-neers to connect to several GIS-based serviceslike mapping or emergency call services.

ALOIS is a navigation system for the localiza-tion of locomotives on railway networks. Thesystem consists of an onboard navigation unitand an office controlling segment. The posi-tion is obtained based on sensor fusion tech-nologies with DGPS, inertial sensors and odo-meter. Additionally a communication protocolwas established which allows the transmissionof both position information and other textualinformation.

PARAMOUNT aims at improving user-friendlyinfo-mobility services for over 150 Mio.Mountaineers (EU) by combining telecommu-nications (GSM/UMTS) and satellite navigation(GNSS) with geographic information systems(GIS). The main intention is to use these tech-nologies to provide a LBS, which increases thesecurity of mountain hikers and climbers.


Six main research topics are considered withinthis project:

1) Methodical examinationThe change from mobile geoinformationsystems used nowadays to on site mobile onli-ne data acquisition results in a series of scien-tific questions that should be topic of furtherresearch. First of all it should be investigated,which methods are capable of mobile analysisand modification of heterogeneous data.Therefore solutions should be developed onhow emerging data inconsistencies could beresolved. Starting from the current availableand planned data communication standards,research should be focussed on how the per-

formance of the system can be improveddepending on the data transfer rate. Withinthe workflow that has to be defined, new qua-lity assurance methods should be implemen-ted. This includes the registration of qualitycontrol parameters during data acquisition aswell as a revision by a controlling instance.

2) Definition of standard interfacesThe specifications, which are currently relea-sed, or being under development by theOpenGIS Consortium (data services, featureservice, coverage service, catalogue service,exchange service, mapping services) do notmeet the requirements of mobile computing.Additional interface specifications have to bedeveloped during this project. Within thisdevelopment process we aim to contribute ourexperiences to the OGC standardization pro-cess. In addition, the research topic of diffe-rential updating of spatial databases has to bepicked up. This means standardized interfaceshave to be designed allowing modification ofsingle objects in the database. Beyond that,the location services (location application ser-vers, location data servers) currently underdevelopment by the OGC have to be examinedand advanced.

3) ecure and consistent data transmissioData consistency is a major issue within thedomain of mobile geographic data manage-ment systems. Recorded data have to be sto-red on the mobile device until the end of thedata transmission to ensure the consistencyeven in the case of a connection breakdown.Techniques and methods to ensure the losslessdata transmission form an important aspect ofthe project. Those techniques have to be inde-pendent from the underlying protocol, no mat-ter if it is a packet-switched (GPRS, UMTS) orcontrasted circuit-switched network connec-tion (GSM, HSCSD).4) Concept for mobile clients and the client-

server architectureDifferent probable kinds of architecture will beanalyzed during the first stage of the concep-tual phase. Mandatory and needful functiona-

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lities of the mobile devices will be surveyed(e.g. data capture, object building, etc.) tofigure out the demands on the system archi-tecture and hardware.

The data capturing on site is accomplished bymeasuring instruments equipped with digitaloutputs or with analogue instruments. Theanalysis and the interpretation of analoguedevices are supported by graphical user inter-faces, generated automatically by distinctapplications running on the server side.

The spectrum of supported instruments couldcontain GPS-receiver, tachymeter, digitalcameras, seismographs and other devices spe-cified at a later date within the projects time-frame. The captured data will be made usableto the application instantly. The conversion ofthe proprietary measured values, a necessityup to now, will be dispensable.

Successful use of mobile data capturingsystems within distributed client-server archi-tectures depends mainly on two distinctivecomponents. Firstly the performance and stabi-lity of the cellular phone network connectionestablished, secondly the performance of themobile device. Therefore some preliminaryinspections have to be carried out, particularlyto explore the mobile radio transmission capaci-ty and stability in different terrains. The use ofinterfaces and transmission protocols as well asthe dispersion of the intelligence and functiona-lity on the mobile client or the server respective-ly depend on the experiences made during thisearly stage. The goal is to tweak the system toa maximal performance. Further on, the disper-sion of the functionality will be adjusted to thetype of mobile devices in use. Experiences madeduring the prototypical implementation andperformance testing will be provided to updatethe used interface and protocol specifications.

5) Server-side supported data captureThe applications to be developed, provided byapplication servers, simplify the read and writeaccess to inhomogeneous distributed databa-ses. To facilitate a simple maintenance of pre-

viously recorded data in the field, the applica-tions will generate graphical user interfacesautomatically. The definitions will be read from metadata information. Consequently, thesystem ensures the maintenance of all attribu-tes attached to the geographic data stored inthe databases. This brings a first quality controlmechanism to reality.

Further services will be developed to supportthe user recording data in the field and toensure a high level of quality assurance. Thesecould be: (1) A service generating optimalmeasuring nets for specific tasks, providingpropositions for the next location the nextmeasurement will take place. (2) Interpolationservices that process the already captured dataand provide a huge bulk of information to theuser in the field. The user will be able to deter-mine the follow on measuring point locationinterpreting the interpolation results providedby the server side. (3) Quality assurance servi-ces use further information stored in the data-bases (e.g. DGM) to inform the user if the loca-tion of the actual measuring point could notbe taken within a fixed level of discrepancyusing GPS-facilitated positions due to shado-wing effects.In all cases as much functionality as possiblewill be placed on the server side to reduce therequirements for the mobile devices. In anycase, the transmission capacity has to be takeninto consideration.

6) Prototypical developments and field inquiryThe developed concepts and architectures willbe tested and proved together with the EMLHeidelberg. The prototype will demonstratethe capacity and efficiency of the chosen tech-nologies and architectures as well as the tech-nical realization of the entire project. EML haslong lasting experiences in the field of databa-ses and mobile technologies.

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5.3. Project »Mobile Augmented RealityGIS-Client«

responsible: Joachim Wiesel, Institute ofPhotogrammetry and Remote Sensing (IPF),University of Karlsruhe

AbstractA mobile GIS Client for the collection andupdate of 3D databases shall be developed onthe basis of Augmented Reality (AR) techni-ques. AR Techniques can significantly improvequality and productivity of GIS client compo-nents by superimposing feature data with thereal world.

5.3.1. Preparatory Work

A multi-tier 2D/3D GIS Architecture (GISterm)has been developed in the research projectsGLOBUS and AJA (Hofmann et. al. 2000a;Hofmann et al. 2000b; Veszelka and Wiesel2000). The Ministry for the Environment of theState Baden-Wuerttemberg is financing anddeploying this technology into its state agen-cies. GISterm is a platform independent Javaframework, which allows it to place differentfunctionalities on several nodes of a federatedspatial information system. Recent develop-ments are the integration of 3D-visualizationfunctions for hydro geological applications andfor studying the impact of planned buildingsand infrastructures on the groundwater systemusing Java-3D.

In Project C6 of the joint research center 461»Strong Earthquakes« financed by DFG, firstexperiments have been performed to use AR-Hardware and Software (Bähr and Leebmann2001) in disaster management scenarios.In the project »Geodetic Deformation Analy-sis«, sponsored by DFG, 3D-Visualization me-thods are studied and implemented for 3D/4D-visual inspection of spatial movements andtheir interactions with variations of modelparameters (Faulhaber and Wiesel 2001).

In Project C5 of the joint research center 461»Strong Earthquakes« methods for the extrac-tion and modeling of topographical objects(Bähr et al. 2001) from laser scanner data arestudied.


Mobile data communication is nowadays com-mon at quite low bandwidth (GSM, HSCD,GPRS up to 48kb/s), future 3G cell phone net-works (UMTS) will transport data up to severalhundred kbits/s. These techniques will enablemulti media applications on hand held compu-ters in real time. The goal of this project is touse AR methods, as they are already used ine.g. CAD, facility maintenance (Müller 2001)and GIS (Afshar 1997; Zlatanova and Verbree2000), to support and improve 3D data captu-re and update in the field – wireless in real time(Hollerer et al. 1999). To reach this goal, wecan define 6 work packages:

1) Selection, evaluation and test of hard- andsoftware for 3D-projection in a mobile envi-ronment. Design and experimental implementation of amulti tier software architecture taking underconsideration the limited resources of mobilesystems (speed, storage, communicationscapacity). Porting and adaptation of theGISterm framework to the selected hard- andsoftware environment.

2) Orientation and navigation of the AR visua-lization and data capture system using DGPSand INS. Evaluation of methods to improve the preci-sion of the system by using control featuresfrom the surrounding natural objects (e.g. byimaging, range finding)

3) Study of methods for 3-D measurement ina mobile real time environment Examination of which methods are economic,feasible and precise enough (e.g. LaserScanners, Cameras, Range Finders)

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4) Development of an interface for real timeaccess to a 3D spatial database system for datacapture and update. Study of the impacts generated by slow andless stable communication links. Developmentof protocols to deal with this environment.

5) Visualization of data and features in an ARenvironment. Study on how 2D cartographic concepts canbe transferred into the 3D case, which displaytechniques will result in readability of features,what is the impact of feature abstraction andsimplification. Study of how user interfaceshave to be implemented in the AR environ-ment, how to precisely overlay displayed fea-tures and real world, study eye tracking andother AR technologies.

6) Test of the developed technologies (hard-and software) embedded into the commonmobile testbed (2D mobile clients, spatial database).Evaluation of commercial markets for thedeveloped solutions.

6. Outlook

In future, new mobile geoservices could helpto give solutions to one of today´s most chal-lenging requirements of geoscientists concer-ning information technology: the capture,modification and visualization of undergroundgeoobjects to analyse planning processes orgeological processes directly in the terrain. Thisvision could come true by providing efficientgeodatabase management systems andmodern augmented reality methods within aweb-based geoinformation infrastructure.Without any question, then the interactionsbetween micro-, meso- and macro-scale geo-logical processes referred to limited areas couldbe better understood and analysed. Further-more, new insights could be obtained by thesynopsis of underground observations and theapplication of new information technologymethods.

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Zlatanova, A.; Verbree, E. (2000): A 3D topo-logical model for augmented reality, SecondInternational symposium of MobileMultimedia Systems and Applications, 9-10November 2000, Delft, The Netherlands,pp.19-26.

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1. Overview

Although in geoscientific applications thetopography of the Earth surface and thustopographic data sets constitute a commonbase for most related data sets, discrepanciesand even disagreements often arise wheninspecting one and the same object in differentdata sets. This is visible when superimposingdifferent data sets of identical objects in reali-ty. The reason is that the different data sets aretypically based on different data models andhave been collected for different purposes.Thus, different aspects of reality are importantand have consequently been mapped. Also,different sensors are being used, data acquisi-tion takes place at different dates, data repre-sentation differs (for example in terms of vec-tor or raster data), and so does the resolutionand the quality of the data. Data integration isa big issue today, when more and more digitaldata sets are being collected and made availa-ble – also in the »Geotechnologien-Programm«the improved access and use of data is animportant and crucial aspect.

Due to the heterogeneity of the data it is com-plicated and sometimes even impossible tohandle them in a coherent manner. In somecases this even leads to new data acquisition.

The integration of inhomogeneous data is the-refore becoming more and more important.The benefits of an integration are:- To use the stored data for various purposes

and applications. The information which isnot contained in one data base, can be takenfrom another one.

- To complete and enhance the data bases the-matically. For instance from the integration ofa data set with another one new thematicinformation can be derived.

- To automatically verify the stored data regar-ding their quality, to correct them or toimprove their accuracy.

Basically, this means that new data acquisi-tion – typically the most expensive part ofspatial analysis tasks – can be largely reducedand is only required if no data are available orchanges in the reality have occurred.Consequently, a considerable saving of costand labour is obtained by adding significantvalue to the existing data.

The work undertaken in the proposed pro-ject aims at providing methods which canbe used by different applications for anintegrated use of data of different sources.The integration will be treated on the basisof the combination of general data types

Sester, Monika (1)*; Butenuth, Matthias (2); Gösseln, Guido von (1); Heipke, Christian (2); Klopp, Sascha (3);

Lipeck, Udo (3); Mantel, Daniela (3)

(1) Institut für Kartographie und Geoinformatikk, Universität Hannover

(2) Institut für Photogrammetrie und GeoInformation, Universität Hannover

(3) Institut für Informationssysteme – FG Datenbanksysteme, Universität Hannover

* corresponding address: Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Monika Sester, Institut für Kartographie und Geoinformatik,

Universität Hannover, Appelstr. 9a, 30167 Hannover, Germany, E-Mail: [email protected]

New Methods for Semantic and GeometricIntegration of Geoscientific Data Sets withATKIS – Applied to Geo-objects from Geologyand Soil Science

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(vector-vector, raster-vector), and will beconducted in three sub-projects.

1.1. Project director, co-operation partners

The project will be undertaken in a co-opera-tion of three institutes of the UniversityHanover, together with the Bundesamt fürKartographie und Geodäsie (BKG) in Frankfurt,as well as the Niedersächsiches Landesamt fürBodenordnung (NLfB) in Hannover.

Main contractors are the Institutes of theUniversity:- Institut für Kartographie und Geoinformatik

(ikg): Prof. Dr.-Ing. Monika Sester, Dipl.-Ing.Guido von Gösseln, project management

- Institut für Photogrammetrie und GeoInfor-mation (IPI), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Heipke,Dipl.-Ing. Matthias Butenuth

- Institut für Informationssysteme, FachgebietDatenbanksysteme, Prof. Dr. Udo Lipeck,Dipl.-Inform. Sascha Klopp, Dipl.-Inform.Daniela Mantel.

Co-operation Partners:- BKG: Dr.-Ing. Heinrich Jochemczyk (official

geo-data)- NLfB: Dr. Horst Preuß (thematic information

systems)- NLfB: Dr. Henning Bombien (geology),- NLfB: Dr. Jan Sbresny (soil science).

In close co-operation among the partners newconcepts and methods for data integration willbe developed and tested. The co-operation isparticularly important during the first projectphase, when the characteristics and semanticsof the objects of interest are defined. At a laterstage the developed techniques will be evalua-ted by the co-operation partners, and if possi-ble they will be integrated in their daily pro-duction work flow. Thus, the scientific researchand development is verified by means of appli-cations relevant for practical work.

1.2. Project goal and conceptual aspects

In this project the following data sets will beintegrated: geo-scientific digital vector datasets Geological Map (GK) as well as SoilScience Map (BK), topographic geo base data(Basis-DLM) from ATKIS (Authoritative Topo-graphic-Cartographic Information System) ofthe State Surveying Authorities, as well as aeri-al imagery in digital form.

The objectives of this project are(1) The development of techniques for the

integration of the digital Soil Science Mapand the digital Geological Map of the StateGeological Survey with the Basis-DLM.

(2) The automated enhancement of the digitalSoil Science Map by information of currentaerial images, also in combination with theATKIS Basis-DLM.

Figure 1: Comparison of different data integration techniques.

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(3) The access to these integrated data sets ina federated spatial data base.

These objectives lead on the one hand to twosub-projects in which the problems of the par-ticular data combination on the basis of speci-fic tasks will be focused on. On the other hand,in the third project general techniques for theintegration of databases will be developed.The objects and data types dealt with in thesub-projects are general enough to be transfe-rable to further related problems.

Due to the common spatial reference a trans-formation of geological and soil science dataonto the ATKIS Basis-DLM or an orthophoto isin principle possible with relatively simple tech-niques such as overlay. In this project, however,the aim is to achieve an object-related dataintegration which will allow for the exchangeof data stemming from different sources, diffe-rent representations and structures, and thuswill establish a base for performing combined,integrated analyses.

For the object-related integration the corre-sponding objects in the different data setshave to be identified. Once these correspon-dences are established, various possibilities forinformation exchange between the data arise:Integrated access on data sets: after integra-tion, processes like queries, adaptations orupdates can be performed based on the esta-blished links. Adaptation and transfer of geo-metry: after matching two representations areavailable for each object in the reality. If thedifferent objects were collected with differentaccuracy, a new combined geometry can becreated, which takes the original accuraciesinto consideration. In this way the data withlower accuracy can be adapted to data of hig-her accuracy. Adaptation and transfer of the-matic information: the thematic characteristicsderived from the particular descriptions can beexchanged. This leads to a refinement andenrichment of the data sets.

The advantage of such possibilities for infor-mation exchange will be explored and provenin close collaboration with the project partnersof the geo-scientific arena.

1.3. Combination of the results

The results of the three sub-projects lead to anenrichment of the relevant data sets. Thisinformation can be used by all project part-ners. For example, one can imagine to use firstthe ATKIS-information for the interpretation ofa given vegetation phenomenon in the ima-ges, and to subsequently extract the corre-sponding geological information, which mayprovide evidence about the sub-surface cha-racteristics. Thus, the integration of all availa-ble data sources can lead to new results. Thefederated data base will allow for the integra-ted analysis of all available information.

2. Integration of different vector data

In the first sub-project, carried out at theInstitut für Kartographie und Geoinformatik(ikg) of the University Hanover in co-operationwith the NLfB and BKG, techniques for thematching of objects of the basis data set ATKISon the one hand, and the digital Soil ScienceMap and the digital Geological Map on theother hand will be developed. This allows forthe explicit and direct linking of geo-scientificbase data to the ATKIS-data. Such a link is sofar only implicitly given and established by thefact, that the geo-scientific data is originallyacquired based on the topographic maps.

This interrelation can be made explicit by iden-tifying common objects in both data sets. Firstof all, it has to be defined on a object classlevel. Based on a semantic correspondence,individual objects be matched later on can. Forinstance, for the integration of the Soil ScienceMap and ATKIS, the object class »water« isrelevant, as it is represented in both data sets(cf. Figure 2, right). Furthermore, roads are

53

important, as they form the natural and artifi-cial border of the land utilization. Overlayingthe three different maps reveal different kindsof objects that are candidates for the matchingmethods. Certain areas of the soil science mapshow the same geometry as objects in the geo-logical map (Figure 2, left). In the first phase ofthe project, the possibly corresponding objectclasses have to be identified.

First investigations show that the ATKIS objectswhich will be the main target for the first rese-arch will be »water«, »settlements«, »streets«and »borders«, as well as the objects whichshow fairly the same geometry in the geologi-cal and the soil science map. In the next stepthere will be a comparison of the three data-sets with focus on these four object classes. The matching can be divided into the follo-wing two steps:1. Matching, i.e. the identification ofcorres-ponding individual objects using semantic-geometrical matching algorithms: A mutuallinking of the objects already allows for amultitude of options, like the exchange ofattributes.

2. Integration of the linked objects by harmo-nization of geometry and thematic informa-tion: In this way, ONE consistent object geo-metry can be obtained. The harmonization isbased on transformations that will take the

accuracy of the original data into account. Theresult of the adjustment is a new, common,object geometry as well as quality measureswith respect to the transformation. This adap-tation requires knowledge about the relativesignificance of the objects as well as their accu-racies. The generation of the common geome-try can be achieved in different ways:- The object of the theme A has a higherimportance or accuracy, respectively, so thatthe object of theme B will be adapted.- The importance or accuracy values of therespective objects are given – the new objectgeometry is gained as »weighted mean« ofthe two original geometries.Matching techniques will be developed exem-plarily for important object types in the givendata sets.

2.1. A brief description of the internatio-nal state-of-the-art in vector data inte-gration

The matching problem can be solved in diffe-rent ways. One of the first approaches of mat-ching vector data sets of different sources –also named as conflation [Lynch and Saalfeld1985] - was carried out by the Bureau ofCensus in Washington DC [Saalfeld 1988]: thecensus data were integrated with data of theUnited States Geological Survey (USGS) withthe objective of improving the quality, elimina-ting errors, as well as exchanging attributes. InGeodesy and Geoinformatics often geometricfeatures like form and position of the objects

Figure 2: Overlay of the different vector data-sets: left-image: soil science map and geological map, right image: soil science map, ATKIS and selected object »water« in ATKIS.

54

are used [Gabay and Doytsher 1994]. If, howe-ver, unknown transformation between thedata sets have occurred, or no unique mat-ching candidates can be found, also binaryobject characteristics, i. e. relations, have to beapplied in order to constrain the search process[Walter 1997]. Integration problems arise onthe one hand in the domain of the integrationof heterogeneous data, on the other handthey are also investigated when data of diffe-rent scales have to be combined [vanWijngaarden et al. 1997, Badard 1999].Devogele et al. [1998] analyse the theoreticaldiscrepancies of different data sets and presentpotential solutions.

It can be summarized, that up to now integra-tion approaches were primarily investigated forthe integration of artificial objects like buil-dings and roads – natural objects like rivers orborders of vegetation are missing up to now.These objects are representing a special chal-lenge, as the fuzziness of their boundariesplays a decisive role.

3. Integration of raster and vector data

3.1. Project goals

The goal of this project, being carried out atthe Institute of Photogrammetry and Geo-Information (IPI) together with NLfB and BKG isto automatically enhance the applicability ofthe digital Soil Science Map by integrating itwith information of up-to-date aerial imagesfor the following two geo-scientific problems:

1. Derivation of field boundaries: Field boun–daries are important for various soil scienceproblems. Furthermore, this information isalso required in other areas, like in the agricultural sector. The field boundaries – asfar as they are visible in the images – will beextracted automatically. In this task partic-ularly the geometric information of the fieldboundaries in form of polygons is of impor-tance. Additional attributes may also be collected.

2. Derivation of wind erosion obstacles: Winderosion obstacles (hedges, rows of trees,groves etc.) are relevant for the determina-tion of the potential damage of an area cau-sed by wind. These obstacles will be identi-fied in the images by automatic processes.Furthermore, the information about theheight and possibly also about the permea-bility will be extracted for every obstacle.

Generally, the combined use of raster and vec-tor data plays an important part in the geo-sciences for the registration, validation, upda-ting and visualisation of objects of the Earthsurface. An important aspect is the refinementof existing vector data sets by objects that havebeen extracted from aerial images. At NLfB,primarily black-and-white aerial imagery fromthe State Survey Authorities and correspon-ding orthophotos are being used for such tasksat present. An important challenge with regardto research is the automatic extraction of theobjects of interest incl. the corresponding attri-butes from these images using techniquesfrom image analysis based on suitable seman-tic scene models. In this way the informationimplicitly contained in the images is madeexplicit and is thus available for object-relatedgeo-scientific analyses.

According to the state-of-the-art in image ana-lysis the use of constraints by introducing priorinformation taken from the combination ofdifferent data sources is an essential elementfor the stabilisation of the process. In the con-text of the project the prior information comesfrom ALKIS, ATKIS Basis-DLM and the digitalSoil Science Map in form of an initial scenedescription. This information is helpful forimage analysis, e. g. the field boundaries fre-quently are parallel to parcel and land useboundaries and/or to the road network. Thesame applies to wind erosion obstacles, whichare often located in parallel or at a right angleto topographic objects and to the border ofvegetation areas. Figure 3 shows an orthoima-ge (left) and the desired results (right): Fieldboundaries are depicted in black lines, winderosion obstacles in white lines.

55

Up to now, both the field boundaries and thewind erosion obstacles are manually acquiredat NLfB and are subsequently imported intothe existing vector data sets. This task is carriedout partly at an interactive workstation basedon the aerial imagery, and partly in the field.The data thus acquired as well as further baseand thematic data (price per km2, land use,ground topography as well as the main winddirection) are being used as input for simula-tions which provide as result among otherthings an assessment of the wind erosion dan-ger for each field (e.g. Thiermann et. al. 2002).

The time-consuming, manual data acquisitionfor such tasks will be complemented by anautomated process in the context of this pro-ject and thus become more effective. In thisprocess data integration plays an importantrole in two ways: (1) During the constructionof the semantic scene model the prior vectorinformation (ALKIS, ATKIS, digital Soil ScienceMap) has to be integrated with the objects tobe extracted from the aerial imagery, wherethe description of the latter is restricted by theobservability of the corresponding attributesand the relations, (2) the process of image ana-lysis provides the necessary pre-processing ofthe raster data as well as the connection bet-

ween the objects extracted from the aerialimage and the existing vector data.

3.2. A brief description of the state-of-the-art in integration of raster and vector data

Latest developments in research in image ana-lysis for topographic applications is broughttogether in [Baltsavias et. al. 2001]. Accordingto this reference knowledge-based methodsrepresent a very promising approach [Niemannet. al. 1990; Liedtke et. al. 2001]. As far asapplications are concerned a multitude of suc-cessful approaches for the automatic extrac-tion of man-made single objects like buildingsor roads exist [see Mayer 1998 for an over-view]. For the extraction of vegetation objectsfrom high resolution images approaches haveonly been presented recently [e. g. Borgeforset. al. 1999, Heipke et. al. 2000, Pakzad 2001,Straub et. al. 2001], prior work mostly usesmulti-spectral-classification. A significant limi-tation of nearly all known techniques constitu-tes the focus on one object class only, see alsothe corresponding statements in [Stilla et. al.,1998].

Work on the use of vector data of a Geo-graphic Information System (GIS) as prior infor-mation of a scene are documented at severalreferences. Only a few approaches [Bordes et.al. 1996, Quint, 1997, de Gunst and Vossel-man 1997], which again deal with man-made

Figure 3: Example of the project results: Extracted fieldboundaries (black lines) and wind erosion obstacles(white lines). Note that these results have been acquiredmanually, the goal of the project is to automate thisacquisition process as far as possible.

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objects only, use this prior information for thegeneration of incremental hypotheses. A pa-per, interesting with regard to the extraction offield boundaries intended for this project, hasbeen presented by Löcherbach [1998], whoreports on the refinement of topologically cor-rect field boundaries.

In summary, one may say, that there is a de-mand for research and development in auto-matic image analyses. In particular in the areaof vegetation there is still insufficient litera-ture and success. It is a shortcoming of manyapproaches, that existing prior knowledge,often available in the form of vector data, isnot adequately integrated into image analysisat this stage [see also Baltsavias 2002]. Work inthe current project aims at overcoming theselimitations by properly representing and inte-grating prior knowledge into image analysis.

4. Federated spatial database

The third subproject aims at designing andimplementing a »federated« spatial databasethat discloses the given heterogeneous datatogether with their relationships after theyhave been united. Therefore, general methods

for database federation have to be specializedand adapted to the integration of spatial data-bases. Additionally, new methods have to bedeveloped for object-wise database integra-tion, in particular for identifying related spatialobjects from separate data sources.

4.1. State of the art

In order to couple heterogeneous databases,at first so-called multi-database architectureshad been discussed for loose coupling, butthen so-called federated databases have beenproposed and investigated to support a closercoupling. A systematic and comprehensive tre-atment of that subject can be found, e.g., in[Conrad 1997].

Federated databases allow integrating existingautonomous and (with respect to modelingand contents) heterogeneous databases via acommon database interface. This so-calledfederation service refers to a global databaseschema that has been designed by integratingthe participating local schemas. Local applica-tions remain unchanged, but additional globalapplications can be developed with an integra-ted view on the data.

Figure 4: Federated Database System.

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For schema integration, a broad spectrum ofmethods has been investigated in the literatu-re. Typically corresponding object types have tobe detected and merged on the schema level,after conflicts (on names, structures, exten-sions, etc.) have been detected and resolved.On the instance level, however, such methodseither expect implicit unique assignments bet-ween »identical« objects (e.g., based on aworld-wide numbering schema like ISBN forbooks) or treat objects from different sourcesto be different. More sophisticated correspon-dence relationships are usually not consideredwhen identifying objects.

There are first proposals for query languages(usually extensions of SQL) that respect specificneeds of federated databases, for instance, the»multi-database language« SchemaSQL [Laks-haman et al. 1996] or the »federation querylanguage« FraQL [Sattler et al. 2000]. Theyintroduce language features for transformingdifferent structures or for reconciling attributevalues of already identified objects (e.g., forproducing a uniform notation of bibliographicbook data).

Whereas there is a lot of work on spatial data-bases (for surveys compare, e.g., [Günther1998], [Rigaux et al. 2002]), requirements ofspatial data on database federation have hard-ly been investigated; exceptions are [Devogeleet al. 1998] and [Laurini 1998]. At least, thereis a standardized representation of vector datatypes according to the OpenGIS consortium[OpenGIS 1999].

The authors have already gathered some expe-rience in processing data of the kinds requiredin this project by means of an object-relationaldatabase. Such a database offers extensionsfor spatial (vectorized) data and allows for ownextension development, as it might be neededfor, e.g., raster data or raster/vector combina-tions. In particular, modeling, importing andprocessing data from cartography and fromsoil science have already been realized withinthe Oracle database management system (plusSpatial cartridge) [Kleiner et al. 2000; Pfau et

al. 2000]; it was shown how to specify andimplement arbitrary queries and computationmethods. Thus, a flexible database environ-ment can be utilized as a starting point formodeling and prototyping the federation servi-ce, before in later project phases dedicated GISinterfaces will be connected.

4.2. Project goals

By utilizing assignments and unification rulesbetween corresponding objects as developedin the other two subprojects, this subprojectwill design and prototypically realize an inte-grated access to the given heterogeneous datasets according to the paradigm of federateddatabases.

First of all, the different kinds of correspon-dence relations between objects and/or bet-ween object parts have to modelled : directstructural assignments like 1:1, 1:n or n:m rela-tions have to be considered as well as variousinstances of thematic and geometric similarity.There may even be alternative potential assign-ments being valid with different degrees ofprobability.

For the applications at hand, we can on theone hand expect true identification relations-hips between composed objects of the sametype, for instance, between subsections orsubareas of water objects which »belong tothe same object in the real world«, and whichcan be found by methods matching completegeometries. On the other hand, it will benecessary to establish more general correspon-dence relationships, for instance, which topo-graphic objects and which soil areas »shareboundaries« (in order to propagate exact topo-graphic boundaries to soil maps); here,methods for partial and multiple matching willbe needed.

At least for identified objects stemming fromseveral sources, conflict resolution rules haveto be specified for the joint attributes; geome-tries, for instance, might be taken from the

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topographic model being the more precisesource.

Then queries to corresponding databases(including import and export tasks) have to besupported which can utilize such object assign-ments by asking for thematic and geometricproperties of the respective corresponding ob-jects. As far as objects can be identified, que-ries should be supported that need not refer tosuch objects assignments explicitly. This willrequire appropriate extensions of the databaselanguage SQL by language features, whichallow a unified access to objects of differentdata sources along correspondence relations-hips and conflict resolutions. Of course, notonly thematic operators (like alphanumericcomparisons), but also geometric operators onspatial datatypes must be adapted.

Later, updates that are propagated along cor-respondence relationships according to pre-specified rules have to be supported as well.

Due to the federation paradigm, the originaldatabases keep their autonomy – as can beexpected in practice since separate agenciesare responsible for topographic and soil/geolo-gic maps. The databases, however, will be dis-closed by a federation service that acts like adatabase with an integrated global schema – itdoes not copy the original databases, but itimports queried extracts into a spatial workingdatabase of its own.

This federation requires design of an integra-ted database schema for the involved databa-ses including object assignments, matchingmethods, conflict resolution rules, and updaterules. Then the working database can be reali-zed such that it stores not only extracts accor-ding to the unified schema, but also corre-spondence relations between objects togetherwith their kind and degree of validity, and theresolved attributes of identified objects.Additionally, it serves as a method base forimport, matching, conflict resolution, andupdate procedures.

Expensive spatial operations, like, e.g., boun-dary matching on entire maps, will need dedicated optimizations by means of precom-puted data like, e.g., topological relations, andspecialized index structures. Fortunately,object-relational databases like Oracle 9i areextensible also with respect to such physicaloptimizations.

4.3. Interfaces

To exchange data between the data sourcesand the federation service or, more general,between the project partners, system indepen-dent tools and object-structured views foraccessing and delivering information aredesirable.

Here, the XML standard fits as an exchangelanguage [Abiteboul et al. 2000] that can bespecialized to the considered data by joint con-ventions to be specified in the meta descrip-tion language XML Schema. The latter can alsoserve as an instrument for communicating andunifying the semantic object models of thesubprojects. The OpenGIS-GML can be used asthe sublanguage to exchange geometric data. To specify the (global) database tasks prece-ding XML-based data exchange, Java-basedweb interfaces to the underlying object-relatio-nal database will be developed. These have tocontrol the import of XML data into the fede-ration service and the export of XML data fromthat service as well as ad-hoc queries andupdates. How to automatically generate ob-ject-structured XML data from object-relationalspatial databases has been studied in [Kleinerund Lipeck, 2001a/b].

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Quint, F., 1997: Kartengestützte Interpretationmonokularer Luftbilder, Deutsche GeodätischeKommission, München, Vol. C 477.

Rigaux, P., Scholl, M., Voisard, A., 2002:Spatial Databases with Application to GIS,Morgan Kaufman Publishers.

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1. Lars Bernard, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, [email protected]

2. Ralf Bill, Universität Rostock, [email protected]

3. Martin Breunig, Hochschule Vechta, E-Mail: [email protected]

4. Matthias Butenuth, Universität Hannover, E-Mail: [email protected]

5. Ralf Dannowski, Zentrum für Agrarlandschafts- und Landnutzungsforschung (ZALF) e.V., [email protected]

6. Regina Falk, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH - Projektträger PTJ-MGS, [email protected]

7. Guido von Gösseln, Universität Hannover, [email protected]

8. Jochen Häußler, European Media Laboratory (EML), [email protected]

9. Sören Haubrock, Delphi IMM GmbH, [email protected]

10. Christian Heipke, Universität Hannover, [email protected]

11. Sebastian Hübner, Universität Bremen, [email protected]

12. Ulf Hünken, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH - Projektträger PTJ-MGS, [email protected]

13. Wolfgang Kappler, ahu AG, [email protected]

14. Kurt Christian Kersebaum, Zentrum für Agrarlandschafts- und Landnutzungsforschung (ZALF) e.V., [email protected]

15. Christian Kiehle, RWTH Aachen, [email protected]

16. Sascha Klopp, Universität Hannover, [email protected]

17. Ralf Kunkel, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, [email protected]

18. Björn Leppig, RWTH Aachen, [email protected]

19. Rolf Lessing, Delphi IMM GmbH, [email protected]

20. Udo Lipeck, Universität Hannover, [email protected]

21. Michael Lutz, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, [email protected]

22. Daniela Mantel, Universität Hannover, [email protected]

23. Ingo Michels, WASY GmbH, [email protected]

24. Oliver Plan, Universität der Bundeswehr München, [email protected]

25. Alexander Rudloff, Koordinierungsbüro GEOTECHNOLOGIEN, [email protected]

26. Jan Sbresny, Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Bodenforschung, [email protected]

27. Monika Sester, Universität Hannover, [email protected]

28. Michael Schlüter, Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI), [email protected]

29. Winfried Schröder, Hochschule Vechta, [email protected]

30. Ludwig Stroink, Koordinierungsbüro GEOTECHNOLOGIEN, [email protected]

31. Lutz Vetter, Fachhochschule Neubrandenburg, [email protected]

32. Ubbo Visser, Universität Bremen, [email protected]

33. Thomas Vögele, Universität Bremen, [email protected]

34. Frank Wendland, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, [email protected]

35. Joachim Wiesel, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), [email protected]

List of Participants, Kick-Off Meeting »Information Systems in Earth Management«,Universtity of Hannover, 19 February 2003

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64

Author’s Index

AArndt, Olaf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Azzam, Rafig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

BBauer, Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Bernard, Lars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Bogena, Heye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Breunig, Martin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Butenuth, Matthias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

DDannowski, Ralf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

GGösseln, Guido von. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Gründler, Rainer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

HHaubrock, Sören. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Hecker, J. Martin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Heipke, Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Hübner, Sebastian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

KKappler, Wolfgang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Kersebaum, Kurt-Christian . . . . . . . . 23Kiehle, Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Klopp, Sascha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Kuhn, Werner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Kunkel, Ralf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

LLeppig, Björn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Lessing, Rolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Lipeck, Udo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Lutz, Michael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

MMalaka, Rainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Mantel, Daniela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Meiners, Hans-Georg . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Michels, Ingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Müller, Frank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

RReinhardt, Wolfgang. . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

SSester, Monika . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Steidl, Jörg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Schlüter, Michael. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Schröder, Wilfried . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

VVisser, Ubbo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Vetter, Lutz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

WWaldow, Harald von.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Wendland, Frank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Wieland, Ralf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Wiesel, Joachim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Wimmer, Guido. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

GEOTECHNOLOGIEN Science Report’s – Already published

No. 1 Gas Hydrates in the Geosystem –Status Seminar GEOMAR ResearchCentre Kiel, 6-7 May 2002, 151 pages



Projects


No. 2

Information System in Earth Management

ISSN: 1619-7399

Geoinformation and geoinformation systems (GIS) - as tools to deal with this typeof information - play an important role at all levels of public life. Daily a hugeamount of geoinformation is created and used in land registration offices, utilitycompanies, environmental and planning offices and so on. For a national economygeoinformation is a type of infrastructure similar to the traffic network. Variousscientific disciplines investigate spatial patterns and relations, other disciplines aredeveloping concepts and tools for doing these types of investigations.

In Germany a national programme »Information Systems in Earth Management«(Informationssysteme im Erdmanagement) was launched in late 2002 as part ofthe R&D Programme GEOTECHNOLOGIEN. Goal of the programme is to improvethe basic knowledge, to develop general tools and methods to improve the inter-operability, and to foster the application of spatial information systems at different levels.

The currently funded projects focus on the following key themes: (i) Semanticalinteroperability and schematic mapping, (ii) Semantical and geometrical integrationof topographical, soil, and geological data, (iii) Rule based derivation of geoinfor-mation, (iv) Typologisation of marine and geoscientifical information, (v)Investigations and development of mobile geo-services, and (vi) Coupling informa-tion systems and simulation systems for the evaluation of transport processes.

This abstract volume contains the descriptions of the funded projects which havestarted so far. The internal kick-off-meeting was held at the University of Hannover,19th of February 2003 as a get-together of all participants. Upcoming meetings willbe open to a broader spectra of interested visitors.

The GEOTECHNOLOGIEN programme is funded by the Federal Ministry

for Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Council (DFG)

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Documents

simulation systems

geotechnologien programme

geoinformation systems

geoscientifical information

typeof information

earth management kick

earth managementkick

earth managementissn