GEOSS will be a major step forward in providing global information - data and products - for improved environmental management and significant societal benefits. The ambitious goal of GEOSS, linking millions of established regional, national and international data sources and datasets into a single network, will succeed only if the participants agree to and implement a set of interoperability arrangements, including standards for collecting, processing, storing, and disseminating shared metadata, data, and derived products. The magnitude and scope of the standards effort essential to achieving this goal are unprecedented and will require the combined efforts of many national and international organizations. Coordination of these efforts is clearly needed.
IEEE as Standards Facilitator for GEOSS
Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa, Chair
IEEE Committee on Earth Observations Standards Working Group
The GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan prescribes a user-driven approach to the creation of GEOSS. GEOSS includes observing, processing, and dissemination capabilities interfaced through interoperability specifications established and adhered to by all contributing systems. It emphasizes building on existing systems and initiatives, and points to the importance of using existing international standards organizations and institutes in the identification and adoption of standards to achieve GEOSS interoperability objectives.
Click Here to Read the Entire Paper!
Click Here to Read more on Interoperability
ADC creates Standards and Interoperability Forum (SIF)
The ADC established the Standards and Interoperability Forum (SIF) to facilitate the interchange of information, and make recommendations for standards and interoperabilityarrangements in GEOSS. The SIF will enable ever greater degrees of interoperability among GEOSS components through facilitation, technical analysis, advocacy and education. To carry out its work most effectively, the SIF is forming regional teams consisting of experts with an understanding of the protocols, standard arrangements and other technological practices for their particular region, representing each (or most) of the societal benefit areas of GEOSS. Regional Teams will assure that we have true global representation in supporting GEOSS interoperability.
click here for SIF Background PowerPoint presentation
click here for SIF Terms of Reference
click here for SIF Briefing for Xi'an ISO/TC211 meeting
The Interoperability Pilots (IP3)
The Interoperability Process Pilot Project (IP3) was initiated to begin implementing the GEOSS infrastructure and testing the GEOSS interoperability process. The IEEE leads the effort to developing a series of pilots involving several initially identified, diverse GEOSS components: Biodiversity (GBIF), Seismology/Landslides (FDSN and GA), Energy and Water Cycle (WTF-CEOP), and Weather and Climate (WIS).
Phase 1 of the IP3 involves identifying the standards, interface protocols and interoperability agreements in use by the initial set of systems. It also seeks to analyze the individual systems, all of which are themselves distributed data systems, for important lessons learned. In Phase 2, the team developed scenarios that required the exchange of data and information between these systems. Phase 3 is to use the scenarios and other knowledge gained through the IP3 to demonstrate how the GEOSS architecture, data, and services make it possible to realize benefits that would not have been easily achieved otherwise. This includes a live demonstration of GEOSS infrastructure components that implemented to date. It also includes a walk-through of those scenarios that have advanced to the point of using live data access using GEOSS registered protocols and real-time processing of the data for information extraction and decision support. In Phase 4, semantic interoperability is addressed, seeking to ensure that the meaning of the data and information exchanged through the interfaces are intelligible to the recipient systems. In the final phase of each IP3 pilot, the goal is to exercise more completely the capabilities of the protocols and interfaces used in the scenarios.
Report on GEOSS IP3 – Yellowknife workshop
Extended scenarios for 2008
Bio-diversity example: Modeling the impact of climate change on butterflies in Alaska and Canada.
See entire briefing “Biodiversity and Climate Change Resource Interoperability for the GEOSS IP3” Stefano Nativi
Barcelona workshop
GEOSS - Standards Committee Seeks Members
This note is to request recommendations for IEEE members that are interested in working on facilitating standards for development and operation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). GEOSS will provide major steps forward in providing global information - data and products - for improved environmental management and significant societal benefits. At this point, we are forming the working group for Standards and we are looking for IEEE members that are interested in working on GEOSS and in facilitating the standards efforts. Click the link below for additional information.
Click here for more details.
"The magnitude and scope of the standards effort essential to achieving a fully interoperable GEOSS are unprecedented and will require the combined efforts of many national and international organizations."
A Methodology for Standards in GEOSS
by Don Wright
Past Chair IEEE SA Standards Board
Member, IEEE SA BoG
Director of Standards, Lexmark International
Background
The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is a complex systems of sensors, communication devices, storage systems, computational and other devices used on concert to observe the Earth and eventually come to a better understanding of the Earth's processes. The first Earth Observation Summit was convened in Washington DC in July 2003 and was attended by high level officials of 33 countries, the European Commission and 21 international organizations involved in Earth observation.
From that meeting, the Washington Summit Declaration establishes the objective "to monitor continuously the state of the Earth, to increase understanding of dynamic Earth processes, to enhance prediction of the Earth system, and to further implement our international environmental treaty obligations", and thus the need for "timely, quality, long-term, global information as a basis for sound decision making". Subsequently developed, the Framework Document adds that to move from principles to action, a "10-Year Implementation Plan for establishing the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)", which should be "comprehensive", "coordinated", and "sustained" is needed.
The GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan adopted 16 February 2005 goes on to say:
The vision for GEOSS is to realize a future wherein decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive, and sustained Earth observations and information.
Click Here to Read the Entire Paper!
