SP7 - Interoperable Infrastructure for the Observation Network and Marine Data
The main results achieved by SP7 until the end of 2015 can be summarized as follows:
Collection and definition of the requirements expressed by researchers about an infrastructure of marine research data, based on interviews; the list of researchers who collaborated is visible at http://sp7.irea.cnr.it/wp1/az1/questresults/interviste.php.
137 requirements were collected, which were summarized in macro-requirements (see figure 1, reporting all macro-requirements in decreasing priority order).
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| Figure 1: macro-requirements collected by SP7_WP1 in decreasing implementation priority |
Inventory of available solutions (national and international) and gap-analysis between requirements and solutions by an original semi-automatic methodology (figure 2) based on an evaluation decision process (Multiple Attributes-Multiple Criteria Decision Model, MAMCDM). In this approach, each solution is seen like an alternative that the decision process orders with respect to the satisfaction of one or more criteria connected to the requirements. The result is an ordered selection of the inventoried solutions and of requirements having no solution.
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| Figure 2: methodology adopted in the gap-analysis between requirements and solutions |
Definition of the Data Policy for the Italian marine research and of the governance bodies for RITMARE. The data policy is openly readable at http://figshare.com/articles/RITMARE_Data_Policy_document/1235546. It describes the rules (figure 3) for letting participants agree on sharing of both data and products either generated by the Project or derived from previous activities, though necessary for RITMARE goals.
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| Figure 3: Data Policy of RITMARE |
Creation of GET-IT Starter Kit, an original software suite, open (see the web site https://github.com/SP7-Ritmare), enabling researchers in the creation of their own standard OGC services for the interoperable deployment of observational and geographic data (and related metadata) in Spatial Data Infrastructures (figure 4). Actions for the inclusion of already active nodes (based on OGC standards, such as Thredds) are ongoing: all reachable nodes are now visible in the first implemented version of the unique access point of the RITMARE infrastructure (SP7 portal ver. 0, figure 5).
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| Figure 4: heterogeneous data visualization (raster/vector maps and sensed observations) in the user interface of the RITMARE SP7 software suite GET-IT Starter Kit |
The first implementation of RITMARE geoportal, called RITMARE Data Portal (v0.0), performs some of the operations that will be provided in future. Currently RITMARE Data Portal (v0.0) allows the user to visualize at the same time different types of spatial data referring to one or more geographical areas. RITMARE Data Portal (v0.0) provides access to spatial data for different communities of researchers and also for every user is exploring the Web.
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| Figure 5: RITMARE Data Portal (v0.0) Homepage |
RITMARE Data Portal (v0.0) is the unique access point of the whole RITMARE Spatial Data Infrastructure, allowing to explore the autonomous and distributed nodes, which share their own data and metadata. The access point is able to include and reach all nodes deploying data in compliance with OGC standard protocols (including Thredds), enabled by the participants either autonomously or using the RITMARE suite GET-It Starter Kit.
Collaborations with international institutions responsible for marine data infrastructures (IMOS, Australia; IFREMER, France; CSIC, Spain, BODC, UK) and partnership in the H2020 project ODIP2.
