ICT4EO and GENESI-DR

This is the topic for the discussion around the possible participation of the ICT4EO group at Meraka to the GENESI-DR project of the [[http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html][7th Framework Package of the European Commission]

Background and context

The context of this topic is the mutual interest between the GENESI-DR and ICT4EO projects and the respective research activities.

• GENESI-DR : Ground European Network for Earth Science Interoperations - Data Repositories
• ICT4EO : Information and Communication Technologies for Earth Observation.
• GEOSS : Group of Earth Observation System of Systems - http://www.earthobservations.org/

An initial discussion was had between Bruce Becker and Marco Pappalardo of ElsagDatamat (English website). The working idea is for the ICT4EO to join the GENESI-DR consortium in a funded capacity, taking one of the tasks of the definition of work.

Summary of discussion with Marco Pappalardo

On 7/8 a short preliminary discussion was had between BruceBecker and Marco Pappalardo. Marco described the scope of the GENESI-DR project, which is summarised here. The project aims to provide a common data repository for earth observation. The scope of the project is to provide an data repository which data providers can provide data to, with specified means to integrate to the computing facilities needed to process this raw data in order to extract meaningful observations.

Standardisation

The Dublin Core Metdata Initiative standard has been adopted by the project, along with several others. Standards play an important role in the GENESI-DR objectives of harmonising and integrating access to all earth science data in a way that is easy for scientists and applications to use.

EO on the grid

The existence of a data repository with standard data and metadata formats allows for the semi-automated processing of this data in order to extract meaningful information. Due to the size and scope of the data,huge computing resources are required, and are required in non-uniform way. For this reason, the data repository is available using grid interfaces, mostly based on gLite. The processing of this data is then done on the distributed computing infrastructure - from the website : "Using spectral bands 2, 3, 5 and 7 from the ENVISAT MERIS Reduced Resolution level 2 products the European Space Agency Grid Processing on-Demand (G-POD) - http://eogrid.esrin.esa.int - automatically creates in a daily, monthly and seasonal basis, global Earth maps. With a spatial resolution of 1 minute (around 1.8 km) this dataset is available in an imagery product in TIFF and PNG format presented in the Plate-Carré projection."

EO grid portals

GENESI-DR has developed several portals specific to their consortium members - http://portal.genesi-dr.eu (account needed). According to Marco, there is some work needed to make the portals flexible enough to allow user-defined processing, since currently these portals only perform predefined processing. There is the possibility for integrating various workflow tools into the portals and grid back-end services.

Meraka's Involvement in EO

About ICT4EO

The ICT4EO group research and develop open and interoperable ICT platforms for Earth Observation (EO). Our focus is on intelligent middleware to harvest meaningful information from the sensor web. The sensor web can be viewed as a technology infrastructure composed of a distributed collection of sensory resources that can collectively behave as a single autonomous task-able and dynamically adaptive observing system. We are currently investigating how e -science platforms can leverage sensory and computational resources for inter, and cross-disciplanry research. Our approach is to explore scientific workflow toolsets such as Kepler (https://kepler-project.org/) and to demonstrate their efficacy for collaborative disaster risk research.

Our mission is mandated, amongst others, by imperatives set by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Develeopment (WSSD), National science strategy and legislative requirements (Spatial Data Infrastruture Act, Disaster Management Act), GEOSS, SAEOS (South African Earth Observation Strategy) and SAEON (South African Environmental Observation Network). We are active in the following research relevant projects:

• Advanced Fire Information System (AFIS) - An operational alert and mapping system providing near real-time information related to the detection, monitoring and accessment of fires in Southern Africa based on satellite data derived from the Terra and Aqua MODIS and Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites (http://www.wamis.co.za/)
• Integrated Risk Management for Africa (IRMA) - FP7 project for implementing a coherent suite of open integrated technologies for multi-risk management in Africa to cope with complex emergencies (http://www.irma.lu)
• Scientific Workflows for the Sensor Web (SW4SW? ) - A government funded project to research and develop e-science infrastructures based on the Sensor Web for conducting research in integrated disaster risk management. We are investigating web-based interactive research environments (WIREs) that utilise EO resources for collboartive research. Existing toolsets surveyed, include Kepler (http://www.kepler-project.org), Taverna (http://taverna.sourceforge.net) and Triana (http://www.trianacode.org/). This work will be demonstrated for the case of flood risk research.
• Earth Observation and ENVironmental modelling for the mitigation of HEAlth risks (EO2Heaven? ) - FP7 project starting December 2009, on integrating remotely sensed EO and in-situ environmental measurements to model complex relationships between environmental factors, population exposure and health impacts. EO2HEAVEN? will implement an open standards-based Spatial Information Infrastructure (SII) using adaptive geospatial Web services compliant with INSPIRE and GMES. The project will directly address GEOSS goals and outputs will be integrated into the GEOSS infrastructure.

Meraka's possible contributions to the GENESI-DR project

Ideas for Meraka's ICT4EO Group to contribute to the GENESI-DR project (under correction, pending informed view of GENESI-DR project).

• GENESI-DR on Fire: Add vegetation fire services and products (MODIS, METEOSAT) to the GENESI-DR portal.
• The Gridded Sensor Web: Combine EO data and computational resources, i.e., integrating and utilising GENESI-DR portal resources in a standards compliant and interoperable manner for data democracy.
• Gridded workflows: A SOA client utilising the GENESI-DR portal to distribute computationally intensive processes on request as part of an e -escience platform
• GENESI-DR2: Utilise the GENESI-DR portal to provide a cross diciplinary e -science platform for global change and disaster risk research in Africa. Show how GENESI-DR can be used via the GRID using Scientific Workflows. ICT4EO will look at usung Scientific Workflowsto place a workflow within the GRID infrastructure. The workflow would then access GENESI-DRvia theGRID.
• GENESI-DR for African Capacity: Evaluate the viability of the use of GRID technologies in the EO spatial data domain within a developing country, given bandwidth, processing and capacity constraints. Where feasible, develop skills and capacity in Africa to utilise GENESI-DR in environemental and earth science applications. Special attention given to large spatial data sets
• GENESI-optimalEO: Look at optimal task and data distribution within the GRID, with respect to spatial data and near real-time online data streaming

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Meetings and Minutes

• 28 October 2009 - MerakaGenesiDRMeeting28August2009 -- BruceBecker - 18 Aug 2009

• Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW BruceBecker AnwarV? MarcoPappalardo? TerenceVanZyl?
• Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = BruceBecker AnwarV? MarcoPappalardo? TerenceVanZyl?