RICERCA ITALIANA     

Interoperability and cooperative management of geographic, dynamic, multidimentional and distributed data with Free and Open Source GIS

Università degli Studi di Trento

Abstract

he project aims to the assessment of the current situation of the interoperability and of the management of geographic data and to the development of methods and techniques to enhance them using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), investigating the benefits to services using these data. To reach this goal it must be taken into account that the geographic information is dynamic, multidimensional and it is provided by heterogeneous sources. This information is dynamic with reference to both its content and structure. Moreover, this information is multidimensional: in addition to the three spatial co-ordinates, unusual in a GIS themselves, time is used as a co-ordinate to model dynamic processes, often described by temporal series. Finally, the simultaneous use of different and heterogeneous data sources is one of the most promising development for the systems for the management, analysis and visualization of geographic information. This is important especially for Location Based Services (LBS), where a client application must use all the information about its context.
This project covers all the steps of the elaboration of geographic information to get to this result: the research unit in Trento studies the database interoperability and the possibility of DataBase Management Systems (DBMS) of providing data elaboration functions to geographic services, the unit in Como investigates the set up of geoservices for the distribution of information in the database, the unit >>>

Principal Investigator

Paolo Zatelli Università degli Studi di TRENTO

Research Objectives

The project aims to create an interoperable FOSS based system to manage and distribute Geographic Information. This goal will be achieved by means of the integration of different components and securing their interoperability using standards both for data and for services.
The general plan is to create a prototype of the whole stack of services that leads to an efficient data memorization and management in order to carry out data dissemination and is also to create 3D models to integrate these services and LBS to place them in the right context.
A first goal consist in an organized classification of the general picture of data standards status, providing information about the existing ones, those which under discussion, and the de-facto standards. All of them must be accompanied by a critical analysis of advantages and disadvantages in the field of geographic information management and related services. We must strongly underline that, at the moment, this information is not available in the needed detail.
Regarding the efficient geographic information management, two are the main goals: on one side to study spatial data base interoperability and on the other side to study how geoservices can exploit the functionalities of a spatial DBMS.
This implies the individuation of the standards and of the techniques which allow the interoperability both of Database and of DBMS,and implies also the designing and creation of FOSS software that can achieve >>>

First Results

Research results will naturally respect and follow by the research objectives. The main expected results therefore are: the clarification of the Regulatory Framework and of the Technical Framework in cooperative management and in geographical information/data interoperability using FOSS GIS; the development of ad hoc software implementing the appropriate Regulatory and Technical specifications and a prototype design and realization to assess the efficiency performance of the developed products.
An interoperability system will therefore be realized to manage and distribute geographical information based on FOSS solutions.Such a system will be setted up integrating the different research units developed elements. Data and services Standards will be adopted to guarantee the interoperability between the developed elements' components. A prototype of the entire services stack will be developed as an intermediate deliverable. All of the project components: the data acquisition and effective management module, the data distribution service, 3D models to extend and integrate distribution services and the definition of LBS to contextualize the services, will be implemented in the prototype.
The first research result will be the publication of an organic definition, nowadays unavailable, of the standards, current and under definition, in the geographic information management and services field. The publication will also cover the current standard de-facto along with >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Recently the amount of available geographic data has rapidly evolved, together with the demand for services related to geographic information and the way this information is used. This fact has happened especially for geographic information, that is no longer used by few specialists, but by a large number of users often unintentionally.
This situation has opened interesting scenarios for building new and integrated services, on the other hand it challenges to create new paradigms and services for technological infrastructure building and for information use.
Therefore it is necessary to build appropriate system for integrated and transparent management for geographic data, and to build services for effective information spreading to the end user.
Research and development in the geographic information management field are currently devoted to define a technical framework and to build services for sharing information, directly or indirectly spatially referred, LSB technology makes this information sharing ''intelligent'' contextualising it for each user, once his position is known.
The aim is to grant information sharing through standard creation and interoperable services. The principal actors of this development are institutes in charge of standard definition, in particular data and geographic services, and the developers community.
The research participates actively in both fields, providing conceptual model and >>>