A Standards-based Data Catalogue integrating scientific, community-based and citizen science data across the Arctic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torill Hamre ◽  
Finn Danielsen ◽  
Michael Køie Poulsen ◽  
Frode Monsen
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Observation System ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Data Collections

<p>INTAROS is a Horizon 2020 research and innovation project developing an integrated Arctic Observation System by extending, improving, and unifying existing systems in the different regions of the Arctic. INTAROS integrates distributed repositories hosting data from ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere and land, including scientific, community-based monitoring (CBM) and citizen science (CS) data. Throughout the project, INTAROS has been working closely with several local communities and citizen science programs across the Arctic, to develop strategies and methods for ingestion of data into repositories enabling the communities to maintain and share data. A number of these CBM and CS data collections have been registered in the INTAROS Data Catalogue. Some of these collections are hosted and sustained by large international programs such as PISUNA, eBird, Secchi Disk Study and GLOBE Observer. Registration in the INTAROS Data Catalogue contributes to making these important data collections better known in a wider community of users with a vested interest in the Arctic. It also enables sharing of metadata through open standards for inclusion in other Arctic data systems. This catalogue is a key component in INTAROS, enabling users to search for data across the targeted spheres to assess their usefulness in applications and geographic areas. The catalogue is based on a world-leading system for data management, the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN). With rich functionality offered out of the box combined with a flexible extension mechanism, CKAN allows for quickly setting up a fully functional data catalogue. The CKAN open-source community offers numerous extensions that can be used as-is or adapted to implement customised functionality for specific user communities. To hold additional metadata elements requested by the partners we modified the standard database schema of CKAN. The presentation will focus on the current capabilities and plans for sustaining and enhancing the INTAROS Data Catalogue.</p>

Monitoring Svalbard’s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruises

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Poulsen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Science Program ◽  
Cruise Ship ◽  
Cruise Ships

<p><strong>Monitoring Svalbard’s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruises</strong></p><p>Michael K. Poulsen1, Lisbeth Iversen2, Ted Cheeseman3, Børge Damsgård4, Verena Meraldi5, Naja Elisabeth Mikkelsen6, Zdenka Sokolíčková7, Kai Sørensen8, Agnieszka Tatarek9, Penelope Wagner10, Stein Sandven2, and Finn Danielsen1</p><p>1NORDECO, 2NERSC, 3PCSC, 4UNIS, 5Hurtigruten, 6GEUS, 7University of Oslo, 8NIVA, 9IOPAN, 10MET Norway</p><p><strong>Why expedition cruise monitoring is important for Svalbard. </strong>The Arctic environment  is changing fast, largely due to increasing temperatures and human activities. The continuous areas of wilderness and the cultural heritage sites in Svalbard need to be managed based on a solid understanding.</p><p>The natural environment of Svalbard is rich compared to other polar regions. Historical remains are plentiful. The Svalbard Environmental Protection Act aims at regulating hunting, fishing, industrial activities, mining, commerce and tourism. Expedition cruises regularly reach otherwise rarely visited places.</p><p><strong>Steps taken to improve environmental monitoring. </strong>A workshop for enhancing the environmental monitoring efforts of expedition cruise ships was held in Longyearbyen in 2019, facilitated by the INTAROS project and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators  (https://intaros.nersc.no/content/cruise-expedition-monitoring-workshop) with representatives of cruise operators, citizen science programs, local government and scientists. They agreed on a pilot assessment of monitoring programs during 2019.</p><p><strong>Results show the importance of cruise ship observations. </strong>The provisional findings of the pilot assessment suggest thatexpedition cruises go almost everywhere around Svalbard and gather significant and relevant data on the environment, contributing for example to an improved understanding of thestatus and distribution of wildlife. Observations are often documented with photographs. More than 150 persons contributed observations during 2019 to eBird and Happywhale. iNaturalist, not part of the pilot assessment, also received many contributions. The pilot assessment was unable to establish a useful citizen science program for testing monitoring of cultural remains.</p><p><strong>Conclusions relevant for monitoring and environmental management. </strong>Cruise ships collect environmental data that are valuable for the scientific community and for public decision-makers. The Governor of Svalbard isresponsible for environmental management in Svalbard. Data on the environment and on cultural remains from expedition cruises can be useful for the Governor’s office. Improved communication between citizen science programs and those responsible for environmental management decisions is likely to increase the quantity of relevant information that reaches public decision makers.</p><p><strong>Recommendations for improving the use of cruise ship observations and monitoring.</strong></p><ul><li>1) All cruise expedition ships should be equipped with tablets containing the apps for the same small selection of citizen scienceprograms so that they can easily upload records.</li> <li>2) Evaluation of data that can be created and how such data can contribute to monitoring programs, to ensure that data is made readily available in a form that is useful for institutions responsible for planning and improving environmental management.</li> <li>3) Clear lines of communication between citizen science program participants, citizen science program organizers, the scientific community and decision makers should be further developed.</li> <li>4) Developing expedition cruise monitoring is of high priority in Svalbard, but is also highly relevant to other polar regions.</li> <li>5) Further work is necessary to fully understand the feasibility and potential of coordinated expedition cruise operator based environmental observing in the Arctic.</li> </ul>

Definition of a Protocol for the Knowledge, the Analysis and the Communication of the Architectural Heritage

2017 ◽  
pp. 94-131
Author(s):  
Marinella Arena
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Architectural Heritage ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
A Value ◽  
New Frontier ◽  
Definition Of

The communication of architecture is a complex and multidisciplinary process, indispensable for enhancing a monument properly and to allow understanding and knowledge to a large number of users. The European Architectural Heritage, and the Italian one in particular, is enormous; the processes of knowledge, cataloguing and analysis are far from being complete. This fact has prompted the European Union to invest, especially in recent years, in research projects designed to increase the communication strategies and put a value on the present assets in its territory. For example, the programs of the European Commission for Research and Innovation, found in “Horizon 2020”, define the communication based on the new media as the new frontier for the enhancement of architectural heritage (Reflective Cities). The main goal is to develop a better awareness of the Architectural Heritage through increased interaction between the citizen, the monument and the scientific community.

scholarly journals Advancing in Citizen Science Interoperability by testing standard components between Citizen Observatories

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Masó ◽  
Ester Prat ◽  
Andy Cobley ◽  
Andreas Matheus ◽  
Núria Julià ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Observation System ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
International Institute ◽  
Science Data ◽  
The Eu

<p>The first phase of the citizen science Interoperability Experiment organized by the Interoperability Community of Practice in the EU H2020 WeObserve project under the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) innovation program and supported by the four H2020 Citizen Observatories projects (SCENT, GROW, LandSense & GroundTruth 2.0) as well as the EU H2020 NEXTGEOSS project has finalized with the release of an Engineering Report in the OGC website. The activity, initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), EC Joint Research Center (JRC), the Wilson Center, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and CREAF wanted to covered aspects of data sharing architectures for citizen science data, data quality, data definitions and user authentication. </p><p>The final aim is to propose solutions for Citizen Science data to be integrated in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The solution is necessarily a combination of technical and networking components, being the first ones the focus of this work. The applications of international geospatial standards in current citizen science and citizen observatory projects to improve interoperability and foster innovation is one of the main tasks in during the experiment to achieve the final aim.</p><p>The main result was to demonstrate that OGC Sensor Observing Service (SOS) standard can be used for citizen science data (as already proposed in the OGC SWE4CS discussion paper) by implementing it in servers that were combined by visualization clients showing Citizen Science observations from different projects together. The adoption of SOS opened new opportunities for creating interoperable components such as a quality assessment tool. In parallel, an authentication server was used to federate three project observers in a single community. Lessons learned will be used to define an architecture for the H2020 COS4Cloud project. The second phase of the Interoperability Experiment has already started and developments and tests will be conducted by participants in the next 9 months. Some open issues identified and document in the Engineering Report will be addressed in the second phase of the experiment, including the use of a Definitions Server and the adoption of the OGC SensorThings API as an alternative to SOS. The second phase will finalize in September 2020 with a presentation in the Munich OGC Technical Committee meeting. The call for participation and additional contributions will remain for the whole duration of the activity</p>

scholarly journals Virtual European Solar & Planetary Access (VESPA): Progress and prospects

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Erard ◽  
Baptiste Cecconi ◽  
Pierre Le Sidaner ◽  
Angelo Pio Rossi ◽  
Carlos Brandt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Distribution System ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Data Services ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Research And Innovation

<p>The H2020 Europlanet-2020 programme, which ended on Aug 31<sup>st</sup>, 2019, included an activity called VESPA (Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access), which focused on adapting Virtual Observatory (VO) techniques to handle Planetary Science data [1] [2]. The outcome of this activity is a contributive data distribution system where data services are located and maintained in research institutes, declared in a registry, and accessed by several clients based on a specific access protocol. During Europlanet-2020, 52 data services were installed, including the complete ESA Planetary Science Archive, and the outcome of several EU funded projects. Data are described using the EPN-TAP protocol, which parameters describe acquisition and observing conditions as well as data characteristics (physical quantity, data type, etc). A main search portal has been developed to optimize the user experience, which queries all services together. Compliance with VO standards ensures that existing tools can be used as well, either to access or visualize the data. In addition, a bridge linking the VO and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has been installed to address formats and tools used to study planetary surfaces; several large data infrastructures were also installed or upgraded (SSHADE for lab spectroscopy, PVOL for amateurs images, AMDA for plasma-related data).</p><p>In the framework of the starting Europlanet-2024 programme, the VESPA activity will complete this system even further: 30-50 new data services will be installed, focusing on derived data, and experimental data produced in other Work Packages of Europlanet-2024; connections between PDS4 and EPN-TAP dictionaries will make PDS metadata searchable from the VESPA portal and vice versa; Solar System data present in astronomical VO catalogues will be made accessible, e.g. from the VizieR database. The search system will be connected with more powerful display and analysing tools: a run-on-demand platform will be installed, as well as Machine Learning capacities to process the available content. Finally, long-term sustainability will be improved by setting VESPA hubs to assist data providers in maintaining their services, and by using the new EU-funded European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). In addition to favoring data exploitation, VESPA will provide a handy and economical solution to Open Science challenges in the field.</p><p>The Europlanet 2020 & 2024 Research Infrastructure project have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements No 654208 & 871149.</p><p>[1] Erard et al 2018, Planet. Space Sci. <strong>150</strong>, 65-85. 10.1016/j.pss.2017.05.013. ArXiv 1705.09727  </p><p>[2] Erard et al. 2020, Data Science Journal <strong>19</strong>, 22. doi: 10.5334/dsj-2020-022.</p>

Planetary Science Virtual Observatory: VESPA/Europlanet outcome and prospects

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Erard ◽  
Baptiste Cecconi ◽  
Pierre Le Sidaner ◽  
Angelo Pio Rossi ◽  
Hanna Rothkaehl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Science ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Geological Mapping ◽  
Virtual Observatory ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Small Bodies ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Data Services ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Data Stewardship

<p>The Europlanet-2020 programme, which ended Aug 2019, included an activity called VESPA (Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access) which focused on adapting Virtual Observatory (VO) techniques to handle Planetary Science data. We will present some aspects of VESPA at the end of this 4-years development phase and at the onset of the newly selected Europlanet-2024 programme in Feb 2020. VESPA currently distributes 54 data services which are searchable according to observing conditions and encompass a wide scope including surfaces, atmospheres, magnetospheres and planetary plasmas, small bodies, heliophysics, exoplanets, and lab spectroscopy. Versatile online visualization tools have been adapted for Planetary Science, and efforts were made to connect the Astronomy VO with related environments, e.g., GIS for planetary surfaces. The new programme will broaden and secure the former “data stewardship” concept, providing a handy solution to Open Science challenges in our community. It will also move towards a new concept of “enabling data analysis”: a run-on-demand platform will be adapted from another H2020 programme in Astronomy (ESCAPE); VESPA services will be made ready to use for Machine Learning and geological mapping activities, and will also host selected results from such analyses. More tutorials and practical use cases will be made available to facilitate access to the VESPA infrastructure.</p><p>VESPA portal: http://vespa.obspm.fr</p><p>The Europlanet 2020/2024 Research Infrastructure projects have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements No 654208 and No 871149</p>

The role of trees in the CH4 and N2O exchange in boreal forest

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Vainio ◽  
Luca Galeotti ◽  
Homa Ghasemi ◽  
Iikka Haikarainen ◽  
Katerina Machacova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Forest Floor ◽  
Physiological Activity ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Observation System ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation

<p>Trees have been demonstrated to play a role in the methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) and nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) cycling in forests. Emissions of these two greenhouse gases have been observed from tree stems and shoots. The stem emissions of both CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O have been suggested to originate from the soil, however, their transportation mechanisms might differ, and furthermore, at least the stem-emitted CH<sub>4</sub> can also be produced within tree tissue. Boreal forests are considered a sink of CH<sub>4</sub> due to predominant soil oxidation, but when CH<sub>4</sub> is taken up by the roots, it bypasses the CH<sub>4</sub>-oxidation zone in the surface soil. The stem N<sub>2</sub>O fluxes at the boreal zone have been shown to follow seasonal physiological activity of trees. However, studies on tree CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O fluxes are scarce in the boreal zone.</p><p>We studied the tree stem CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O exchange from the stems of Scots pine, downy birch, and Norway spruce – in total 47 trees, growing at six study plots with naturally different soil moisture and ground vegetation conditions (6–9 trees per plot). The measurements were performed during July–August 2017 at the Hyytiälä SMEAR II (Station for Measuring Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations) ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) research site, in southern Finland. In addition to the stems, we measured forest floor CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O fluxes at all the plots, and shoot CH<sub>4</sub> fluxes from birch and pine at one plot. The stem chambers were installed at the tree bases, ca. 30 cm above the soil surface. Additionally, from the trees with the shoot measurements, we measured the stem fluxes from several heights in order to study the flux variation in the stem vertical profile. All the flux measurements were conducted with closed chambers – the stem and forest floor measurements were performed by using manual sampling and gas chromatography, while a portable greenhouse gas analyser was used for the shoot measurements. Soil moisture and soil temperature were monitored at the study plots throughout the measurement period.</p><p>The results show that all the studied tree species emit both CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O from stems. Birches growing at one plot with waterlogging conditions stand out with the highest stem CH<sub>4</sub> emissions. Concerning the N<sub>2</sub>O emissions, birch stems showed significantly higher emissions than pine stems. The results of the shoot measurements indicate that both birch and pine emit small amounts of CH<sub>4</sub> from their shoots, but the driving factors of the emissions may be different for the two species. Our aim is to model the spatial variability of the stem CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O fluxes at the site, and to develop an upscaling method combining the stem and forest floor CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O exchange, based on an existing modelling work on the forest floor CH<sub>4</sub> fluxes at the site.</p><p> </p><p>Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the Academy of Finland (288494, 2884941), National Centre of Excellence (272041), ICOS-FINLAND (281255), Czech Science Foundation (17-18112Y) and National Sustainability Program I (LO1415), and the European Research Council (ERC) under Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No (757695).</p>

scholarly journals Arctic expedition cruise tourism and citizen science: a vision for the future of polar tourism

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-111
Author(s):  
Audrey R. Taylor ◽  
Þórný Barðadóttir ◽  
Sarah Auffret ◽  
Annette Bombosch ◽  
Allison Lee Cusick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cruise Industry ◽  
Cruise Tourism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for using citizen science – defined as a data collection method through which non-professionals engage in contributing to authentic scientific inquiry – within the expedition cruise industry to contribute significantly to the collection of environmental data from hard-to-access Arctic areas. Design/methodology/approach The authors review trends in Arctic expedition cruise tourism and current needs in Arctic research and monitoring, and clarify where the expedition cruise tourism industry could have the most impact by providing data to the scientific community. The authors also compare the regulatory context in the Antarctic to that in the Arctic and discuss how these differences could affect the widespread use of citizen science. At last, the authors describe some general principles for designing citizen science programs to be successful on board, and highlight several existing programs that are being recognized for their contributions to a greater scientific understanding of the Arctic. Findings The authors find that citizen science data from the expedition cruise industry are underutilized as a tool for monitoring Arctic change. Numerous examples illustrate how citizen science programs on-board expedition ships can successfully collect robust scientific data and contribute to enhancing the knowledge and stewardship capacity of cruise passengers. Inclusion of citizen science data from the expedition cruise industry should be considered a critical part of international Arctic observing networks and systems. Social implications Active participation in Arctic citizen science by tourists on expedition cruise ships has many potential benefits beyond the collection of high quality data, from increasing passengers’ knowledge and understanding of the Arctic while on board, to affecting their attitudes and behaviors after they return home. Originality/value The potential for tourism to contribute to Arctic observing systems has been discussed previously in the scientific literature; the authors narrow the focus to citizen science programs in the expedition cruise industry, and provide concrete examples, in the hope that this will streamline acceptance and implementation of these ideas by researchers and tourism practitioners.

scholarly journals AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ATHLOS PROJECT: AGEING TRAJECTORIES OF HEALTH: LONGITUDINAL OPPORTUNITIES AND SYNERGIES

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S798-S799
Author(s):  
Matthew Prina ◽  
Demosthenes Panagiotakos ◽  
Martin Prince ◽  
Martin Bobak ◽  
Warren Sanderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Studies ◽  
Functional Ability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
World Health ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract ATHLOS is a 5-year project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. Its aim is to achieve a better understanding of healthy ageing, utilising longitudinal data from existing cohort studies. The measure of healthy ageing used within ATHLOS is based on the definition used by the World Health Organization as the ongoing process of developing and maintaining functional ability to enable well-being in older age. The first step of the project was to harmonise 17 community based cohort studies of ageing, covering 38 countries over the world and over 411,000 individuals. In this talk we will discuss the work of the different work packages of the project, including a description of the existing evidence on risk factors of healthy ageing.

scholarly journals Proposal success in Horizon 2020: A study of the influence of consortium characteristics

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1136-1158
Author(s):  
Iris Wanzenböck ◽  
Rafael Lata ◽  
Doga Ince
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Framework Programme ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Level Of Experience

This study draws on evaluation data to investigate the success of collaborative R&D project proposals submitted to Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP). Data on project status and evaluation score are used to identify successful and rejected project proposals. We hypothesize that the social or institutional composition of the project consortium explains the outcome of an early-stage R&D collaboration. Using regression analysis, we identify “success factors” at the consortium level, related to (a) the network visibility; (b) level of experience and degree of acquaintance; and (c) the research capabilities and excellence or reputation of consortium members. We show that consortia with high levels of experience and reputation, involving a large share of Western European partners and engaged in more application-oriented consortia, have greater chances of success in acquiring H2020 project funding. This result has implications for the scientific community, as well as for the direction of EU research policy.

scholarly journals LEGO as Language for Visual Communication

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Flack ◽  
Kevin Ponto ◽  
Travis Tangen ◽  
Karen B. Schloss
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Data Capture ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Question Survey

We are using LEGO for a variety of new tasks like surveys, data capture, and data visualization. We have found that LEGO is a low-tech high-touch approach to mapping and data visualization. Through two projects we explore how standard LEGO sets can be used with both children and adults to gather information, present it in an appealing way, and catalyze memorable conversations about that information in community based settings. The first project, “What Color is?” used LEGO to conduct and visualize answers to a 21 question survey with children and families at the 2018 Wisconsin Science Festival. The second project uses LEGO to visualize citizen science data on air quality on the South and Westside of Chicago. We believe that using LEGO for data collection and visualization will enable new forms of fact driven community based advocacy.

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