Dr. Stefano Nativi

Visiting Scientist at UNIDATA/UCAR

Home affiliation: University of Florence (IT) and CNR-IMAA (Italian National Research Council - Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis)

Email: nativi@ucar.edu
Email: stefano.nativi@pin.unifi.it    Email: nativi@imaa.cnr.it

Last update: 16 August 2006

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Rationale

There is an ongoing integration  process among heterogeneous sectors and communities of the Society. This integration process will entail Earth Sciences communities to speak a “jargon” understandable by Society’s applications in order to share results and data in an effective way.

 Such scenario will lead to widen the present  Earth Sciences user-community.  New users are going to consider the utilization of Earth Sciences datasets, due to:

§         Society’s need of complex Decision Support Systems (DSS);

§         Increasing resolution and availability of remotely-sensed data;

§         Growing number of operational satellites and sensor networks;

§         Ubiquitous connectivity throughout the Society;

§         Growing computing and storage capabilities

 Such process is technologically driven because technology made it possible and has been providing  interoperability solutions.

A growing demand  to discover and access Earth Sciences data in a seamless and near real-time way comes from several international programmes and initiatives, such as:

§        GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment & Security);

§        INSPIRE (The INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe )

§        NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure)

§        NSDL (National Science Digital Library)

§       GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems)

§        DGIWG (Digital Geospatial Information Working Group)

Multi-disciplinary centres -such as  UNIDATA and CNR-IMAA- can play a significant role in this integration process, as far as Earth Sciences communities are concerned.

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 Topics & Documents

Interoperability of Fluid Earth Sciences and Geospatial Information Communities    From Multidimensional dataset  to GI Coverage data    NcML-GML    OGC GALEON IE   NcML   THREDDS Project		Use cases & Proof of concepts   Decision Support System for Flash Flood   A Geo-browser for WCS and ISO 19115-compliant servers (A Service-Oriented Approach)   Middleware solutions for Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI)
Geo-Information & ICT development process   ICT Role   Geo-Information Role		O&M, Coverage and Feature models: a unified framework
Spatial Data Infrastructure      Temporal Extentntion  Metadata   Operational Oceanography Infrastructure

 

 

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From Multidimensional dataset  to GI Coverage data

• As observational and model output datasets in the Earth Sciences (e.g. oceanography and atmospheric science) increase in resolution, there is an increasing demand for information systems that interoperate between the Land Management (mainly using GIS) and Earth Sciences realms. However, differences in the way the two communities think about their data and services can cause difficulties. In the present Web era, these different conceptual approaches produce diverse content models, generating disciplinary Mark-up Languages, and diverse service protocols and interfaces. As the technology of web services accessible by computer programs evolves, the challenge for those studying the Earth from an interdisciplinary perspective is to develop interoperable data models that can span the specific models employed in individual disciplines. Moreover, these interoperable models have to be integrated with the semi-structured framework of the Web itself.
  
  International initiatives (e.g. ISO TC 211 and the Open Geospatial Consortium OpenGIS) have released geo-information standard models conceived to support general interoperability. These efforts led to the definition of "more general" models for Geospatial Information. This approach is gaining value in several international initiatives, such as: GEOSS, National Spatial Data Infrastructure initiatives (e.g. ESDI and FGDC/NSDI), NSDL, GMES (Global Monitoring of Environment and Security) initiative, etc. There exists the need to shift from a "traditional" cartographic to a more general informatics viewpoint.
  
  An holistic approach to mediate and harmonize the different data and metadata models of the two communities (i.e. Land Management and Earth Sciences) is argued. Specific implementations are possible; based on this approach, valuable interoperability frameworks can be conceived and experimented.
  
  Several important and open issues must be addressed, such as: discovery services harmonization, scientific ML harmonization/mediation, spatial data infrastructure implementing rules, security and trustability services.
  
   

• NcML (i.e. the netCDF Mark-up Language) is already able to formalize and encode multidimensional gridded-based datasets. We developed the ncML-G_ML in order to mediate ncML and GML (Geography Mark-up Language) and map multidimensional structures into a set of "simple" coverages, according to ISO 19123 model.

Documents

Interoperability between Earth Sciences and GIS models: an holistic approach    S. Nativi	Seminar at NCAR/UCAR  July 2006  Boulder (CO)	PPT format	PDF  format	Webcast
Conceptual data models in Earth Sciences and GIS    S. Nativi and B. Domenico	Presentation at EGU 2006 Vienna	PPT format	HTML format

 

Interoperability of Earth Sciences and GIS information Communities

• Earth Sciences data has more than one nature (facet) one is certainly the geographic one. GIS standard models can be used to represent that nature (facet). Other standard models should be introduced for conceiving and encoding the other ones.

• The Coverage concept seems to be the best construct to represent the geographic nature (facet) of Earth Sciences datasets.

• Nevertheless, Earth Sciences data is not acquired and encoded as Coverage. Its nature is composite rather than feature-oriented (or geo-relational). Therefore, a transformation process is necessary to generate it. This process should be modeled for each different kind of Earth Sciences data and services should be developed to facilitate it.

• As far as metadata, it is difficult to recognize a unique model that accommodates all metadata characterizing the different Earth Sciences disciplines (e.g. Meteorology, Oceanography, Climatology, etc.)
  Geospatial metadata (or Geo-Information Metadata) can only capture the geographical (or geospatial) aspects of such disciplines datasets, but other metadata models are required to accommodate the other aspects specific of each discipline.
  Therefore, the challenge seems to be about metadata model interoperability.

Documents

Interoperability between Earth Sciences and GIS models: an holistic approach    S. Nativi	Seminar at NCAR/UCAR  July 2006  Boulder (CO)	PPT format	PDF  format	Webcast
NcML-GML ver. 0.5 Documentation    S.Nativi, B.Domenico, J.Caron, E.Davis, L. Bigagli	GML Days '05 (May  '05) presentation submitted paper	PDF format PDF format
Differences among the data models used by the Geographic Information Systems and Atmospheric Science communities   S.Nativi et Al.	AMS '04	PDF format	HTML format
NetCDF into GIS: the good, the bad, and the ugly   J. Caron and S. Nativi	AMS '04	PDF format	HTML format
Scientific Markup Languages (ScML) Interoperability   S.Nativi	NSF/NSDL Workshop on Scientific Markup Languages Jun '04  (Arlington VA-USA)	PDF format	HTML format
Atmospheric Science and GIS Interoperability issues: some Data Model and Computational Interface aspects    S. Nativi	UNIDATA Seminar '03	PDF format	HTML format
Interoperability issues in serving THREDDS data    S. Nativi and J. Caron	ESIP '03 Presentation (Boulder CO-USA)	PDF format	HTML format
Federating EOS Heterogeneous and Distributed Information Resources   S. Nativi, P. Mazzetti, L. Bigagli, D. Giuli	AMS '03	PDF format	HTML format
A Metadata Browser of Geo-Information Resources   S. Nativi, P. Mazzetti, L. Bigagli, G. Villoresi	Deliverable (2003)	PDF format	HTML format
Federating Heterogeneous Distributed Information Sources leveraging E-business technologies: the Earth Observation from the Space domain   S. Nativi, P. Mazzetti, L. Bigagli, D. Giuli	Deliverable (2002)	PDF format	HTML format

 

THREDDS Project   

The overarching goal of Unidata's Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS) is to provide students, educators and researchers with coherent access to a large collection of real-time and archived datasets from a variety of environmental data sources at a number of distributed server sites. The datasets will be conveniently accessible from a collection of THREDDS-enabled data analysis and display tools. THREDDS will provide real-time data delivery via reliable, event-driven "push" technology as well as transparent access to datasets using "pull" systems that make it possible to access data on remote servers as if they were on the user's own computer. [Ben Domenico, THREDDS P.I.]

Interoperability is definitely a key aspect of THREDDS. There are two main interoperability objectives, as far as the projects:

1. To establish interoperability among Earth Sciences applications and systems (the Bridge objective);

2. To facilitate interoperability between the Earth Sciences Community and the Society,  with particular attention to Digital Library and GIS Communities (the Gateway objective).

In order to  fulfill such objectives the following open services/interfaces have been developed:

1. THREDDS Dataset inventory Catalogue service

2. THREDDS Dataset Query Capabilities service

3. OpenGIS Web Coverage Service

 

Documents

Extending THREDDS middleware to serve OGC community    S.Nativi, B.Domenico, J.Caron, L.Bigagli	EGU'05 (Vienna AT)	PDF format	HTML format	Zip format
The THREDDS WCS Service   S. Nativi, J. Caron and B. Domenico	First Draft (2003)	PDF format	HTML format
Atmospheric Science and GIS Interoperability issues: some Data Model and Computational Interface aspects    S. Nativi	UNIDATA Seminar '03	PDF format	HTML format
Interoperability issues in serving THREDDS data   S. Nativi and J. Caron	ESIP '03 Presentation (Boulder CO-USA)	PDF format	HTML format
Incorporating Interactive Analysis Tools into NSDL   B. Domenico et Al.	Journal of Digital Information	PDF format	HTML format
THREDDS technical Status J.Caron		PDF format	HTML format

 

Very old Documents

The Service Model   S. Nativi	Aug 2002	PDF format	HTML format
THREDDS Vs Metadata and OpenGIS & ISO TC211   S.Nativi	May 2002	PDF format	HTML format
Metadata for Geoinformation Interoperability   S.Nativi	Jan 2002	PDF format	HTML format
A Proof of Concept System   S.Nativi	Jan 2002	PDF format	HTML format
Notes on THREDDS Information Model   S.Nativi	Dec 2001	PDF format	HTML format
Notes on THREDDS   S.Nativi	Oct 2001	PDF format	HTML format

 

NcML-G_ML   

NcML-G_ML is the GIS extension model for ncML (netCDF Markup Language). The encoding grammar is an extension of ncML  based on GML vocabulary. Thus, it is a mediation markup language between ncML and GML. NcML-G_ML implements an abstract and content.

 

Documents

Interoperability between Earth Sciences and GIS models: an holistic approach    S. Nativi	Seminar at NCAR/UCAR  2006 - Boulder (CO)	PPT format	PDF  format	Webcast
NcML-GML ver. 0.6  Schema    NcML Working Group	UNIDATA (July '05)	Schema (XSD)	Example (XML)
NcML-GML ver. 0.6 Documentation    NcML Working Group	UNIDATA (July  '05)	PDF format
NcML-GML ver. 0.5  Schema    NcML Working Group	UNIDATA (May '05)	Schema (XSD)	Example (XML)
NcML-GML ver. 0.5 Documentation    S.Nativi, B.Domenico, J.Caron, E.Davis, L. Bigagli	GML Days '05 (May  '05) presentation submitted paper	PDF format PDF format
NcML-GML ver. 0.3.2  Schemas    NcML Working Group	UNIDATA (Feb '05)	Schema1 (XSD)	Schema2 (XSD)
NcML-GML ver. 0.3.1 Documentation    NcML Working Group	UNIDATA (Feb '05)	PDF format	Word format
Design and implementation of netCDF Markup Language (NcML) and Its GML-based extension (NcML-GML)    S. Nativi, J. Caron, E. Davis and B. Domenico	In press on Computers & Geosciences Journal ( Elsevier Publication)	PDF format (modified version)	HTML format
ncML-GML: encoding netCDF datasets using GML    S.Nativi, B.Domenico, J.Caron, L.Bigagli	OGC TC  Jun '04 (Southampton UK)	PDF format	HTML format	Zip format
Extending THREDDS middleware to serve OGC community    S.Nativi, B.Domenico, J.Caron, L.Bigagli	EGU'05 (Vienna AT)	PDF format	HTML format	Zip format
NcML official site    NcML Working Group	UNIDATA	PDF format	HTML format
NetCDF into GIS: the good, the bad, and the ugly   J. Caron and S. Nativi	AMS '04	PDF format	HTML format
NcML-G : the NcML GIS Extension proposal    Editor S. Nativi	Submitted Proposal  (Sep '03)   old	PDF format	HTML format
The NcML GIS Extension proposal   Editor S.Nativi	Aug 2002   old	PDF format	HTML format

 

OGC GALEON IE   

GALEON (Geo-interface for Air, Land, Earth, Oceans NetCDF) is an Interoperability Experiment proposed to OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium). Its main objectives are: to evaluate netCDF/OPeNDAP as WCS data transport vehicle; to evaluate the effectiveness of ncML-GML in WCS data encoding; to investigate protocol adequacy for serving and interacting with (5D) datasets involving multiple parameters (e.g., temperature, pressure, wind speed and direction) three spatial dimensions two temporal dimensions (i.e. actual time, forecast time). Indeed, GALEON results may consists in suggesting extensions to WCS spec.s.
 

Documents

GALEON services on ESIP	ESIP Federation available services	HTML
GALEON homepage    Editor B.Domenico	UNIDATA	PDF format	HTML format
Extending THREDDS middleware to serve OGC community    S.Nativi, B.Domenico, J.Caron, L.Bigagli	EGU'05 (Vienna AT)	PDF format	HTML format	Zip format
Proposal of an Interoperability Experiment for extending WCS support to netCDF and ncML-GML  S.Nativi, B.Domenico, J.Caron, L.Bigagli	OGC TC Apr '05 ( Rome IT)	PDF format	HTML format	Zip format
WCS-THREDDS Gateway    B.Domenico	UNIDATA (Jan  '05)	PDF format	HTML format

 

NcML   

NcML is an XML representation of netCDF metadata, (roughly) the header information one gets from a netCDF file with the "ncdump -h" command. NcML is similar to the netCDF CDL (network Common data form Description Language), except, of course, it uses XML syntax.

There are currently three parts to NcML with separate schema documents: NcML Core Schema represents the existing netCDF data model, and is at release 1.0. NcML Coordinate System extends NcML Core Schema and extends the netCDF data model to add explicit support for general and georeferencing coordinate systems. It is at release 1.0 beta. NcML Dataset extends NcML Core Schema to use NcML to define a netCDF file, similar to the ncgen command line tool, as well as to redefine, aggregate, and subset existing netCDF files. This is at release 0.6 alpha. All of these have reference implementations in the NetCDF Java library, version 2.1.

Working Group: John Caron (Unidata/UCAR), Luca Cinquini (SCD/NCAR), Ethan Davis (Unidata/UCAR), Bob Drach (PCMDI/LLNL), Stefano Nativi (University of Florence), Russ Rew (Unidata/UCAR).

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