Digital Economy Unit

This paper considers interoperability issues among multimedia information systems dealing with environmental data. In particular, interoperability among GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in a distributed environment is tackled. An example of implementing interoperability through data models by adopting an emergent standard is presented. This solution has been conceived and developed in the EMAIL Project: a project funded by the European Community in the Telematics Application Programme-Environment Sector. A successful application of such interoperability architecture for supporting decision makers dealing with hydrological risk management of the Arno river basin is reported

ABSTRACT The scope and complexity of Earth Observation investigations require advanced digital infrastructures supporting multi-disciplinary information sharing and interoperability. The existing e-infrastructures are often designed either for disciplinary applications, or for addressing specific objectives (e.g. high performance computing). However moving towards an effective multidisciplinary support, poses new architectural and technological challenges to observation networks. This paper introduces and discusses promising IT solutions facilitating multi-disciplinary interoperability to advance existing Earth Observation Sensor Web interoperability.

In the sector of Earth Observation (EO), the explosion of data is due to many factors
including: new satellite constellations, the increased capabilities of sensor technologies, social media,
crowdsourcing, and the need for multidisciplinary and collaborative research to face Global Change.
There are many expectations and concerns about Big Data. It is necessary to understand whether Big
Data is a radical shift or an incremental change for the existing digital infrastructures. This manuscript
explores the impact of Big Data dimensionalities (commonly known as 'V' axes: volume, variety,
velocity, veracity, visualization) on the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and
particularly its common digital infrastructure (i.e. the GEOSS Common Infrastructure). GEOSS is a
global and flexible network of content providers allowing decision makers to access an extraordinary
range of data and information. GEOSS is a pioneering framework for global and multidisciplinary data
sharing in the EO realm.