[Aust-NZ] web mapping & climate change [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Roald de Wit list at rdewit.net
Tue Nov 15 22:26:25 EST 2011 

Hi Tim and list,

Yesterday I found out about the following:*
*

    *Open source front end for environmental data*
    /Research institutes implement open source platform for
    environmental data sharing between agencies/

    Crown Research Institutes GNS Science, Landcare and National
    Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) are working
    together with the New Zealand Geospatial Office to open the flow of
    environmental data between government agencies by harmonizing the
    systems used for managing it.
    http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/open-source-front-end-for-environmental-data


Tim, are the portals that you describe in your email part of the above 
cooperation?

It's really nice to see that we all seem to use a very similar Open 
Source infrastructure. Here is a short summary of what some areas in the 
BoM (including mine) are using extensively:

- OpenLayers
- ExtJS
- GeoExt

- MapServer
- PostGIS
- THREDDS (for OPeNDAP access)

Some work is being done on utilising GeoServer and GeoNetwork, but not 
operationally yet AFAICT.

Besides that, we have some custom software in development that might be 
of interest:
- BOM.Map: a 'framework' that brings OpenLayers, ExtJS and GeoExt 
together in a way that allows to separate configuration (map and user 
interface) from the application.
- A custom Python WMS service that generates contour plots from gridded 
data sources (like OPeNDAP / netCDF files)

Ideally, I'd like to see both products become available under an OSI 
approved license, but we're not there yet. Any interest from outside the 
organisation might help us go in that direction... :-)

Anyway, I'd be very interested to see where we can find synergies.

Regards, Roald


On 03/11/11 10:20, Tim-Hinnerk Heuer wrote:
> Hi Bruce,
>
> These technologies are definitely relevant to our areas of interest as 
> well.
>
> I work for Landcare Research New Zealand. We are developing 
> geo-spacial portals, namely:
> http://ourenvironment.scinfo.org.nz
> http://smap.landcareresearch.co.nz <http://smap.landcareresearch.co.nz/>
>
> While Our Environment is not officially launched yet, but it presents 
> some of the features that we have implemented, all using open source 
> libraries and software.
>
> David is in CC, who you might be interested in collaborating with.
>
> I'm the front end web developer and developed all of the client side 
> (JavaScript) code and have done some work on the server side print 
> module (MapFish Print, where I am a committer) while other members of 
> the team administer the services and wrote some of the services being 
> used and necessary.
>
> Additionally we use:
>
> OpenLayers
> GeoExt
> ExtJS
> jQuery
>
> on the client side
> and
>
> PostGIS/Postgres
> Java Restful Services
> MapServer
> MapFish Print
> etc
>
> on the server side.
>
> Let us know if there are opportunities of collaboration.
>
> Kind regards,
> Tim
>
> On 03/11/11 11:32, Bruce Bannerman wrote:
>> John,
>>
>> We have a **prototype** that is currently not available externally. 
>> We have a few 3rd party data IP issues to resolve.
>>
>> This prototype was a finalist at the V.SIBA spatial excellence awards.
>>
>> Development was jointly funded by both the Department of Climate 
>> Change and Energy Efficiency as well as by the Bureau of Meteorology.
>>
>> In brief, we tested an enterprise grade spatial architecture for 
>> providing access to climate and climate projections related data.
>>
>> The architecture is based around the use of Open Spatial Standards, 
>> so that in the future, we can provide access to data as well as 
>> portal type tools via open spatial standards such as WMS, WFS and WCS.
>>
>> The interface is based around the Weave Spatial Intelligence / 
>> Business Integration framework.
>>
>> Other key components include:
>>
>>   * Postgres
>>   * BIRT
>>   * PostGIS
>>   * MapServer
>>   * Thredds
>>   * GeoServer
>>
>>
>> I have been very impressed by the functionality and performance of 
>> the open source components.
>>
>> We tested realistic quantities of data covering the Australian 
>> Continent (and beyond):
>>
>>   * topographic data, based on the Bureau's GeoFabric data
>>   * 20 years of Landsat Mosaic's covering Australia (GA)
>>   * 9", 3" and 1" DEMs
>>   * ~900 gridded climate data sets
>>       o 50 years of historical Average Maximum Temperature grids
>>         (annual and monthly)
>>       o 10 years of Climate Projections grids -- Average Maximum
>>         Temperature (annual and monthly)
>>   * Historical meteorological observations data at ~30,000 stations.
>>
>>
>> Functionality includes seamless integration of:
>>
>>   * Web Mapping capabilities
>>   * GIS type attribute searches
>>   * GIS type spatial overlay functionality (e.g. point in poly,
>>     buffer etc)
>>   * Business Intelligence reports:
>>       o time series graphs from DB and WFS.
>>       o time series graphs created by drilling down through
>>         historical and climate projections grids via WCS
>>       o a range of observations data and data provenance related reports.
>>   * A time series animation capability for viewing climate grids (via
>>     WMS)
>>
>>
>>
>> I demonstrated the prototype to our peers at the international OGC 
>> Technical Committee meeting in Boulder in the US a few weeks ago. The 
>> approach that we took generated quite a bit of interest and a couple 
>> of invitations to present.
>>
>>
>> Like most organisations, we have funding issues and competing 
>> priorities. I don't anticipate that we will have an operational 
>> variant of this prototype available externally for a few years.
>>
>>
>> If you have read this far, you may be interested in accessing Climate 
>> data via Open Spatial Standards, and/or the prototype type of 
>> interface in the future. If that is the case, please contact me via 
>> email so that we can start building the Business Case for funding.
>>
>>
>> Also, if you are in Melbourne and would like a run through and live 
>> demo, let me know and I'll see what we can do (bearing in mind that 
>> we're in the middle of a major systems migration).
>>
>>
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>>   --
>>   Bruce Bannerman
>>   Manager Climate Applications
>>   Climate and Water Division
>>   Bureau of Meteorology
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/11/11 11:50 AM, "John Brisbin" <john at boab.info> wrote:
>>
>>      Looks like the sort of tool that should be coming out of the
>>     NCCARF program? What's the closest equivalent in Australia?
>>      JB
>>
>>      On 2/11/2011 11:13 AM, Bruce Bannerman wrote:
>>
>>         Re: [Aust-NZ] web mapping & climate change [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
>>         Many thanks for the URL Ross.
>>
>>          This is very relevant for us.
>>
>>          Bruce
>>
>>
>>          On 2/11/11 11:04 AM, "Ross Johnson" <rossgo at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>              A inspirational short video from University of
>>             Berkeley's (USA) Geospatial Innovation Facility:
>>
>>             http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/web-mapping-tool-models-climate-change-video/62215
>>
>>
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>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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