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Integrating Environmentaland Social Data -

Workshop on Strategies for Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Latin America: Focus

on Health and Environmental Information for Sustainable Development

Atibaia, SP, Brazil

Marjorie McGuirkNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Climatic Data Center Asheville, North Carolina, USA

mechanisms for meeting challenges to providing access to

scientific data

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As a global Earth Observation System revolutionizes our understanding of the Earth and

how it works, the challenge is to connect the scientific dots; build a system of systems that

will yield the science on which sound policy must be built, for the benefit of society

everywhere.

Group on Earth Observations System of Systems – GEOSS

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What are the current challenges and barriers to providing open and permanent access to scientific

data and information?• Important societal issues require data from many disciplines and data systems• Daunting challenges of vastly increasing data volumes

• Data exchange is power intensive – the creation, storage and movement of 10 megabytes of data uses nearly a kilogram of coal

• As more data are exchanged on-line, bandwidth limitations and distance matters more – faster to move a petabyte around the world on a ship than on-line

• Ownership protection become more problematic for data providers as well as data recipients

• Interdisciplinary Language problems and pertinent data on different time and space scales (e.g., health)

• Epidemiological data on episode basis, vs. climate on routine cycle in fixed locations• Health data collected, stored by individual institutes – varied standards and content• Privacy issues with health data; funding issues with climate data

• Incompatible formats between science disciplines - thousands –(e.g., environmental data)

• Naming standards – Surface Air Temperature• Meteorology (WMO) named “Temperature/dry bulb temperature• Meteorology (air pollution) named “Boundary layer temperature”• Oceanography named “Air Temperature”

• Location standards (latitude, longitude, elevation)• Lat/Lon can be degrees/minutes/seconds or degrees to tenths and hundredths • Latitude E/W, 0-180 positive and negative, or 0-360 running east or west• Z used to designate elevation in both atmosphere and ocean but positive is up in the atmosphere and down in the ocean

• Formats (>50 formats used within NOAA; translators and standards needed)• GRIB, NetCDF, HDF and others used for gridded data• BUFR, NetCDF, and many others used for observations

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What are the current challenges and barriers to providing open and permanent

access to scientific data and information?

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Example Problem: Coastal Inundation & Erosion involves environmental and social data systems

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What are some of the most promising existing mechanisms for providing access to scientific data and information?

• Group on Earth Observation System of Systems• Cooperative programs enhance access and ensure data and products

of enduring value are preserved for future generations• GEO – Integrated Data Environment is a key component of integration

of environmental and interdisciplinary scientific data • Promising existing models

• Using geographic information systems• Using common syntax• Using GEO NET-CAST– Several examples

• International cooperative programs • World Meteorological Organization Resolutions #40 and #25 ensures

open access to data for global exchange• International cooperative activities provides means of data exchange

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Most Promising and existing models

• GEOSS – near term opportunities– Drought, coastal inundation and flooding, storms, air

quality– GEO-IDE

Coordinated development

GEO Architecture Subgroup • Brazil, France, Japan, United States, WMO, ESA

GEO Capacity Building Subgroup • Argentina, Belize/CCAD, Brazil, Israel, Republic of

Congo, United States

GEO Data Utilization Subgroup• Brazil, Canada, United States, ECMWF

GEO User Requirements Subgroup• Canada, Italy, United Kingdom

GEO International Cooperation Subgroup• Australia, United States, IOC

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Global Earth Observation Integrated Data Environment (GEO-IDE) A key mechanism for providing access to

scientific data and information

Metadata standards (ISO 19115 with remote sensing extensions)

Standard formats for delivery of data products (WMO, NetCDF, HDF, GeoTIF, JPEG)

Based on “Web Services”

Based upon standards

Data (e.g. CF, FGDC, SO, SQL)

Access (e.g., OGC, http)

Transport (OPeNDAP, HTTP, FTP)

Environmental data – terrain, rainfall and river level integrated and displayed graphically with social data – roads, buildings, infrastructure,

population – allows scenario generation, communication of potential hazards (as in the flood example here).

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Existing Model – Storms and Population example

Areas with 4 inches of rain impacted 554,246 Families798,348 Households 908,155 House Units2,098,223 People

•Integrate Environmental and Social Data•Develop Climate Inventories of Storms•Compare Storm Distribution to populations at Risk•Improve Disaster Assessment & Response

Using NOAA’s radar data & 2000 US Census data, determine who was affected by heavy rainfall during Hurricane Charley. NOAA and UNC - Asheville

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NOAA & the Uruguayan Meteorological Service enter cooperative project on data rescue. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) donated digital equipment used for the project.

Images received from the Uruguayan Meteorological Service and the Uruguayan Navy Include: 42,000 + images through February 2006

This includes 6 synoptic stations with observations early as the 1930’s and as recent as early 2004.

NCDC is developing a keying format and keying should begin by Summer 2006.

Total imaging/keying for this multi-year project involves data from over 30+ stations totaling nearly 1,000,000 records

Example project in Uruguay

Identify one or more potential cooperative activities in Latin America for subsequent discussion for providing

access to scientific data and information

• Shared satellite product development

• South AmericaDrought Monitoring• Data digitizing• Analysis• Product development• Using GEO Net-Cast

Ulisses E.C. Confalonieri, MD; DVM; DSc

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April 2007NOAA's GOES-10 satellite

repositioned over South America

Potential Additional Activity

Shared development of Satellite Data Products –- using Earth observations and strengthening data networks advances GEOSS partnerships with countries and scientific organizations in the Western Hemisphere, including Argentina, Brazil, Belize, Canada, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and the United States

Gilberto Câmara, Ph.D., director of Brazil's National Space Research Institute (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais). Retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator

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Potential Additional ActivitiesA National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)

Goals & Objectives - Implement an integrated drought monitoring & forecasting system (implementar um

sistema nacional de monitorização e forecasting para secas)

• Create drought early warning system(Criar um sistema de alerta para secas)

• Provide interactive delivery systems via web (Fornecer sistemas interactivos de entrega atravês da web)

• Provide education of drought impacts and why drought occurs (Fornecer educação sobre os impactes de secas e explicar porque razão as secas ocorrem)

• Improved predictive capabilities (Melhorar as capacidades de previsão)

• Includes information for drought mitigation (Inclui informação para mitigar os efeitos da seca)

NIDIS an early opportunity for USGEO (http://usgeo.gov/)

Physical Science & Socioeconomic

Research

Observe

Monitor and Predict

Analyze

Inform

Risk Reduction Research

Make Decisions & Take Action

Plan

Educate

NIDIS Operations

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Potential Additional International Projects • Foreign Climate Data Imaging by NOAA’s Central

Library- Project goal of the project is to preserve and disseminate unique climatological data from historical sources.

• Period of record covers 1830s through the 1970s with most data from the period prior to 1960. Each series typically includes observations for a number of meteorological and other geophysical parameters.

Involves documents

from over 14 countries

in Africa, 8 in Asia, 6 in

Europe, 10 in North

America, 1 Pacific Island

and 8 in South America.

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Data/Observations from a variety of observing systems

Management of these data

Analysis of these data

Applied Research

Paleoclimate

Detecting/attribution

Decision support tools / assessments

Challenges and promising models – access to scientific data

Important societal issues often require:

XIV Brazilian Meteorological Congress 27 November 2006, John J Bates, NOAA<http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/download/CWG%20Brief%20Read%20Ahead%20Cover-1.pdf>