INSPIRE: Towards a Participatory Digital Earth

Max Craglia Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit European Commission Joint Research Centre massimo.craglia@jrc.ec.europa.eu

An infrastructure built on those of 28 different countries in 24 languages by a truly democratic process, INSPIRE is a role model not only in relation to the developments of SDI but more generally to the formulation of public policy at the European level. Find out how INSPIRE is facilitating consensus-based policy and is developing and maintaining a network of stakeholders. By Max Craglia For people who are not so familiar with the concept of an SDI, it is easier to think of it as an extension of a desk-top GIS. Whilst in a ‘normal’ GIS, most of the data we use for analysis is our own, or collected by the agency we work for, an SDI is an Internet-based platform to make it easier for us to search and find data that may be relevant for our work and that may be collected, stored or published by other organisations, and often other countries. For this reason, SDIs are often termed as children of the Internet, without which they would not exist. SDIs are the response to an increased recognition that the environmental and social phenomena we are called to understand and govern are very complex, and that no single organisation has the know-how and the data to do the job alone. Hence, we need to share knowledge and data across multiple organisations in both public and private sectors, and SDIs support this effort. INSPIRE: Why and how? INSPIRE is a legal act (Directive 2007/2/EC) of the Council and the European Parliament setting up an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe based on infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 28 sovereign Member States of the European Union. All the spatial data that is part of INSPIRE comes via the organisations responsible in the Member States and this EU-wide SDI is developed in a decentralised way, building on the SDIs and related activities established and maintained by the Member States. The prime purpose of INSPIRE is to support environmental policy, and overcome barriers affecting the availability and accessibility of relevant data. These barriers include: inconsistencies in spatial data collection; lack or incomplete documentation of available spatial data; lack of compatibility among spatial datasets that cannot, therefore, be combined with others; incompatible SDI initiatives in the Member States that often function only in isolation; cultural, institutional, financial and legal barriers preventing or delaying the sharing of existing spatial data. The key elements of the INSPIRE Directive to overcome these barriers include: Metadata to describe existing information resources so that they can be more easily found and accessed; Harmonisation of key spatial data themes needed to support environmental policies in the Union; Agreements on network services and technologies to allow discovery, view, download of information resources, and access to related services; Policy agreements on sharing and access, including licensing and charging; Coordination and monitoring mechanisms.

9 Maps that Explain the World’s Forests

Wednesday, March 19th 2014

By Crystal Davis and Dave Thau

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Summary: By the time we find out about deforestation, it’s usually too late to take action.  
By the time we find out about deforestation, it’s usually too late to take action.
Scientists have been studying forests for centuries, chronicling the vital importance of these ecosystems for human society. But most of us still lack timely and reliable information about where, when, and why forests are disappearing.
This is about to change with the launch of Global Forest Watch, an online forest monitoring system created by the World Resources Institute and more than 40 partners. Global Forest Watch uses cutting-edge technologies to map the world’s forests with satellite imagery, detect changes in tree cover in near-real-time, and make this information freely available to anyone with internet access. At right: Global Forest Watch is an online forest monitoring system created by the World Resources Institute and more than 40 partners. Photo credit: Marco Simola, CIFOR
With Global Forest Watch, everyone from business executives to policymakers to indigenous groups can find out what’s happening in forests around the world—and use this information to take action. Now that we have the ability to peer into forests around the globe, a number of telling stories are beginning to emerge:

1) Global tree cover loss far exceeds tree cover gain.

Data from the University of Maryland and Google shows that the world lost 2.3 million square kilometers of tree cover between 2000 and 2012—the equivalent of losing 50 soccer fields’ worth of forests every minute of every day for the past 13 years! By contrast, only 0.8 million square kilometers have regrown, been planted, or restored during the same period. (Click for larger images.)

When Waters Rise: NASA Improves Flood Safety

by Kasha Patel for Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 25, 2014

Researchers need accurate and timely rainfall information to better understand and model where and when severe floods, frequent landslides and devastating droughts may occur. GPM's global rainfall data will help to better prepare and respond to a wide range of natural disasters. Image courtesy NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. To watch a video on NASA's research please go here. To view before and after NASA images of flood events please go here.

Flooding is the most frequent and widespread weather-related natural disaster, taking a huge toll in lives and property each year. NASA Earth-observing satellites and airborne missions provide vital information to emergency planners, relief organizations and weather forecasters, helping to improve flood monitoring and forecasting, as well as providing a more comprehensive understanding of one of Mother Nature's most damaging hazards.
NASA's Earth-observing satellites provide detailed images of flood-affected areas, which are vital for mapping flood extent. For instance, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites monitor a broad area of our planet, providing visible-light imagery, infrared information and other types of data on a daily basis to scientists and emergency managers.
The Landsat satellites in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey provide even higher-resolution imagery, which can be used to map Earth's land surfaces before and after disasters.
Landsat serves as an essential tool for assessing flood risk and mapping the extent of damage for post-disaster recovery. Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) is an advanced land-imaging mission that includes three advanced land imaging instruments and five revolutionary cross cutting spacecraft technologies.
The United Nations World Food Programme, which delivers food relief to inundated areas, uses NASA Earth science satellite-based flood maps to locate floods and map delivery routes to affected areas. Contractors with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also use Landsat imagery to track urban development, which can affect an area's flood risk.
These maps, which reveal the extent and duration of a flood, also allow for more accurate flood forecasting models. "By mapping floods, we can model where future floods will be," said Bob Brakenridge, director of the Flood Observatory at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which has documented flooding events worldwide over the past 14 years. If an area floods year after year, then scientists can predict the likelihood and severity of flooding in surrounding lands.