Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot: Data Integration at the Land-Sea Interface - Call for Participation (CFP)

Where the sea meets the land, data, relationships and modeling concepts from two communities collide. Nevertheless, many scenarios require seamless, reliable and consistent integration of data and data analysis from both sides. Different approaches in environmental, terrestrial, meteorological, and marine agencies, for example in scaling or temporal and spatial aggregation, combined with uneven data density and spatial coverage, lead to inter-agency interoperability issues in the intertidal zone, often referred to as the “white band” or “white ribbon”. The OGC FMSDI pilot initiative tackles these challenges with two leading questions:

While the first question results in a framework for a future best practice document, the second part will produce software demonstrators that illustrate data integration across communities and agencies.

The intertidal zone, also known as the inner tidal zone or littoral zone, is defined in hydrography as the shoreline area exposed to air at low tide and submerged at high tide. The zone experiences constant changes due to tides, sea level rise, waves, weather conditions, and many other aspects, such as erosion, sedimentation, and biological and human activity, such as port construction. Behind the inter-tidal zone lies the coastal zone, which is particularly important as a living and economic area or as a habitat for special animal and plant communities influenced by marine conditions.

The coastal zone plays a crucial role in urban and regional planning, economic development, environmental science, coastal management, and other disciplines, each with its distinct worldview. This worldview manifests itself in conceptual models used daily in application models. In these models, the sea is primarily viewed from a land perspective. Turning the perspective around, further conceptual and application models emerge that are in use in the marine community. Both model approaches have a fundamental right to exist. However, harmonization is complex because both are based on different principles and priorities. The discussions around continuous datums illustrate the complex situation for data modelers and integration projects. In the end, however, they only make up a small, albeit essential, part of the challenges of integrating data across both communities. Other aspects include data density, spatial coverage of the data (or lack thereof), data sampling methods, linked quality models, or used terminology.

This pilot, therefore, does not attempt to harmonize the perspectives of the land community with the perspective of the marine community. Instead, the pilot explores mechanisms for transferring the data of the other community into one’s conceptual model with as little loss as possible and making it available at the application level.

This pilot will produce demonstrator applications that illustrate possible approaches for data conflation at the intertidal zone. These demonstrators will help working towards an international best practice for data integration at national or even continental scale. These best practices will go beyond the creation of spatially consistent topographic data, though what exactly needs to be defined in the best practices is a key task of this pilot.

The initiative is sponsored by OGC Strategic Members the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The pilot project aims to develop best practices for transforming data typically used by the land community into the conceptual and application models of the marine community and vice versa. Accurate elevation data that works for both communities describing the height and shape of the coastline is just one important piece of the data integration challenge. The goal is to achieve a holistic approach that addresses the inter-agency data interoperability challenges and different temporal and spatial coverages.

The outcomes of this Pilot initiative will benefit not only its Sponsors and direct Participants, but also the broader stakeholder community through:

This initiative provides an outstanding opportunity to connect with stakeholders across the land-sea interface. It allows participants to engage with the latest research on geospatial system design, concept development, and rapid prototyping with organizations (Sponsors & Participants) across the globe. The initiative provides a business opportunity for stakeholders to mutually define, refine, and evolve service interfaces and protocols in the context of hands-on experience and feedback. This Pilot initiative will contribute towards an open, multi-level infrastructure that integrates different perspectives, data models, and data modeling principles that have been grown over several decades. It will contribute to the technology and governance stack that enables the integration of data, including historical observations, real-time sensing data, (re-) analyses, forecasts, and future projections. It addresses data-to-decision pipelines, data analysis, and representation of data for different communities. These building blocks will enable multi-stakeholder decision-making and create public benefits in a changing natural environment.

Pilot Sponsors are supporting this vision with cost-sharing funds to partially offset the costs associated with developing, engineering, and demonstrating these outcomes. This offers selected Participants a unique opportunity to recoup some of their initiative expenses. OGC COSI Program Participants benefit from:

The following table details the major Initiative milestones and events for the FMSDI Pilot. Dates are subject to change.

During the pilot, weekly check-ins will be held for participants to discuss progress, highlight challenges, and share views on key issues using video-conferences. Participants will contribute to the pilot’s final report by providing quick comments after each meeting, capturing discussion and lessons learned, which will complement the technical outcomes included in the report.

This section identifies the technical objectives of the initiative and the corresponding activities and deliverables. All deliverables are identified by the identifier Dxxx, with "xxx" being a three-digit number. If an identifier occurs multiple times, this work item will be assigned multiple times.

It is expected that proposals to achieve these technical objectives will build on and refer to the OGC standards baseline, i.e., the complete set of member-approved Abstract Specifications, Standards including Profiles and Extensions, and Community Standards, where relevant.

The following graphic illustrates all work items of this initiative. Cost-share funding is available for all items.