Categories for the OOSTethys portal

Motivation

There are two problems, among others, in environmental information systems: Semantic heterogeneity and information overload. Semantic heterogeneity occurs when there is plurality of identification of types for observation concepts ( phenomena, units, properties, processes, sensors, platforms datums etc..). For example one Sea Surface Temperature phenomena could have different representations (e.g. SST and water temperature). Information overload occurs when you search and receive thousands and millions of results, which are very hard to process. Categorization using Semantic Web technologies is a possible solution, implemented at OOSTethys.

Goal

At OOSTethys we will provide categorization for different types of observation related concepts. We will allow plurality of descriptions and will use Semantic Web technologies to map OOSTethys preferred categories with categories from other organizations, such as data providers, discovery terms (GCMD), and others (IOOS vocabularies). Using Semantic Web technologies will allow to map once to a central ontology and then use the mappings that the central ontology is mapped to. For example a data provider has its own terminology, and wants to provide the variables measured using CF terminology. A mapping is created between the previous two vocabularies. Later the data provider wants the the variables expressed in more general terms ( like GCMD or ISO Keywords). The data provider could search for those mappings because the CF ontology is already mapped to GCMD or ISO keywords.

Ideas for Portal Taxonomy

Portals today provide filter mechanisms based on categories, to overcome information overload. For example:

• Metal day beds
• Climate change datasets categorize by categories

Possible categories required to sort environmental sensor information are as follows:

• Phenomenon types (salinity, water temperature, etc..)
• Earth Realm (ocean, river, atmospheric observations..)
• Platform type (research vessel, buoy, satellite)
• Quality controlled ( level 1, level 2...)
• Discipline ( biology, oceanography, chemistry ..)
• Scientist (scientist 1, scientist 2..)
• Organization (organization 1, organization 2..)
• More ... ?
• Problem ( Coastal hazard, climate change..)