An Open-Source Web Platform to Share Multisource, Multisensor Geospatial Data and Measurements of Ground Deformation in Mountain Areas

Martina Cignetti,Diego Guenzi,Francesca Ardizzone,Paolo Allasia,Daniele Giordan

doi:10.3390/ijgi9010004

Abstract

Nowadays, the increasing demand to collect, manage and share archives of data supporting geo-hydrological processes investigations requires the development of spatial data infrastructure able to store geospatial data and ground deformation measurements, also considering multisource and heterogeneous data. We exploited the GeoNetwork open-source software to simultaneously organize in-situ measurements and radar sensor observations, collected in the framework of the HAMMER project study areas, all located in high mountain regions distributed in the Alpines, Apennines, Pyrenees and Andes mountain chains, mainly focusing on active landslides. Taking advantage of this free and internationally recognized platform based on standard protocols, we present a valuable instrument to manage data and metadata, both in-situ surface measurements, typically acquired at local scale for short periods (e.g., during emergency), and satellite observations, usually exploited for regional scale analysis of surface displacement. Using a dedicated web-interface, all the results derived by instrumental acquisitions and by processing of remote sensing images can be queried, analyzed and downloaded from both expert users and stakeholders. This leads to a useful instrument able to share various information within the scientific community, including the opportunity of reprocessing the raw data for other purposes and in other contexts.

Highlights

Thanks to the development of increasingly meaningful monitoring technologies and sensors, the scientific community is undergoing a data-rich period with respect to the Earth’s surface
We focused on the implementation of the spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) dedicated for the HAMMER sub-project (H-SDI), adopting, among other software, the GeoNetwork platform predisposed for the main project
This information is focused on the test sites selected for the project that are inserted into a main project, aimed to share environmental and climatic data

Summary

Introduction

Thanks to the development of increasingly meaningful monitoring technologies and sensors, the scientific community is undergoing a data-rich period with respect to the Earth’s surface. To cope with the interoperability management of heterogeneous GD-integrating sensors, instrumental data and geographic information, the SDI must agree with well-known standards like the ones sponsored by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) This demand finds a useful answer in new technologies, especially with the development of web services structured according standard protocols that guarantee a simple access to the whole scientific community and all stakeholders. The H-SDI includes multisource data of mountainous regions and has been implemented in order to share, manage and disseminate all the acquired knowledge and information Such SDI provides the postprocessed ground deformation time-series, and the raw data from monitoring network measurements of specific landslides, carried out by expert geologists and engineers, and remote sensing data from satellite surveys. We show a brief presentation of the web-interface and its potentials while, in the final section, we focus on the exploitation of the web-interface and the employment of the obtained results

Data Collection

Infrastructure Design

Dataset Component

Data and Metadata Hierarchical Structure

Data Querying Service

Data Visualization Service

Conclusions