A service oriented architecture for decision support systems in environmental crisis management

Two different types of data are supported: the archival and the real time data. The archival data stored in spatial and distributed databases, while the real time data comes from sensors. Both data are encoding using the OGC specifications and particularly the Geography Markup Language (GML).Regarding processing, storage and communication aspects, time, space and quality filtering methods are required to be considered in an environmental crisis management architecture. Time filtering can be implemented using algorithms that remove the temporal data redundancy (through, for example, data dropping mechanisms), while spatial filtering aims at reducing the spatial one (e.g., spatial data down-sampling). Quality filtering automatically re-quantizes the geospatial content to reduce the transmitted information. All these types of filtering are framed with context awareness mechanisms, which proportionally activates one or all of the above three filtering tools according to the type of disaster and environmental conditions.Presentation of data: Apart from a web based user interface, the future environmental information management systems will incorporate (i) 3D rendering and presentation methods (ii) geospatial presentation and (iii) context aware adaptive visualization tools. 3D presentation and real time rendering allows for a better visualization of the natural disaster and therefore yields a more efficient environmental management. Geospatial presentation includes tools for depicted media overlays of geographic enhancements. Finally, context adaptive methods increase the system efficiency, since it permits a differentiated presentation according to either the capabilities of the terminal devices (e.g., PC or PDA) or the requirements of the application scenario.

- Context adaptation methodologies- Modelling, simulation, case study

•Requirements – Service-Oriented-Architecture Design•Main architectural components •Added-value middleware

It is developed as an implementation specification by the Open GIS Consortium to foster data interoperability and exchange between different systems.•Early planning and scenario development•Real-time monitoring•Decision- support in the event of a real forest fire incident.•Real time data flows are defined for operational vehicles management

Tools: Geography Markup Language (GML), the Web Feature Service (WFS), the Web Map Service (WMS), Open GIS ConsortiumIn case of a forest fire, real time delivery of geospatial information coming from a distributed wireless fire sensor network, camera or other source is of great importance.To provide real time capabilities in Web services, it is necessary network awareness that refers to the monitoring of the current conditions of the network. Network monitoring allows implementation of network control mechanisms through media transport protocols (i.e., TCP/IP, UDP or DCCP) able to automatically adapt media delivered streams to the current network capabilities maximizing, however, users’/service QoS requirements as much as possible.Two different types of geospatial data are supported: the archival and the real time data.The real time requirements are described using the WS-resource framework.Real time and archival data are published to the Real Time Middleware using a Web Service interface.The Real Time Middleware incorporates advanced data filtering methods for reducing the transmitted information. It is also responsible for preprocessing the spatial data in order to best support the required 3D visualization performance and to provide the pre-processed data layers required by the added-value services middleware layer.Data filtering is accomplished in the temporal, spatial and quality data direction.The Real Time Middleware incorporates methods that enable service interaction with the network layer of the OSI architecture. This interaction allows for a real time service streaming of the data.The presentation layer is responsible for transforming the received geospatial data in a format suitable for Web browser interface.

How to integrate heterogeneous geospatial data of different types and format, real time geospatial data streaming and filtering, as well as incorporation of a plethora of new added-value services that allow, not only mash-ups of geospatial data (useful towards an event-based presentation and prediction), but also simulation of natural phenomena and decision making mechanisms.

First, although standards do exist, real world spatial data is usually not compliant, nor is it offered through open network interfaces. Second, QoS requirements that are of critical importance to this application domain either cannot be implemented, or, even worse, are rarely a consideration. Third, added-value services such as operational logistics and environmental modeling remain isolated to their originating scientific communities, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics and Operational Research, and only lately begin to be considered as services that can be integrated in such systems.

It was proposed a QoS-aware service oriented architecture suitable for geospatial information management systems targeted in planning and crisis management. The proposed architecture supports QoS guarantees for delivering geospatial information, which is a very important aspect for decision making and addressing a case of emergency. Furthermore, the proposed architecture exploits added-value service components to go further from simply presenting spatial data, and include services such as environmental simulation models and logistics. Finally, presentation aspects are discussed that enable efficient vector based image representation of GML compatible geospatial contentUsing these specifications, one can create geospatial service oriented architectures, which retain the main principles of web services using, however, different data description languages able to handle geospatial properties, which are a key element in environmental information management systems.

Objective: to implement an integrated information system for forest fire management.To synchronize current environmental crisis management systems in terms of both architecture and services.To propose a flexible service oriented architecture for planning decision support in environmental crisis management, through a case study on forest fire crisis management.