GENESI-DEC (Ground European Network for Earth Science Interoperations - Digital Earth Communities)
GENESI-DEC (May 2010 – April 2012), builds on the achievements of the implemented GENESI-DR Federation and aims to:
• Enlarge the existing GENESI-DR infrastructure in terms of data, resource availability and geographical extent.
• Guaranteed, reliable, easy, effective access to a variety of data, facilities, tools and services to an ever-increasing number of Digital Earth users from all disciplines.
• Harmonise operations at selected key Digital Earth infrastructures, limiting the fragmentation of solutions.
• Enable multidisciplinary collaboration among Digital Earth users as well as the creation of user-configured virtual research facilities/test-beds.
• Integrate new scientific and technological derived paradigms in operational infrastructures in response to the latest Digital Earth requirements.
• Stimulate, educate and support the creation of virtual Digital Earth research communities.
GENESI-DEC involves key partners of ESFRI projects and collaborates with key actors of Digital Earth and Earth Science initiatives, including the International Society of Digital Earth and GEO-GEOSS. Thus, the efficient use of already-existing and planned developments is guaranteed.
Collaboration
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed in December 2010 between D4Science and GENESI-DEC. It formalises the collaboration between the two projects and enables D4Science to be registered among the potential users of the data resources available in the GENESI-DEC federation.
From the technical view point, D4Science-II has adopted the technical specifications defined or sponsored by GENESI-DEC in order to become interoperable with it. The realised intereperability allows now to search and consume GENESI-DEC data resources and make them avalable in the supported VREs. In particular, these are being used to improve the qualitity of the functionality offered by the AquaMapsand ICIS VREs.
Plans for the future
The interoperability of D4Science II with Digital Earth concept represented in GENESI-DEC is extremely important for VREs that need environmental or spatial information (e.g. AquaMaps). The Digital Earth is a visionary concept for the virtual representation of the Earth that is spatially referenced, interconnected with the world’s digital data repositories, and encompassing all its systems and forms, including Earth Sciences, Natural Resources Management, Environmental Monitoring systems and human society dimensions. At the same it will establish open data and services access, allowing European and worldwide Digital Earth Communities to seamlessly access, produce and share data, information, products and knowledge.
The connection to GENESI-DEC will change the approach of the VRE, be it from the viewpoint of the application developer or the VRE’s users. It will definitely enlarge the possibilities of D4Science II VRE and allow new applications that exploit this multi-dimensional, multi-temporal, and multi-layer information facility of huge value in addressing global challenges such as biodiversity, climate change, pollution and economic development.
