Towards an Environmental Information System for Semantic Stream Data

Abstract

The future of the earth’s environmental systems will to a major extent be decided in cities as already more than 50% of the population is concentrated there. Pervasively available sensors and the data they generate can help to address pressing environmental challenges in urban areas by making crucial information available to researchers and decision-makers. However, environmental data is at present typically stored in disparate systems and formats, which inhibits reuse and recombination. Furthermore, the large amounts of environmental data that stream in continuously require novel processing approaches. So far, however, research at the intersection of environmental sciences and urban data to overcome these barriers has been scarce. To address these issues, we develop a novel framework using semantic web technologies. We apply ontological concepts and semantic stream processing technologies in order to facilitate combination, comparison, and visualization of heterogeneous data from various sources. The platform for environmental data stream analysis introduced in this paper can inform and support decision-making by non-expert users. We propose and discuss a three-step framework and outline initial results.