Boyan Brodaric, Research Scientist with Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, presented these slides as part of the Cybera Summit 2010 session, Environmental Infrastructure: The Tools and Technologies Behind Water and Resource Management.

1. GIN: A Cyberinfrastructure and GeoPortal
for Canadian Groundwater Data
Boyan Brodaric
Geological Survey of Canada
Natural Resources Canada
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 1
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

2. Themes
 Data Cyberinfrastructure (CI)
web-based resources for data interoperability
 Spatial Data (cyber)Infrastructure (SDI)
open standards for geographically located features and observations
 Groundwater Information Network (GIN)
Canadian network for groundwater data
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 2
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

3. GW data in Canada
 Distributed, Uncoordinated data
Feds (< 10), provs & terrs (<50), municipalities (100s?),
watershed authorities (100s?)
 Heterogeneous data
Data use, content, structure, systems (dbs, sensors)
Use
 Variable Volume Budgets
Use (e.g. extraction, vulnerability): ?
Budgets (e.g. regional recharge): 10s? Reservoirs
Reservoirs (e.g. aquifers): 100s
Observations (e.g. wells, monitoring): 1Ms-10Ms Observations
 Variable Quality
Completeness, consistency, location
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 3
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

4. GW data in Canada
 Ontario & Quebec
schematic and semantic heterogeneity
in water-well data
Quebec rock type
Ontario rock type
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 4
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

5. Recent calls for action
GW Data Access
 More online access
 Consolidate access
 Better data quality
 More data (use, monitoring)
GW Data Management
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 5
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

6. Approach
 Groundwater Information Network (GIN)
NRCan, 9 prov/terr (YK, BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC, NS, NL), USGS
Seamless access to GW information
Start with water well databases then sensors
GeoConnections seed funding Jan2008-Mar2009
 Principles
Distributed: data stays with owners
Seamless: acts as one virtual database
Multi-access: multiple portals, tools
Standards-based: nat’l CGDI & int’l OGC/ISO standards
e.g. Groundwater ML (GWML)
WaterML
GeoSciML
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 6
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

7. Results
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 7
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

8. Approach: data interoperability
 Overcome levels of data heterogeneity
pragmatic GW Practices (data usage)
semantic GW Ontology (data content)
schema GWML, WaterML (data structure) Groundwater
OGC
syntax GML (data language)
system WFS, WMS,… (data systems)
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 8
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

9. Approach: interop architectures
 Catalog  Warehouse  Network
central registry central database central mediator, registry
unconsolidated access consolidated access consolidated access
common standards common standards common standards
fragmented data duplicate, delayed data virtual, real-time data
e.g. US-CUAHSI e.g. AU-AWRIS, EU-WISE e.g. GIN
OGC OGC
OGC OGC
registry mediator registry
ON registry QC
OGC OGC OGC OGC
ON QC ON QC
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 9
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

10. Approach: design
 Groundwater Information Network
GIN Advanced:
3D, analysis
GML GWML WaterML
WMS, WFS, SOS
GWML GML-BC GML-AB GML-SK GML-ON GWML GML
GML
WMS, WFS, SOS
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 10
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

11. Typical mediator architecture
Ontology!
reasoner"
matcher"
Client! Wrapper
!
“find all water wells with global
" ON
unconsolidated materials”
!
sand
clay
Mediator! local
"
soil
<RockMaterial>
<geneticCategory>
<CGI_TermValue> global" Wrapper
!
<value…>Sedimentary</value> QC
</CGI_TermValue>
</geneticCategory> global
" SABL
<lithology>
… ARGL
<name…>Sand</name> TERR
</lithology>
Registry!
metadata" local
"
 send query  distribute query  translate query (globallocal)
 receive results  integrate results  translate results (localglobal)
 distribute results
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 11
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

12. GIN Mediator architecture
 receive & translate query
 distribute query
 receive results
 translate & integrate results
 send query
 distribute results
 receive results
Ontology! W*S!
Client!
SOS!
“find all water wells with
unconsolidated material” ! ON
W*S, SOS!
sand
WaterML
Mediator! local
" clay
soil
GWML global" GML
GeoSciML O&M
<RockMaterial>
<geneticCategory>
<CGI_TermValue>
W*S!
<value…>Sedimentary</value>
local" SOS!
</CGI_TermValue> QC
</geneticCategory>
<lithology> SABL
… ARGL
<name…>Sand</name>
TERR
</lithology>
CSW! local
"
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 12
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

13. GIN translation of results
Lithology GWML
syntactic <lithology>
ON Sand …
<name…>Sand</name>
QC Sand </lithoogy>
schematic
semantic
GIN simple lithology ontology
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 13
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

14. GIN Main Site: www.gw-info.net
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 14
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

15. GIN Basic Portal
<gsml:lithology>
<gsml:ControlledConcept gml:id="gin.cc.2d-2">
GWML
<gsml:identifier codeSpace="urn:ietf:rfc:2141">urn:x-
ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2d-2"</gsml:identifier>
<gsml:name codeSpace="urn:x-ngwd:classifierScheme:GIN:Lithology:
2008" xml:lang="fr">Argile</gsml:name>
<gsml:name codeSpace="urn:x-ngwd:classifierScheme:GIN:Lithology:
2008" xml:lang="eng">Clay</gsml:name>
<gml:description>A naturally occurring material composed primarily
of fine-grained minerals.
It is generally plastic at appropriate
water contents and will harden when
dried of fired (Neuendorf et al. 2005)</
gml:description>
</gsml:lithology>
<gsml:material>
<gsml:UnconsolidatedMaterial>
<gsml:consolidationDegree>
<gsml:CGI_TermValue>
<gsml:value
codeSpace="urn:cgi:classifierScheme:BGS:consolidationTerms">UNCONSOLI
DATED</gsml:value>
</gsml:CGI_TermValue>
</gsml:consolidationDegree>
<gsml:physicalProperty>
<gwml:HydrogeologicDescription>
<gwml:hydraulicConductivity>
<gsml:CGI_NumericValue>
<gsml:qualifier>approximate</gsml:qualifier>
<gsml:principalValue uom="y_K_md-1">0.001</
gsml:principalValue>
</gsml:CGI_NumericValue>
</gwml:hydraulicConductivity>
</gwml:HydrogeologicDescription>
</gsml:physicalProperty>
</gsml:UnconsolidatedMaterial>
Google Earth
</gsml:material>
Excel
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 15
ESRI Shape, GeoDb XML Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

16. GIN Advanced portal
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Cyberra Summit 2010 16
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

17. GIN Example
 Performance (2 provs)
50 wells = 2.17 secs, 1.08 Mb
500 wells = 15.01 secs, 7.74 Mb
2500 wells = 69.97 secs, 40.80 Mb
5000 wells = 142.27 secs, 80.41 Mb
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 17
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

18. Conclusions
 Groundwater data interoperability achieved
for water well information and preliminarily sensors
 Dynamic mediation effective and efficient
modest data volumes are realistic within wait-times
 Open geospatial standards for schemas and
systems are essential
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 18
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

19. URLs
 Groundwater Information Network (GIN)
www.gw-info.net
 Groundwater Markup Language (GWML)
http://ngwd-bdnes.cits.rncan.gc.ca/gwml
 GeoSciML
www.geosciml.org
 WaterML
http://external.opengis.org/twiki_public/bin/view/HydrologyDWG
 GIN Mediator
http://ngwd-bdnes.cits.rncan.gc.ca/service/api_ngwds/en/mediator.html
Thank you!
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 19
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

20. B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 20
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

21. Semantics: types of ontologies
Global Ontology!
general concepts
Upper-Level ontology !
(DOLCE ʻamount-of-matterʼ)"
Domain ontology ! public schema
public vocabulary
(GeoSciML ʻlithologyʼ, "
GeoSciML ʻsandʼ)"
local schema
local vocabulary
Application Application
ontology ! ontology !
(ON ʻmaterial1ʼ, (QC ʻmatprimʼ,
ON ʻsandʼ)" QC ʻSABLʼ)"
sand SABL
clay ARGL
soil TERR
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 21
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

22. Schematics: GWML example
standard
structure
<gsml:lithology> standard
<gsml:ControlledConcept gml:id="gin.cc.2d-2"> content
<gsml:identifier codeSpace="urn:ietf:rfc:2141">urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2d-2"</gsml:identifier>
<gsml:name codeSpace="urn:x-ngwd:classifierScheme:GIN:Lithology:2008" xml:lang="fr">Argile</gsml:name>
<gsml:name codeSpace="urn:x-ngwd:classifierScheme:GIN:Lithology:2008" xml:lang="eng">Clay</gsml:name>
<gml:description>A naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals.
It is generally plastic at appropriate water contents and will harden when
dried of fired (Neuendorf et al. 2005)</gml:description>
</gsml:lithology>
<gsml:material>
<gsml:UnconsolidatedMaterial>
<gsml:consolidationDegree>
<gsml:CGI_TermValue>
<gsml:value codeSpace="urn:cgi:classifierScheme:BGS:consolidationTerms">UNCONSOLIDATED</gsml:value>
</gsml:CGI_TermValue>
</gsml:consolidationDegree>
<gsml:physicalProperty>
<gwml:HydrogeologicDescription>
<gwml:hydraulicConductivity>
<gsml:CGI_NumericValue>
<gsml:qualifier>approximate</gsml:qualifier>
<gsml:principalValue uom="y_K_md-1">0.001</gsml:principalValue>
</gsml:CGI_NumericValue>
</gwml:hydraulicConductivity>
</gwml:HydrogeologicDescription>
</gsml:physicalProperty>
</gsml:UnconsolidatedMaterial>
</gsml:material>
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 22
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

23. Approach: users
1. Portal users: end-users (water managers, scientists, consultants, public)
GIN Advanced OGSR Library GIN Basic Atlantic ENV
Troo Corp OGSR Trust
2. Pipeline users: data processors (portal and tool developers)
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 23
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

24. Mediator implementation
 Open source
Cocoon, Java, SAX, XML, XSLT
 Re-usable
Customizable: plug and play data sources and mappings
 Efficient
Multi-threaded, parallel, cached data stream
 Tested
GIN, GeoSciML Testbed, OneGeology
 Freely available
http://ngwd-bdnes.cits.rncan.gc.ca/service/api_ngwds/en/mediator.html
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 24
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

25. Semantics
 GIN lithology ontology (subset of GeoSciML)
 language-neutral concepts (URN), multi-lingual terms, defs
- concept = urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c
- terms = “sand” (English), “sable” (French)
- definition =
 enables: multi-lingual query and data download
 need to represent definitions in an ontology
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 25
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

26. Semantic mapping
 Semantic mapping
LAV: local terms mapped to global concepts
mapping specification: XML file (moving to OWL)
 e.g. ON ‘sand’ mapping
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="Sand" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="sand" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="sadn" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="sad" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="Fine Sand" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="medium fine sand" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="Medium Sand" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="Coarse Sand" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="Sandy" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="Ssandy" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="sand silt" />
<map:rule global="urn:x-ngwd:vocabulary:gin:2c" local="Quicksand" />
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 26
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

27. Schema mapping
 Schema mapping
LAV: local schema mapped to global schema
mapping specification: modified GWML data file
<gsml:lithology>
<gsml:ControlledConcept>
<gsml:identifier>ont:geostratumlog/ont:GeologyStratum/
ont:material_1</gsml:identifier>
<gsml:identifier>ont:geostratumlog/ont:GeologyStratum/
ont:material_2</gsml:identifier>
<gsml:identifier>ont:geostratumlog/ont:GeologyStratum/
ont:material_3</gsml:identifier>
</gsml:ControlledConcept>
</gsml:lithology>
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 27
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

28. GWML scope
water water properties water budget ,aquifers wells observations
reservoirs
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Cyberra Summit 2010 28
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

29. GWML lineage
 parts of GWML extend GeoSciML, O&M
GeologicUnit EarthMaterial PhysicalDescription Observation
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 29
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

30. GWML/GeoSciML design
 ConceptualLogicalPhysical GML schema design
<LithodemicUnit gml:id="GSV53">
<gml:description>Granite, syenite, volcanogenic sandstone,
conglomerate, minor trachyte lava</gml:description>
<gml:name>Mount Leinster Igneous Complex</gml:name>
<purpose>typicalNorm</purpose>
<age>
<GeologicAge>
<value>
<CGI_TermRange>
<lower>
<CGI_TermValue>
<value codeSpace="http://www.iugs-
cgi.org/geologicAgeVocabulary">Triassic</value>
</CGI_TermValue>
</lower>
<owl:Class rdf:about="#GeologicUnit">
<upper>
concept to GML
<rdfs:subClassOf> GML-UML to XML <CGI_TermValue>
<owl:Restriction>
<value codeSpace="http://www.iugs-
<owl:onProperty
rdf:resource="http://www.loa-cnr.it/ cgi.org/geologicAgeVocabulary">Triassic</value>
ontologies/ExtendedDnS.owl#plays"/> </CGI_TermValue>
<owl:allValuesFrom </upper>
rdf:resource="#GeologicUnitPart"/> </CGI_TermRange>
</owl:Restriction> </value>
</rdfs:subClassOf> <event>
<CGI_TermValue>
<value codeSpace="http://www.iugs-
conceptual model: cgi.org/geologicAgeEventVocabulary">intrusion</value>
</CGI_TermValue>
OWL/UML, no GML </event>
</GeologicAge>
logical model: GML-UML </age>
physical model: GML-XML
<age>
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 30
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

31. Next Steps
 More geographic coverage
other Canadian partners
 Higher quality data
time-indexed data: water levels, flow rates, quality… SOS
 More types of data
aquifers, geology, 3D,… WCS
 More tools
3D Modeling,…
 More infrastructure
CWS, OWL Reasoner/Service!
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 31
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

32. GIN demo
demo
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Cyberra Summit 2010 32
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010

33. Outline
 Interoperability requirements
Groundwater data in Canada
 Approach: Groundwater Info Network (GIN)
CGDI-based architecture
Semantic Interoperability
Schematic Interoperability
 Example
Implementation
Portals
B. Brodaric—GIN
Cyberra Summit 2010 33
Banff, 22 Sept. 2010