A metadata service for integrated management of knowledges related to coastal areas

Julien Barde

Maison de la télédétection, LIRMM/CEMAGREF, Montpellier Cedex 05, (F)

Abstract

The research outlined in this poster is a part of a wider research program named SYSCOLAG (COastal and LAGoonal SYStems set up in Languedoc-Roussillon area). The first objective of this program is the construction of scientific tools facilitating the communication of information and methods dedicated to sustainable coastal management. The Languedoc-Roussillon regional authority wants to constitute in the medium term an observatory of its coastal area to support the sustainable and integrated management of the concerned territory.

Our approach consists of developing an infrastructure to improve knowledge sharing and communication between the actors.

Our reflexion is based on the conclusions of the Earth Summits in Rio and Joannesburg also quoted in the Ahrrus convention concerning the need for environmental information for decision-making :
"Within the framework of the sustainable development, each one is a user and an information provider in the extensive sense (it is necessary to understand : data, information, experiments presented in a suitable way and knowledge). Information is required at any level : national and international levels among principal decision makers as well as at the local and individual levels …"

Although the subject was identified from the beginning of the nineties, a whole of difficulties about operational structuring and usable information communication still remains. Among those, we find, inter alia:

• the difficulty inherent to the interconnections between disciplines, in particular between environmental sciences and social sciences,
• the need for provision of reference frames : common vocabulary and thesaurus, geographic reference system,
• the need for standardizing data exchange format and representating the various information sources.

Our proposal consists in integrating varied and heterogeneous resources via a semantic level (using metadata and ontologies).
We propose in this service the implementation of an infrastructure, which essentially makes up of :

• a metadata service (conceived according to the ISO 19115 standard, relative to geographic information metadata, with a web mapping service),
• the necessary production of a common thesaurus or ontology to allow knowledge sharing between several disciplines.