WISSDOM: A WEB-BASED EARTH-SYSTEMS KNOWLEDGE PORTAL AND COLLABORATION ENVIRONMENT

In support of water-resource and climate-change projects in parts of the US, Earth Knowledge has developed several web-based data management and analysis platforms that have been used by its scientists, clients, and public to facilitate information exchanges, collaborations, and decision making. These platforms support accurate resource decision-making by combining Web 2.0 technologies with traditional GIS and 3D mapping systems such as Google Earth. Most data management and analysis systems use traditional software systems to address the data needs and usage behavior of the scientific community. In contrast, these platforms employ more accessible open-source and “off-the-shelf” consumer-oriented, hosted web-services. They exploit familiar software tools using industry standard protocols, formats, and APIs to discover, process, fuse, and visualize earth, engineering, and social science datasets. Thus, they respond to the information needs and web-interface expectations of both subject-matter experts and the public. Because the platforms continue to gather and store all the contributions of their broad-spectrum of users, each new assessment leverages the data, information, and expertise derived from previous investigations. Earth Knowledge has completed a conceptual system design and feasibility study for a platform, which has a Knowledge Portal providing access to users wishing to retrieve information developed by the science enterprise and a Collaboration Environment, a framework that links the user-access functions to a Technical Core supporting scientific analyses including Data Management, Analysis and Modeling, and Decision Management to system administrative functions. The over-riding technical challenge is the design and development of a single technical platform that is accessed through a flexible series of knowledge portal and collaboration environment styles reflecting the information needs and user expectations of a diverse community of users. Recent investigations have defined the information needs and expectations of the major end-users and also have reviewed and assessed a wide variety of modern web-based technologies. Combining these efforts produced design specifications and recommendations for the selection and integration of web- and client-based tools.