Special Issue "Workshop Sensing A Changing World"
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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2009)
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Workshop Sensing A Changing World
19 - 21 November 2008 - Centre for Geo-Information - Wageningen, The Netherlands
Summary
Current developments in sensor technology provide increasing opportunities to analyze human behavior and monitor environmental processes in a changing world.
Access to vast amounts of data from mobile (e.g., gps, mobile phones), in situ (e.g., meteorological, groundwater, seismic) and remote sensing sensors provides scientific researchers with complex but very interesting spatial-temporal data sets. However, the challenge will be to develop concepts and applications that can provide timely and on-demand knowledge to end-users in different domains and at a range of scale-levels.
At this moment various communities show interest in sensor networks from different perspectives. This workshop has the objective to elucidate common concepts on aspects like data communication, processing, standardization, knowledge discovery, representation, and visualization. The workshop results in an overview of the state-of-the art developments and identification of future research challenges to improve the application of sensor webs in the environmental sciences domains. The workshop brings together researchers, technology developers and users of different involved disciplines and provides a forum for fruitful discussions. If you would like to participate in the workshop please register yourself via the workshop website.
During the workshop key-note speakers provide an overview state-of-the-art developments, impact and challenges for sensor web technology in different application fields: urban, water, environment, transportation, agriculture, tourism etc. In addition to the presentations, there will be ample time to discuss relevant issues and open questions.
Submission
Sensors is a highly rated journal with a 1.573 impact factor in 2007. Sensors is indexed and abstracted very quickly by Chemical Abstracts, Analytical Abstracts, Science Citation Index Expanded, Chemistry Citation Index, Scopus and Google Scholar.
All papers should be submitted to sensors@mdpi.com with copy to the guest editors. To be published continuously until the deadline and papers will be listed together at the special websites.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a paper. Open Access publication fees are 1050 CHF per paper. English correction fees (250 CHF) will be added in certain cases (1300 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.).
Keywords
We encourage the submission of both conceptual and application oriented contributions for the following topics (but are not limited to):
- Knowledge discovery from sensory data sets
- Scale issues in the processing and application of spatial temporal sensory data.
- Real-time and on-demand representation and visualization of sensor data
- Information extraction from sensor network data
- Integration of sensor webs and dynamical modeling
- Development of location and movement based services
- Standardized access to sensor data and the linkage to spatial data infrastructures
- Application of mobile sensor based tracking applications ( transportation, urban, tourism, cellular census, location based services etc.)
- In situ and earth observation sensor applications (groundwater, air-quality, river management, agriculture, extreme events etc.)
Published Papers (12 papers)
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Received: 11 March 2009; in revised form: 24 March 2009 / Accepted: 30 March 2009 / Published: 31 March 2009
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Abstract: The fieldserver is an Internet based observation robot that can provide an outdoor solution for monitoring environmental parameters in real-time. The data from its sensors can be collected to a central server infrastructure and published on the Internet. The information from the sensor network will contribute to monitoring and modeling on various environmental issues in Asia, including agriculture, food, pollution, disaster, climate change etc. An initiative called Sensor Asia is developing an infrastructure called Sensor Service Grid (SSG), which integrates fieldservers and Web GIS to realize easy and low cost installation and operation of ubiquitous field sensor networks.
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Received: 11 March 2009; in revised form: 27 March 2009 / Accepted: 31 March 2009 / Published: 31 March 2009
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Abstract: This paper describes the development of a sensor web based approach which combines earth observation and in situ sensor data to derive typical information offered by a dynamic web mapping service (WMS). A prototype has been developed which provides daily maps of vegetation productivity for the Netherlands with a spatial resolution of 250 m. Daily available MODIS surface reflectance products and meteorological parameters obtained through a Sensor Observation Service (SOS) were used as input for a vegetation productivity model. This paper presents the vegetation productivity model, the sensor data sources and the implementation of the automated processing facility. Finally, an evaluation is made of the opportunities and limitations of sensor web based approaches for the development of web services which combine both satellite and in situ sensor sources.
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Received: 5 March 2009; in revised form: 7 April 2009 / Accepted: 15 April 2009 / Published: 16 April 2009
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Abstract: This paper addresses the discovery of sensors within the OGC Sensor Web Enablement framework. Whereas services like the OGC Web Map Service or Web Coverage Service are already well supported through catalogue services, the field of sensor networks and the according discovery mechanisms is still a challenge. The focus within this article will be on the use of existing OGC Sensor Web components for realizing a discovery solution. After discussing the requirements for a Sensor Web discovery mechanism, an approach will be presented that was developed within the EU funded project “OSIRIS”. This solution offers mechanisms to search for sensors, exploit basic semantic relationships, harvest sensor metadata and integrate sensor discovery into already existing catalogues.
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Received: 4 March 2009; in revised form: 20 April 2009 / Accepted: 21 April 2009 / Published: 21 April 2009
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Abstract: Sensor networks are increasingly being implemented for environmental monitoring and agriculture to provide spatially accurate and continuous environmental information and (near) real-time applications. These networks provide a large amount of data which poses challenges for ensuring data quality and extracting relevant information. In the present paper we describe a river basin scale wireless sensor network for agriculture and water monitoring. The network, called SoilWeather, is unique and the first of this type in Finland. The performance of the network is assessed from the user and maintainer perspectives, concentrating on data quality, network maintenance and applications. The results showed that the SoilWeather network has been functioning in a relatively reliable way, but also that the maintenance and data quality assurance by automatic algorithms and calibration samples requires a lot of effort, especially in continuous water monitoring over large areas. We see great benefits on sensor networks enabling continuous, real-time monitoring, while data quality control and maintenance efforts highlight the need for tight collaboration between sensor and sensor network owners to decrease costs and increase the quality of the sensor data in large scale applications.
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Received: 25 February 2009; in revised form: 20 April 2009 / Accepted: 21 April 2009 / Published: 22 April 2009
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Abstract: Sensor data have broadened their scope recently, ranging now from the simple time series measurements to, e.g., hyperspectral satellite image maps timeseries. In addition to observed data, simulation data increasingly have to be merged, for example 4-D ocean and atmospheric data. The majority of these data fall into the category of multi-dimensional rasters. However, when it comes to flexible retrieval, including sensor data search, aggregation, analysis, fusion, etc., standard query language support in the past has not kept up with the service level of, e.g., metadata retrieval. To close this gap, the Open GeoSpatial Consortium (OGC) has issued the Web Coverage Processing Service (WCPS) Standard in December 2008. WCPS defines a request language for multi-dimensional raster data, suitable for specifying navigation, download, and analysis of sensor, image, and statistics data. This contribution emphasises sensor data modeling and the perspectives for an integrated, cross-dimensional sensor data retrieval. Further, the WCPS reference implementation is briefly discussed.
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Received: 6 February 2009; in revised form: 26 March 2009 / Accepted: 22 April 2009 / Published: 24 April 2009
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Abstract: The enhancement of GPS technology enables the use of GPS devices not only as navigation and orientation tools, but also as instruments used to capture travelled routes: as sensors that measure activity on a city scale or the regional scale. TU Delft developed a process and database architecture for collecting data on pedestrian movement in three European city centres, Norwich, Rouen and Koblenz, and in another experiment for collecting activity data of 13 families in Almere (The Netherlands) for one week. The question posed in this paper is: what is the value of GPS as ‘sensor technology’ measuring activities of people? The conclusion is that GPS offers a widely useable instrument to collect invaluable spatial-temporal data on different scales and in different settings adding new layers of knowledge to urban studies, but the use of GPS-technology and deployment of GPS-devices still offers significant challenges for future research.
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Received: 17 April 2009; in revised form: 8 May 2009 / Accepted: 14 May 2009 / Published: 14 May 2009
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Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) produce changes of status that are frequent, dynamic and unpredictable, and cannot be represented using a linear cause-effect approach. Consequently, a new approach is needed to handle these changes in order to support dynamic interoperability. Our approach is to introduce the notion of context as an explicit representation of changes of a WSN status inferred from metadata elements, which in turn, leads towards a decision-making process about how to maintain dynamic interoperability. This paper describes the developed context model to represent and reason over different WSN status based on four types of contexts, which have been identified as sensing, node, network and organisational contexts. The reasoning has been addressed by developing contextualising and bridges rules. As a result, we were able to demonstrate how contextualising rules have been used to reason on changes of WSN status as a first step towards maintaining dynamic interoperability.
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Received: 6 March 2009; in revised form: 19 May 2009 / Accepted: 5 June 2009 / Published: 23 June 2009
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Abstract: Collecting raw data from a wireless sensor network for environmental monitoring applications can be a difficult task due to the high energy consumption involved. This is especially difficult when the application requires specialized sensors that have very high energy consumption, e.g. hydrological sensors for monitoring marine environments. This paper introduces a technique for reducing energy consumption by minimizing sensor sampling operations. In addition, we illustrate how a randomized algorithm can be used to improve temporal coverage such that the time between the occurrence of an event and its detection can be minimized. We evaluate our approach using real data collected from a sensor network deployment on the Great Barrier Reef.
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Received: 26 June 2009; in revised form: 6 July 2009 / Accepted: 7 July 2009 / Published: 10 July 2009
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Abstract: The SANY IP consortium (http://www.sany-ip.eu) has recently developed several interesting service prototypes that extend the usability of the Open Geospatial Consortium “Sensor Web Enablement” (OGC SWE) architecture. One such service prototype, developed by the Austrian Research Centers, is the “cascading SOS” (SOS-X). SOS-X is a client to the underlying OGC Sensor Observation service(s) (SOS). It provides alternative access routes to users (or services) interested in accessing data. In addition to a simple cascading, SOS-X can re-format, re-organize, and merge data from several sources into a single SOS offering. Thanks to the built-in “Formula 3” prototype, a kind of time series library, SOS-X will be enabled to derive new data sets on the fly executing arbitrary algebraic operations on one or more data input streams. This article will discuss the SOS-X development status (focusing at end of 2008), further development agenda in year 2009, and possibilities for using the SOS-X outside of the SANY IP.
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Received: 7 July 2009; in revised form: 10 July 2009 / Accepted: 13 July 2009 / Published: 15 July 2009
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Abstract: In the recent decade, several technology trends have influenced the field of geosciences in significant ways. The first trend is the more readily available technology of ubiquitous wireless communication networks and progress in the development of low-power, short-range radio-based communication networks, the miniaturization of computing and storage platforms as well as the development of novel microsensors and sensor materials. All three trends have changed the type of dynamic environmental phenomena that can be detected, monitored and reacted to. Another important aspect is the real-time data delivery of novel platforms today. In this paper, I will survey the field of geosensor networks, and mainly focus on the technology of small-scale geosensor networks, example applications and their feasibility and lessons learnt as well as the current research questions posed by using this technology today. Furthermore, my objective is to investigate how this technology can be embedded in the current landscape of intelligent sensor platforms in the geosciences and identify its place and purpose.
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Received: 23 June 2009; in revised form: 26 August 2009 / Accepted: 26 August 2009 / Published: 28 August 2009
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Abstract: The workshop “Sensing a Changing World” was held in Wageningen, The Netherlands, from November 19–21, 2008. The main goal of the workshop was to explore and discuss recent developments in sensors and (wireless) sensor networks for monitoring environmental processes and human spatial behavior in a changing world. The challenge is then to develop concepts and applications that can provide timely and on-demand knowledge to end-users in different domains over a range of different spatial and temporal scales. During this workshop over 50 participants, representing 15 countries, presented and discussed their recent research. The workshop provided a broad overview of state-of-the-art research in a broad range of application fields: oceanography, air quality, biodiversity and vegetation, health, tourism, water management, and agriculture. In addition the workshop identified the future research challenges. One of the outcomes of the workshop was a special issue in the journal Sensors with contributions presented at the workshop. This editorial of the special issue aims to provide an overview of the discussions held during the workshop. It highlights the ideas of the authors and participants of the workshop about directions of future research for further development of sensor-webs for “sensing” spatial phenomena. The “big” question was are we already able to sense a changing world? And if the answer is positive, then what are we going to sense and for what?
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Received: 4 August 2009; in revised form: 4 September 2009 / Accepted: 8 September 2009 / Published: 9 September 2009
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Abstract: This paper introduces the STEAD approach for interpreting data acquired by a “human sensor”, who uses an informal interactive location-based service (iLBS) to sense cultural-historic facts and anecdotes of, and in the landscape. This user-generated data is collected outdoors and in situ. The approach consists of four related facets (who, what, where, when). Three of the four facets are discussed and illustrated by user generated data collected during a Dutch survey in 2008. These data represent the personal cultural-historic knowledge and anecdotes of 150 people using a customized iLBS for experiencing the cultural history of a landscape. The “who” facet shows three dominant mentality groups (cosmopolitans, modern materialists and post modern hedonists) that generated user content. The “what” facet focuses on three subject types of pictures and four picture framing classes. Pictures of the place type showed to be dominant and foreground framing class was slightly favourite. The “where” facet is explored via density, distribution, and distance of the pictures made. The illustrations of the facets indirectly show the role of the “human sensor” with respect to the domain of interest. The STEAD approach needs further development of the when-facet and of the relations between the four facets. Finally the results of the approach may support data archives of iLBS applications.
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Last update: 31 March 2009
