Overall and specific objectives

The overall objective is to develop a pilot system for interoperable GMES monitoring and forecasting services for environmental risk and crisis management in marine and coastal areas. An open system architecture will be designed based on established GIS and web services protocols, and implemented in a network of services (InterRisk services) for several European regional seas. The services will be based on satellite data, in situ data and numerical models needed to monitor and forecast marine environmental crisis events. The network of interoperable services will be developed as a contribution to the implementation of GMES.

Specific project objectives are:

• Design and implement a system architecture for interoperable GMES services for environmental risk management, emergency handling and degradation assessment, based on user requirements analysis and using established web services and GIS standards.

• Develop ontologies and application schemas needed for the InterRisk services.

• Develop specific interoperable service components compliant with SSE (Service Support Environment) and Open Geospatial Consortium specifications, using marine oil spills, harmful algal blooms, eutrophication and environmental degradation as examples.

• Develop data repository services for data to be used in monitoring/forecasting of oil spills, harmful algal blooms, eutrophication and environmental degradation in selected test areas: Norwegian waters, UK/Irish waters, French waters, German/Polish waters and Italian waters.

• Integrate the developed service components and provide customised products through a network of services in major European coastal and ocean areas (InterRisk services).

• Validate usefulness of products and services delivered by InterRisk to users and solicit feedback for improvement of the products and services.

• Disseminate products and services to participants in GMES projects and to users responsible for environmental risk management and emergency handling in coastal regions.

Major milestones

Time schedule for the project:

• May 2007: User requirements established, and first version of ontologies and application schemas available. System design completed.
• August 2007: First version of the Interrisk pilot system with basic prdoucts and services integrated.
• February 2008: First user testing completed, including assessment from the proejct's Advisory Group.
• August 2008: SSE service components and complex products and services available.
• March 2009: Final version of the InterRisk pilot system with complex products and services integrated.
• August 2009: User validation completed. Recommendations made for future development of sustainable GMES services for environental risk and crisis management in marine and coastal areas.

Expected results

It is expected that InterRisk will provide a number of different products from satellite and aircraft data, in situ measurements and model simulations in several European seas. All products will be available through a single portal, the InterRisk portal, which will deliver the products to users in each region for service assessment and validation.

The InterRisk services will include basic services like satellite data processing, in situ data delivery, model simulations, metadata catalogues access, as well as complex services such as oil drift prediction and ecosystem modelling.

The network of InterRisk services will be embedded in the ESA SSE, which will provide the underlying infrastructure for the InterRisk system.

Contact point

Prof. Stein Sandven, +47 55 20 58 00, Stein.Sandven at nersc.no