For over 100 years, the major glaciers in Italian Alps have been systematically monitored by a varied network of scientists, academics, volunteers and amateurs. Their efforts have produced one of the longest and most valuable collections of glaciological observations worldwide. The format of the field observations and the instrumentation used by the operators have changed widely over the century and this evolution is still in progress. A great geographic variability of traditions and practices adds further heterogeneity to the collections, making extremely onerous both retrieving and consulting all the documents. In this scenario some crucial requirements must be addressed: oto preserve the existent collections and ensure that they will go on; oto normalize and merge them, even enriching them with the scattered resources currently unused; oto promote updated and optimized procedures for enhancing the collection of new observations; oto make the information available for access and analysis. These requirements are very hard to be addressed since they require funding, expertise and a unique reference framework. Recent advancements in information technology let foresee scenarios in which mobile devices and sensors will easy the recording of field measurements, while web processes and applications will facilitate the automatic storage and display of data, while web standards and practices will supply interoperability and common data models. User friendly interfaces and interactive tools could then help amateurs to compile, map and handle additional glaciological information. Besides, the Citizen Science (CS) approach, which is living a flourish phase in the Earth Sciences realm, can help in involving new volunteers in the monitoring activities and in better managing the informative content of their contributions, also known as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). In the present work a system to properly collect and manage the most varied informative contents on a multipurpose web platform is described. It gets its methodological design from the geo-web technological framework and from the CS/VGI approach. While addressing some main constrains that are affecting the Italian glacier monitoring, the proposed system supports spatial and temporal interpretation, and facilitate the collaboration among the different users. Moreover, the compliance to standard profiles and spatial web service guarantees for the effective sharing, re-use and maintenance of the collections over time. This web platform facilitates both the management and the access to measurements, geographical data, images, textual documents, comments and communications. It allows web users to perform searches among data and metadata, to combine the data layers in customized views, to compile and submit new informative contributions. It also serve the coordinators as an administrative console, and help them in performing their supervision tasks.
A hybrid system to support glacier monitoring activities on Italian Alps
Criscuolo L;Rampini A;Pepe M;Carrara P;
2015
Abstract
For over 100 years, the major glaciers in Italian Alps have been systematically monitored by a varied network of scientists, academics, volunteers and amateurs. Their efforts have produced one of the longest and most valuable collections of glaciological observations worldwide. The format of the field observations and the instrumentation used by the operators have changed widely over the century and this evolution is still in progress. A great geographic variability of traditions and practices adds further heterogeneity to the collections, making extremely onerous both retrieving and consulting all the documents. In this scenario some crucial requirements must be addressed: oto preserve the existent collections and ensure that they will go on; oto normalize and merge them, even enriching them with the scattered resources currently unused; oto promote updated and optimized procedures for enhancing the collection of new observations; oto make the information available for access and analysis. These requirements are very hard to be addressed since they require funding, expertise and a unique reference framework. Recent advancements in information technology let foresee scenarios in which mobile devices and sensors will easy the recording of field measurements, while web processes and applications will facilitate the automatic storage and display of data, while web standards and practices will supply interoperability and common data models. User friendly interfaces and interactive tools could then help amateurs to compile, map and handle additional glaciological information. Besides, the Citizen Science (CS) approach, which is living a flourish phase in the Earth Sciences realm, can help in involving new volunteers in the monitoring activities and in better managing the informative content of their contributions, also known as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). In the present work a system to properly collect and manage the most varied informative contents on a multipurpose web platform is described. It gets its methodological design from the geo-web technological framework and from the CS/VGI approach. While addressing some main constrains that are affecting the Italian glacier monitoring, the proposed system supports spatial and temporal interpretation, and facilitate the collaboration among the different users. Moreover, the compliance to standard profiles and spatial web service guarantees for the effective sharing, re-use and maintenance of the collections over time. This web platform facilitates both the management and the access to measurements, geographical data, images, textual documents, comments and communications. It allows web users to perform searches among data and metadata, to combine the data layers in customized views, to compile and submit new informative contributions. It also serve the coordinators as an administrative console, and help them in performing their supervision tasks.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
