Research Articles by Alistair Ritchie
The future information needs of stakeholders for hydrogeological and hydro-climate data managemen... more The future information needs of stakeholders for hydrogeological and hydro-climate data management and assessment in New Zealand may be met with an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards-compliant publicly accessible web services framework which aims to provide integrated use of groundwater information and environmental observation data in general. The stages of the framework development described in this article are search and discovery as well as data collection and access with (meta)data services, which are developed in a community process. The concept and prototype implementation of OGC-compliant web services for groundwater and hydro-climate data include demonstration data services that present multiple distributed datasets of environmental observations. The results also iterate over the stakeholder community process and the refined profile of OGC services for environmental observation data sharing within the New Zealand Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) landscape, including datasets from the National Groundwater Monitoring Program and the New Zealand Climate Database along with datasets from affiliated regional councils at regional- and sub-regional scales. With the definition of the New Zealand observation data profile we show that current state-of-the-art standards do not necessarily need to be improved, but that the community has to agree upon how to use these standards in an iterative process.
Papers by Alistair Ritchie
Development of a prototype framework to facilitate interoperable freshwater modeling in New Zealand
Recent freshwater policy initiatives in New Zealand have highlighted the need for integrated and ... more Recent freshwater policy initiatives in New Zealand have highlighted the need for integrated and interoperable freshwater models and data sources. In response, we evaluated a range of software frameworks for interoperable freshwater modelling. A workshop on user needs identified a spectrum of framework users, ranging from 'indirect users' such as policy makers, to 'developers' such as software engineers concerned with developing and implementing frameworks. To address calls for clearer information on available models and data sources, we developed databases of models and data sources along with an interactive tool to query the database and illustrate potential data-model and model-model couplings. Existing frameworks were reviewed and evaluated against user needs, leading to the selection one framework, OMS3, for more detailed testing. We successfully set up several small models and third-party visualisation and geo-spatial tools as OMS3 components using a range of approaches, liked these in the framework, accessed a simple model as a web service, developed a graphical user interface to modify XML input files, and accessed time-series and spatial data through OGC-compliant web services. These tests were encouraging. However, implementing complex realworld user interfaces in OMS3 would require writing the user interface from scratch. Other limitations of OMS3 included little provision for spatial data and complex data structure, and difficulties incorporating .NET-based dll's. Indirect users called for demonstration of a complex spatio-temporal and crossdomain application with a polished user interface, and this is proposed as a next step before committing fully to OMS3. Web services approaches to model delivery and integration seemed attractive to overcome some institutional and technical barriers that were identified, and a staged pathway for adoption of web services was proposed.
A Spatial Data Infrastructure Approach for the Characterization of New Zealand's Groundwater Systems
Transactions in GIS, 2015
The future information needs of stakeholders for hydrogeological and hydro-climate data managemen... more The future information needs of stakeholders for hydrogeological and hydro-climate data management and assessment in New Zealand may be met with an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards-compliant publicly accessible web services framework which aims to provide integrated use of groundwater information and environmental observation data in general. The stages of the framework development described in this article are search and discovery as well as data collection and access with (meta)data services, which are developed in a community process. The concept and prototype implementation of OGC-compliant web services for groundwater and hydro-climate data include demonstration data services that present multiple distributed datasets of environmental observations. The results also iterate over the stakeholder community process and the refined profile of OGC services for environmental observation data sharing within the New Zealand Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) landscape, including datasets from the National Groundwater Monitoring Program and the New Zealand Climate Database along with datasets from affiliated regional councils at regional- and sub-regional scales. With the definition of the New Zealand observation data profile we show that current state-of-the-art standards do not necessarily need to be improved, but that the community has to agree upon how to use these standards in an iterative process.
Recent freshwater policy initiatives in New Zealand have highlighted the need for integrated and ... more Recent freshwater policy initiatives in New Zealand have highlighted the need for integrated and interoperable freshwater models and data sources. In response, we evaluated a range of software frameworks for interoperable freshwater modelling. A workshop on user needs identified a spectrum of framework users, ranging from 'indirect users' such as policy makers, to 'developers' such as software engineers concerned with developing and implementing frameworks. To address calls for clearer information on available models and data sources, we developed databases of models and data sources along with an interactive tool to query the database and illustrate potential data-model and model-model couplings. Existing frameworks were reviewed and evaluated against user needs, leading to the selection one framework, OMS3, for more detailed testing. We successfully set up several small models and third-party visualisation and geo-spatial tools as OMS3 components using a range of a...
Development of a prototype framework to facilitate interoperable freshwater modeling in New Zealand
The rise of information science: a changing landscape for soil science
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2015
An Australian-New Zealand Standard For Exchange of Soil and Landscape Data: Anzsoilml V2. 0
Object-Oriented Modelling of Geoscientific Information Systems
Designing and Building an Object-Relational Geoscientific Database Using the North American Conceptual Geology Map Data Model (NADM-C1) from an Australian Perspective
Scientific data collected by GeoScience Victoria, Minerals and Petroleum Division, were previousl... more Scientific data collected by GeoScience Victoria, Minerals and Petroleum Division, were previously held in databases engineered around purpose-built software packages. A wealth of information was stored in free-text legend fields or geological reports. Analysis of these data using other software was difficult and the approach led to inconsistent and contradictory systems and content.
Recent freshwater policy initiatives in New Zealand have highlighted the need for integrated and ... more Recent freshwater policy initiatives in New Zealand have highlighted the need for integrated and interoperable freshwater models and data sources. In response, we evaluated a range of software frameworks for interoperable freshwater modelling. A workshop on user needs identified a spectrum of framework users, ranging from 'indirect users' such as policy makers, to 'developers' such as software engineers concerned with developing and implementing frameworks. To address calls for clearer information on available models and data sources, we developed databases of models and data sources along with an interactive tool to query the database and illustrate potential data-model and model-model couplings. Existing frameworks were reviewed and evaluated against user needs, leading to the selection one framework, OMS3, for more detailed testing. We successfully set up several small models and third-party visualisation and geo-spatial tools as OMS3 components using a range of a...
Development of a prototype framework to facilitate interoperable freshwater modeling in New Zealand
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Research Articles by Alistair Ritchie
Papers by Alistair Ritchie