1. Geomatics Laboratory
Como Campus
Volunteered Geographic Information for
water management: a prototype architecture
M.A. Brovelli (1), L. Dotti (2), M. Minghini (1), M. Pancaldi (2), G. Zamboni (1)
(1) Politecnico di Milano, DICA, Geomatics Laboratory, Como Campus – Italy
(2) Po River Basin Authority (AdbPo), Parma – Italy

2. 2 Geospatial Web
DICA - Laboratorio di Geomatica, Polo Territoriale di Como W W W

3. 3 Geospatial Web
data
DICA - Laboratorio di Geomatica, Polo Territoriale di Como

4. 4 Geospatial Web
data
DICA - Laboratorio di Geomatica, Polo Territoriale di Como
users

5. 5 Geospatial Web
data
DICA - Laboratorio di Geomatica, Polo Territoriale di Como
users
catalogues

6. 6 Geospatial Web
data
DICA - Laboratorio di Geomatica, Polo Territoriale di Como
users
catalogues
processing

7. 7 Geospatial Web
INTERNET
users
catalogues
data
processing
DICA - Laboratorio di Geomatica, Polo Territoriale di Como

8. 8
GeoWeb 2.0
✔ Evolution of the 1990s GeoWeb 1.0
✔ Interactive tools allowing user participation in spatial data management
✔ OGC standards for geospatial interoperability
✔ GPS, AJAX and mapping Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
✔ Neogeography (Turner 2006)
➔ creation of maps through mash-ups of multiple data sources
✔ Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) (Goodchild 2007)
➔ the idea of humans acting as sensors able to acquire spatial contents
✔ Crowdsourcing (Howe 2006)
➔ the act of a mass of users to share a job through an open call
✔ Diffusion of mobile devices equipped with sensors (GPS, camera, etc.)
➔ users can easily perform real-time collection of georeferenced data
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

9. 9
Citizen science
✔ Set of practices in which citizens participate in data collection, analysis
and dissemination of a scientific project
✔ Active or passive
✔ Explicit or implicit
✔ Classification
➔ 'classic' citizen science: citizens engaged in traditional scientific activities
➔ community science: measurements and analysis carried out by amateurs
in order to set action plans to deal with environmental problems
➔ citizen cyberscience: use of computers, GPS receivers and mobile phones
✗ volunteered computing: citizens download data, run analyses on
their own computers and send back data to the server
✗ volunteered thinking: citizens perform classification works
✗ participatory sensing: applications centered on mobile phones
capabilities
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

10. 10
Citizen science
✔ Set of practices in which citizens participate in data collection, analysis
and dissemination of a scientific project
✔ Active or passive
✔ Explicit or implicit
✔ Classification
➔ 'classic' citizen science: citizens engaged in traditional scientific activities
➔ community science: measurements and analysis carried out by amateurs
in order to set action plans to deal with environmental problems
➔ citizen cyberscience: use of computers, GPS receivers and mobile phones
✗ volunteered computing: citizens download data, run analyses on
their own computers and send back data to the server
✗ volunteered thinking: citizens perform classification works
✗ participatory sensing: applications centered on mobile phones
capabilities
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

11. 11
Purpose of the work
✔ To build an architecture for a citizen science application focused on
water management, which enables:
➔ mobile device field-data collection of water-related phenomena and
points of interest
➔ data access and interaction based on user privileges
➔ data Web publication and sharing
➔ data access through multi-dimensional (2D and 3D) Web interfaces
✔ To use FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), i.e. programs which
recognize users four essential freedoms:
➔ to run the software for any purpose
➔ to modify the software according to the needs
➔ to re-distribute copies of the software
➔ to distribute copies of modified versions of the software
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

12. 12
Project partners
✔ Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus
➔ IT support to research and teaching activities
➔ positioning, surveying, Earth observation & gravimetry
➔ photogrammetry, remote sensing, DTM analysis
➔ cartography, GIS, Internet GIS
✔ Po River Basin Authority (Autorità di bacino del Po – AdbPo)
➔ mixed institution (involves the State, the administrative regions and
many institutional bodies concerned with Po river management)
➔ responsible for planning and protecting the basin of river Po
✗ longest Italian river (652 km)
✗ largest Italian hydrographic basin ( ~ 74000 km2)
✗ highly-heterogeneous territory with complex environmental issues
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

13. 13 Citizen science FOSS architecture
SERVER CLIENT
WMS
DATA STORAGE
template form
AGGREGATE compiled form COLLECT
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus
DATA ACQUISITION
DATA WEB PUBLICATION
DATA WEB VISUALIZATION

14. 14
Mobile data collection
✔ Based on the suite of tools (http://opendatakit.org)
➔ management of mobile data collection using a set of related applications
FORM CREATION
BUILD
AGGREGATE COLLECT
FORM STORAGE
FORM COMPILATION
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

15. 15
Mobile data collection COLLECT
✔ Form download
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

16. 16
Mobile data collection COLLECT
✔ Form compilation
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

17. 17
Mobile data collection COLLECT
✔ Form compilation
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

18. 18
Mobile data collection COLLECT
✔ Form compilation
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

19. 19
Mobile data collection COLLECT
✔ Form compilation
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

20. 20
Mobile data collection COLLECT
✔ Form compilation
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

21. 21
Mobile data collection COLLECT
✔ Form saving, editing & sending
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

22. 22 Data storage and Web publication
SERVER
AGGREGATE
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

23. 23 Data Web visualization
http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/adbpo/segnalazioni
✔ Scale-dependent data styling (through WMS SLD)
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

24. 24 Data Web visualization
http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/adbpo/segnalazioni
✔ Scale-dependent data styling (through WMS SLD)
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

25. 25 Data Web visualization
http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/adbpo/segnalazioni
✔ Scale-dependent data styling (through WMS SLD)
✔
✔ Scale-dependent data styling (through WMS SLD)
✔ User-collected contents inside a popup (WMS GetFeatureInfo)
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

26. 26 Project website
✔ Project presentation & user instructions
http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/adbpo_site
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

27. 27 Conclusions and future outcomes
✔ FOSS architecture for a water management citizen science application
➔ from mobile device data collection to Web visualization and sharing
➔ born from the need of enlarging AdbPo consciousness of its basin through
the collection and valorisation of user local knowledge and experience
➔ project still at its early stage
➔ app tested by technicians of AdbPo and other water-related agencies
✔ Future improvements
➔ exploitation of the Enketo Web framework to allow form compilation
even from computers [almost done]
➔ improvement of the Web viewer (in both graphics & functionalities)
➔ involvement of the general public in testing and using the application
➔ [hopefully in the long run] evolution of the system into a fully-equipped
platform able to manage water-related emergencies
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus

28. 28 Contacts
Thanks for your attention!
Maria Antonia Brovelli
Politecnico di Milano
Laboratorio di Geomatica - Polo Territoriale di Como
Via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como (Italy)
maria.brovelli@polimi.it
Geomatics Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus