Co-creating a FAIR data space for the Green Deal
Any plan to mitigate environmental damage must be based on relevant data – and fortunately, we have the tools to collect it. Beyond in-situ Earth observation platforms, data on environmental issues come from remote sensing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and citizen scientists. The European Commission envisions a Green Deal Data Space (GDDS) in which all data are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). The EU-funded AD4GD project addresses the challenge of co-creating components and methodologies for a FAIR green data space infrastructure.
Biodiversity, climate change, and pollution
When it comes to the GDDS infrastructure, the variety of environmental concerns increases the challenge of integrating data from multiple sources. To address this, the project implemented pilot studies in three high-priority areas: biodiversity, climate change and pollution. Biodiversity is greatly influenced by habitat connectivity. In Catalonia, a pilot study uses multiple data sources including satellite data, human observations, remote sensing and IoT technologies like camera traps to monitor habitat connectivity over the past four decades. In Berlin, small urban lakes are at risk due to climate change, but data to assess their evolution is scarce. AD4GD combined IoT sensing data with satellite and citizen science data to inform decision-making on water quality and quantity. Throughout Europe, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides daily air quality forecasts using satellite data. AD4GD explored how IoT sensing and citizen science can complement CAMS data and provide a fine-tuned analysis of air quality to better inform citizens and support informed actions. Each pilot addresses key environmental concerns and incorporates multiple data sources measuring common terms. AD4GD demonstrates that sometimes disparate problems can best be solved by thinking on similar approaches under a unified conceptual framework. According to project coordinator, Joan Masó: “The pilots have been instrumental in unravelling how to combine data from different sources, including citizen science, public administration and satellite data.”
Implementing FAIR data principles
The project’s pilot studies demonstrate the application of FAIR data principles to overcome knowledge gaps and address high-priority environmental concerns. While data sources in each pilot either already existed or use already existing technology, AD4GD ensures the data meet FAIR principles by using a range of innovative technical approaches. Specifically, a focus on interoperability concepts helps bridging the semantic and technological gaps so that stakeholders can easily and safely share and access well-documented multi-disciplinary and multi-scale data. The project has facilitated the integration of semantic mappings such as the Essential Variables framework (EVBs) and employed machine learning and geospatial user feedback to estimate quality. AD4GD leverages existing semantics standards such as those developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to enable the exploitation of processing services and platforms at different levels including cloud, HPC and edge computing. The project makes sure that citizen science data are FAIR and also gives credit to data contributors. By exploring how to connect data providers and data users, AD4GD also contributes to the development of standards and technical infrastructure. As Masó says: "We not only implement standards, but we participate and influence in the actual process of their development. We have also demonstrated that new versions of data space connectors are compatible with the OGC interfaces." The EC’s commitment to the Green Deal has many aspects, and a Green Deal Data Space technology founded on FAIR principles is a significant component. AD4GD has helped to develop the future GDDS by piloting a data repository and a processing infrastructure.
Keywords
AD4GD, FAIR data, Green Deal, GDDS, biodiversity, climate change, pollution
