Geospatial Sensor Webs Conference notes focus on lightweight approaches for data delivery

The Geospatial Sensor Webs Conference 2018 welcomed Sensor Web researchers and practitioners to Münster. From September 3rd – 5th approximately 60 participants from research, industry and public administration exchanged ideas on practical applications, emerging trends, user requirements, and future developments.

The opening session of this year’s conference addressed the challenges of using remote and in-situ earth observation data and detailed interesting research activities. Pre-conference tutorials introduced newcomers to Sensor Web, Web-based geoprocessing technologies and data analysis with R/Shiny. The conference track promoted a wide scientific exchange on status, emerging trends and future directions of the technologies. Additional workshop sessions provided a format for in-depth discussions on specific Sensor Web topics, such as event-based data delivery, or the comparison of different Sensor Web specifications, such as OGC SOS and SensorThings API.

Conference presentations illustrated the broad applicability of Sensor Web technology in a variety of domains. Examples of Sensor Web applications included air quality monitoring, crisis management, hydrological data flows, marine observation data, smart cities and citizen science. A special focus of many applications included topics, such as new lightweight approaches for data delivery and exchange, and new standards, such as the OGC SensorThings API. The tutorials and presentations are available online.

Lively discussions also concerned future directions for the Sensor Web community. Event-based architectures, real-time data flows, Internet of Things technologies, geo-semantics, as well as linking Sensor Web components with data processing and analysis tools (e.g. R) offer new perspectives for more powerful Sensor Web infrastructures in the future.

The 52°North Team is pleased with the success of the event and has begun preparations for the 2019 edition. More information, such as date and call for presentations will be published via the 52°North Website and communication channels.