The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) invites participation in the Ratings, Gaugings and Cross-Sections Interoperability Experiment (RGSIE), which will further develop and test the current OGC WaterML 2.0 Part 2 candidate encoding standard. This candidate OGC standard is currently available as an OGC public discussion paper . This candidate OGC standard defines a draft information model for exchanging rating tables and the observational data used in development of these rating tables.
Rating tables are used in hydrology for the specification of relationships between two phenomena such as river level and discharge. They are used where it is not possible, or impractical, to directly measure a certain physical property. These relationships are developed over time using discrete observations, often termed gaugings. There is an increasing desire to make rating and gauging data available in a well-defined and interoperable way.
The RGSIE will refine the WaterML2.0 Part 2 candidate standard by implementing it in a number of exchange scenarios involving the listed organisations. The use cases detailed will be tested in scenarios that will be defined by participating organisations and their associated partners.
This activity is being carried out within the Hydrology Domain Working Group, which operates under the auspices of the OGC and the World Meteorological Organization. It was preceded by successful OGC Groundwater and Surface Water Interoperability Experiments. The OGC WaterML 2.0 Part 1: Time Series Encoding Standard was adopted by the OGC membership as an official OGC standard in 2012.
The OGC members that are acting as initiators of the Interoperability Experiment are:
• Australian Bureau of Meteorology
• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
• US Geological Survey (USGS)
• Aquatic Informatics
• KISTERS
• UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH)
A summary of the activity plan, requirements for participation, schedule, and kick-off meeting details are available at: https://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=55363&version=1.
Expressions of interest in participation are due by 12 December 2013.
Contact Peter Taylor (peter.taylor@csiro.au) or Paul Sheahan (p.sheahan@bom.gov.au) for further details or to register as a participant.
OGC testbeds, pilot projects and interoperability experiments are part of the OGC’s Interoperability Program, a global, hands-on collaborative prototyping program designed to rapidly develop, test and deliver proven candidate specifications into the OGC’s Standards Program, where they are formalized for public release. These initiatives enable users and providers of geospatial technology to share the costs of developing standards that provide a foundation for “future-proof” enterprise architectures. Providers reduce their costs of developing and maintaining interfaces and encodings while gaining industry recognition, the confidence of an initiative’s sponsoring organizations, and the market growth that results from open standards.
An OGC Interoperability Experiment is a rapid, low overhead, formally structured OGC-facilitated activity in which members achieve specific technical objectives that further the OGC Technical Baseline.