Framework of the e-Coastal Science Platform for the Coastal Zone Eco-environment Studies
Xin Liu · Geo-information Science · 2010
e-Science is about collaborations in areas of scientific research.It will change the way that scientific research is undertaken due to its fundamental goal of minimizing the distance between scientists and information technologies.At the national level,more emphasis are put on researches and constructions of grid and other advanced infrastructure,but scientists individually are more concerned with practical tools and methods that can be integrated on personal computers.The coastal zone is a very special area on the earth where the environmental and ecological processes are very different from that in inland or deep-sea,therefore the coastal zone researches have an especially strong demand for information technology.In past years,great progresses have been made by researchers at home and abroad with regard to information systems and coastal zone management systems.However,the emergence and the fast development of e-Science have not only provided a good opportunity but also pose a very serious challenge for us.It is necessary to develop the e-Science platform in order to meet the increasing needs of distributed and synergetic research activities for the coastal zone environment and ecosystem studies.Therefore,in this paper,the concept of 'e-Coastal Science' was put forward.And the principle,framework,technique route and essential techniques for the e-Coastal Science platform were talked about.In detail,a framework that consist three macro-layers,five technique-units and three research-units was designed for the e-Coastal Science platform.The three macro-layers were IT Infrastructure,GeoScience Platform and Coastal Science Platform respectively.The five technique-units were hardware platform,database platform,simulating platform,synergetic communicating platform and data information release platform respectively.The three research-units were inshore sea area environment monitoring and simulation,hydrology and ecosystem simulation of coastal river basin,and the integrated coastal zone management respectively.To achieve the e-Coastal Science platform,a detailed and feasible technique roadmap was designed mainly based on Duckling 1.2,ArcGIS 9.3 and professional modeling tools.