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This article was downloaded by: [Wuhan University]On: 16 April 2013, At: 18:01Publisher: Taylor & FrancisInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
International Journal of Digital EarthPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjde20
A framework design for the ChineseNational Disaster Reduction System ofSystems (CNDRSS)Deren Li a , Linglin Zeng a , Nengcheng Chen a , Jie Shan b c ,Liangming Liu b , Yida Fan d & Wei Li ba State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying,Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Chinab School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, WuhanUniversity, Wuhan, Chinac School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette,IN, USAd National Commission for Disaster Reduction, Beijing, ChinaAccepted author version posted online: 11 Mar 2013.Version ofrecord first published: 12 Apr 2013.
To cite this article: Deren Li , Linglin Zeng , Nengcheng Chen , Jie Shan , Liangming Liu , Yida Fan& Wei Li (2013): A framework design for the Chinese National Disaster Reduction System of Systems(CNDRSS), International Journal of Digital Earth, DOI:10.1080/17538947.2013.783634
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2013.783634
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A framework design for the Chinese National DisasterReduction System of Systems (CNDRSS)
Deren Lia, Linglin Zenga*, Nengcheng Chena, Jie Shanb,c, Liangming Liub,
Yida Fand and Wei Lib
aState Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing,Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; bSchool of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; cSchool of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, WestLafayette, IN, USA; dNational Commission for Disaster Reduction, Beijing, China
(Received 10 February 2012; final version received 5 March 2013)
China is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. Currently,the disaster prevention and relief mechanism in China is mainly based on singledisaster types and is implemented by different ministries and divisions in singleadministrative regions. Subsequently, the available resources, including data,services, materials, and human resources, cannot be shared and used effectively.Based on the idea of an observation system of systems and a business system ofsystems, this paper presents an integrated framework for a Chinese NationalDisaster Reduction System of Systems (CNDRSS) to address this issue. TheCNDRSS framework aims to achieve data sharing and collaboration amongdifferent disaster-related ministries/institutions by providing one-stop services forall phases of disaster management and linking together existing and planneddisaster-related business systems and observation systems. The key technologiesuse federated databases and a web service to integrate multiple disaster manage-ment systems among different ministries/institutions and a sensor web to inte-grate airborne, space-borne, and in-situ observations through the web service.These event-driven focused-services connecting the various observations, proces-sing, and mapping processes can meet the requirements for complex disaster-chain systems.
Keywords: federated database; sensor web; information sharing; collaboration;focusing service
1. Introduction
In recent years, disasters have become more frequent and damaging around
the world, posing an increasing challenge for emergency services. Examples include
the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 (Aitkenhead, Lumsdon, and Miller 2007), the
Wenchuan earthquake in China in 2008 (Li 2009), the 2010 Haiti earthquake (Duda
and Jones 2011; Van Aardt et al. 2011), and the flood in Thailand in 2011 (Kridskron
et al. 2012). How to respond to disasters such as these more quickly and more
effectively is a very important problem for scientists, disaster managers, and decision-
makers. In order to cope with such complex, large-scale disasters, earth observation
agencies, national geo-information agencies, transport ministries, public health and
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2013.783634
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other ministries/institutions must be able to react expeditiously not only on an
individual level, but in a highly coordinated manner with other agencies.
Accordingly, the need for both intra- and inter-organization coordination at
several hierarchical levels is essential (Auf der Heide 1989). Since the beginning of
the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (Housner 1989; ADRC
2006), the international community has placed increased emphasis on disaster
reduction. The trend in disaster risk reduction is shifting conceptually away from
individual case-by-case emergency management toward a holistic approach
emphasizing disaster chains, collaboration, and integrated disaster reduction and
risk management.
With the rapid development of information technology and 3S technology
(Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing, and Global Positioning Systems),
many countries have built various disaster information systems supporting disaster
prevention and relief. Recently, the China Digital Earth Prototype System (Guo, Fan,
and Wang 2009), the Spatial Data Infrastructure (Craglia et al. 2008; Li, Shan, and
Gong 2009), open geospatial web services discovery (Li, Shan, and Gong 2009), the
Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards (De Longueville et al. 2010), and the virtual
globe (Butler 2006) have been realized and have achieved significant progress toward a
‘Digital Earth.’ However, it is an enormous challenge to create the means to connect
individual advanced technologies together and integrate mutually isolated disaster
information systems into a disaster-reduction system of systems (SoS) within a
cyber-physical environment.
China is experiencing more frequent and intense disasters that are both diverse in
nature and widely distributed geographically with heavy losses to life and property.
The statistical records (Zhou, Fan, and Yang 2010) show that, from 1989 to 2008,
natural disasters in China, on average, annually affected about 350 million people.
The annual direct economic loss during that period was more than 200 billion RMB.
In addition, over 70% of China’s cities and over 50% of its population at the present
time are located in regions where meteorological, geological, and oceanographic
risks are very high. Natural hazards are significantly amplified by urbanization,
population growth, global climate change, and economic globalization, all of which
heighten an area’s vulnerability. For example, because of rapid urbanization, more
people and property are threatened by flooding; and by the end of the twenty-first
century, 536 of China’s 668 cities will be at risk (Gao et al. 2007). The large reservoirs
built in the last century for preventing drought have created significant flooding risks
to the areas around them; droughts in northern China are becoming ever more
frequent and severe with climate change; and the overuse of water resources and
deforestation are decreasing the ability of soil to store water (Gao et al. 2007).
Disasters threaten economic development and the livelihood of citizens so conduct-
ing high-efficiency disaster prevention and relief is therefore an urgent task facing the
Government of China (Konecny 2011). Among the problems facing disaster-
reduction efforts in China are the following:
(1) Data and information cannot be shared or sufficiently integrated. A salient
problem in current disaster prevention and relief is ‘rich in data, barren of
information, with lack of knowledge’ (Li, Shan, and Gong 2009).
Some systems have become ‘isolated information islands.’ Especially, the
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information from a stricken area cannot be transmitted effectively to disaster
mitigation headquarters.
(2) Collaboration among different ministries/institutions is insufficient. The
occurrence of one disaster usually precipitates multiple disasters and requiresjoint efforts and cooperation between various ministries.
Building an SoS is a solution to tackle these problems. DeLaurentis (2007) stated
that an SoS consists of multiple, heterogeneous, distributed, and occasionally
independently operating systems embedded in networks at multiple levels that
evolve over time. An SoS is evolutionary, geographically distributed, and integrated
in a federated form. It is a dynamic system composed of other independently
managed systems (Maier 1988; Liu 2011; Mostafavi et al. 2011). The proposed
CNDRSS will seamlessly integrate existing disaster-related systems to provide an
information platform for observation integration, data sharing, and collaboration to
implement a ‘one-stop service’ in all phases of disaster management. The objective of
CNDRSS is to organically integrate the ministries as well as the disaster-related
resources (e.g. sensors, data, and professional disaster information systems) of
multiple ministries in order to ensure that observation acquisition and data sharing
are possible and that the functions are interoperable among different ministries
horizontally, with full transparency and interoperability at all levels of the same
ministry vertically. Through this platform, various ministries can collaborate with
each other to mitigate disasters. Just like the human vascular system is connected so
that nutrients can reach all parts of the body, these organizations can harmoniously
work together to function at a high level of disaster response.
The purpose of this paper is to present the framework for a CNDRSS, including
design considerations, organization, mechanism, architecture, and components. This
paper will also analyze the key technologies needed to build such a CNDRSS. We
will build a common infrastructure for CNDRSS, including a register center and a
search engine connected to a web portal as well as distributed resources via a service-
oriented architecture (SOA) (Perrey and Lycett 2003), so that the registered resources
can be discovered and accessed through the web portal. Additionally, some useful
tools (e.g. workflow management and online risk communication systems for various
ministries) will be provided.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Related work is described
in Section 2. The architecture and components of the CNDRSS are presented in
Section 3 as well as the interactions among the components of CNDRSS, based on
an analysis of the requirements and design considerations. Section 4 outlines the key
technologies needed: registration for and query of the resources, use of the sensor
web to integrate ground, airborne, and space-borne sensors, the federated database,
and the event-driven focusing service. Section 5 summarizes the conclusions and
outlines further work.
2. Progress in building an SoS concerning the environment and disasters
In this section, we briefly present the progress in building an SoS for monitoring,
collecting, and sharing environmental and disaster data, as well as outlining the
standards for geographic services and sensor webs.
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2.1. Integrated systems
Currently, many multinational and national integrated information platforms for
disaster monitoring and risk reduction have been built or will be built in a federal
style.
The Group on Earth Observations led the establishment of the Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) (http://www.earthobservations.org). This
SoS aims to proactively link together existing and planned observing systems around
the world. It is intended to support the development of new systems that will fill the
gaps that currently exist and, through a portal, will provide an Internet access point
for users seeking data, imagery, and analytical software packages relevant to all parts
of the globe. The initial construction of GEOSS is complete at this time; and by
2015, the GEOSS expects to achieve sustained operation, continuity, and interoper-
ability of the existing and new systems that provide essential environmental observa-
tions and information. This cross-cutting approach avoids unnecessary duplication,
encourages synergies between systems, and ensures substantial economic, societal,
and environmental benefits (GEOSS Website).
The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) (http://coperni-
cus.eu/) system is the European contribution to GEOSS. GMES is a joint initiative of
the European Commission and the European Space Agency, which was adopted
by the European Union leaders at the Gothenburg Summit in 2001. Over the last
10 years, numerous research and development projects have contributed to the
expansion of the GMES infrastructure and services. GMES builds upon four pillars:
the space component, (satellites and associated ground segment), in-situ measure-
ments (ground-based and airborne data-gathering networks), data harmonization
and standardization, and services to users (Ehlers 2008).
The Earth Observing System Clearinghouse (ECHO), developed by the US
National Aeronautics and Space Admnistration (NASA), is an operational open
system based on Extensible Markup Language (XML); and Web Service technol-
ogies is a spatial and temporal metadata registry and order broker built by NASA’s
Earth Science Data and Information System (http://www.echo.nasa.gov/). It enables
the scientific community to more easily use and exchange NASA’s data and services.
ECHO acts as middleware between data partners and client partners, which provides
an SOA environment for the Earth Observing (EO) community. Currently, ECHO
has 12 data centers (Bai et al. 2007). ECHO, in essence, is a federated database
system, focusing on sharing data and services, with little attention to sensor webs
or integration with a wide variety of sensor systems to provide real-time or near
real-time Sensor Web services.The German Government established a crisis prevention information system
(deNIS) to provide critical spatial risk information. Assisted by the Federal
Government and the Lander (German States), it brings together dispersed informa-
tion in a geographic information system to generate an interactive map with multiple
functions (http://www.denis.bund.de/). Essentially, deNIS is a geographic information
system.In Japan, the National Land Agency, which is in charge of disaster prevention
administration, developed an integrated emergency management system called the
Disaster Information System (DIS). It is a means for quickly determining the
extent of damage, thereby enabling the related agencies and authorities to share
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information. DIS supports quick and accurate decision-making when implementing
emergency measures (Miyatake and Nunomura 2003).
At present, in China, a number of national integrated basic database systems and
comprehensive disaster-related application systems have been established or areunder construction, such as the National Natural Resources and Geospatial Basic
Information Database, the National Geo-information Public Service Platform, the
National Emergency Response Platform systems (at the national, ministerial, and
provincial levels), and 12 integrated operational observation systems. The 12
integrated operational and professional observation systems are operated by 12
different professional ministries/organizations in China, which include the Compre-
hensive Information on Disaster and Observation System (operated by the Ministry
of Civil Affairs), the Integrated Agricultural Observation System (operated by theMinistry of Agriculture), the Integrated Hydrological Monitoring System (operated
by the Ministry of Water Resources), and the Integrated Meteorological Monitoring
Systems (operated by the China Meteorological Administration) (NCDR 2009).
However, these databases and systems are independently operated and currently
there are no effective and sufficient connections among them.
2.2. Standards of federated database and interoperability
The International Standardization Organization (ISO) and the Open GIS Con-
sortium (OGC) have been leading efforts to create heterogeneous data sharing
and interoperability standards by developing and releasing a series of standard
specifications.
OGC is a not-for-profit organization with more than 210 members. OGCs goal is
the ubiquitous access and use of spatial data and spatial processing in an open
marketplace (http://www.opengis.org/techno). OGC has been developing, releasing,
and promoting a series of common web service architectures and standards forgeospatial information interchange and interoperation through its standards
program, interoperability program, compliance program, and marketing and
communications program. For data services, the most universal OGC protocols
for data access are the Web Map Service (de la Beaujardiere 2006), Web Feature
Services (Vretanos 2002), and Web Coverage Services (Lee et al. 2005). The
Geospatial Catalog Service Web (CSW) profile (Nebert, Whiteside, and Vretanos
2007) was designed to provide capabilities for advertising and discovering shared
geospatial data and services over the web through the registration of both data andservices in a catalog.
ISO-TC211 has published the ISO191XX standards in order to routinize the
management of geographic information. Currently, there are 43 projects deployed
under the supervision of ISO-TC211 (http://www.iso.org/iso/home.html). These
standards may specify geospatial information, methods, tools, and services for
data management, acquisition, processing, analyzing, accessing, presenting, and
transferring such data in digital/electronic form between different users, systems, and
locations (Ostensen and Smits 2002). In the early stages, ISO-TC211’s effortsconcentrated mainly on developing international standards for feature-based
geographic information. In 1997, ISO-TC211 started to work on the imagery and
gridded data areas through Project 19121, Imagery and Grid Data (Di, Kresse,
and Kobler 2001).
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2.3. Experiment and practice of geospatial Sensor Web
Currently, the OGC’s SWE standards enable developers to make various types of
sensors, transducers, and sensor data repositories discoverable, accessible, and usable
via the web (Botts and Robin 2007). In the SWE framework, there are four
information models (sensor model language (SensorML); observation and measure-
ments (O&M); transducer markup language; and event pattern markup language)
and five service implementation specifications (sensor planning service, sensor
observation service, sensor alert service, sensor event service, and web notification
service) (Chen et al. 2011).
Using a web portal integrated with Sensor Web 2.0 (Mandl et al. 2008), a user can
trigger workflows that search for available sensors and then direct their actions as the
following disaster scenario demonstrates (Figure 1). A fire-behavior analyst selects
wildfires in southern California as the area of interest. NASA’s space-based
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are retrieved for
its earth surface observations. For the fire locations detected by MODIS, observation
conditions are obtained by the Acquisition Functional Working Group. Then, the
Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) satellite Hyperion instrument is automatically triggered to
take a higher resolution multispectral image. Automatic triggers also cause an
unmanned aerial system to collect more detailed fire imagery. The user receives
notifications via instant message, short message service, or other notification services
(such as Twitter) when fires are detected in the area of interest and/or when high
resolution fire maps derived from one of these sensors are available (Mandl et al.
2008). As a result, the fire analyst can focus specifically on the resulting detailed fire
Figure 1. Sensor Web 2.0 for wildfire scenario (Cited from OWS-6).
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map and how to deploy needed resources rather than orchestrating the plethora of
available sensors (Mandl et al. 2008).
The interoperable Sensor Web consists of an architecture that specifies a set
of standards to be used by sensors to integrate into the ‘Internet’ of sensors (see
Figure 2). In this architecture, sensors are encapsulated as sensor data nodes that cancontain self-describing documents using SensorML. The descriptions may include
determining location as well as defining the resolution, spectral bands, and swath
and how to task the sensor. Data-processing algorithms are encapsulated as data-
processing nodes with SensorML or similar Web-accessible documents that describe
what the algorithms do. These descriptions may include inputs, outputs, methods
employed by the algorithm, and how to invoke the algorithm for user data. These
Web-accessible documents are created so that information about the sensors
and algorithms can be discovered over the Internet through CSW and provideinformation on how to access the sensors and algorithms. The user can then assemble
sensor data and selected algorithms into a customized workflow or service chain in
an automated fashion, which includes automatic electronic delivery of data products
to the user’s computer desktop, thus enabling on-demand science products. With a
Sensor Web, automated workflows and reasoning functions bring together all the
required resources into a single functional flow (Mandl et al. 2008).
3. Framework of CNDRSS
3.1. Design considerations
China is a country of large land mass and population. Disasters in China are
characteristically diverse, frequent, and widely distributed with heavy losses. The
Figure 2. Reference architecture for an interoperable sensor Web (Cited from OWS-5).
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disaster-related ministries in China are divided according to professions and regions.
They are hierarchical, and different ministries at different levels in different regions
take corresponding responsibilities for their areas. As a result, the disaster manage-
ment and reduction mechanisms are based on single disaster types and conducted by
different ministries and divisions within single administrative regions. To solve these
existing problems, we must change from this individual case-by-case emergency
management approach toward a holistic approach that includes the seamless
collaboration of a federated database and disaster-chain analysis with the goal of
integrated disaster reduction and risk management. Specifically, we are facing the
following tasks (see Figure 3):
(1) There must be full and open exchange of data, services, and other resources
within the CNDRSS, while recognizing relevant national policies and
legislation.
(2) Effective mechanisms and platform for various ministries to work together
against disasters must be provided that will interoperate online and share
both data and services when communicating and coordinating with each
other.(3) In emergencies, disaster information collected by local branch offices of
national governmental organizations must be rapidly delivered to their
Figure 3. The task of CNDRSS.
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respective upper-level organizations where the information will be integrated
as an aid for decision-making.
(4) Various sensors must be integrated to provide Sensor Web services, especially
for real-time or near real-time use.
To fulfill these tasks, CNDRSS must be geographically distributed, interoperable,
independent, and flexible.
(1) Geographic Distribution: Due to the objective characteristics of spatial data,
which can include spatial distribution and application dissimilarity, data
collection and management are usually conducted and maintained by differ-
ent ministries/organizations in different regions. CNDRSS aims to integratethese systems through interoperability and telecommunication. As a result, its
geographic extent is large.
(2) Interoperability: CNDRSS will integrate resources through the Web service
by adhering to published interface standards so that the component systems
can interoperate and work together. Users can transparently search and
access the information and service from the contributors of CNDRSS.
(3) Independence: If CNDRSS is disassembled into its components, essentially
independent and useful in their own right, the component systems must beable to operate independently. The component systems must maintain a
continuing operational existence independent of CNDRSS.
(4) Flexibility: The architecture of CNDRSS will be loosely coupled based on the
SOA. This makes the service independent of the development language,
machine, and platform. In addition, CNDRSS is not fully formed; and its
development and existence is evolutionary with functions and purposes
added, removed, and modified with experience gained so that new systems
can be integrated by registering and providing standard interface protocols.In addition, in terms of standards, CNDRSS is flexible: CNDRSS is
continuously developing uniform standards, such as interface standards,
data formats, naming, etc., to which its components must adhere. In addition,
according to the needs and conventions of different industries, standards and
norms for a specified industry can be developed, registered, and followed.
3.2. Organization and mechanism
The National Commission for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) is an inter-ministerial
coordination body under the leadership of the State Council. The main task of
NCDR is to study the development of national disaster-reduction principles, policies,
and plans. It coordinates the launch of major disaster-reduction activities, guides
local disaster mitigation work, and promotes international exchanges and coopera-
tion for disaster reduction (http://www.jianzai.gov.cn). NCDR includes 34 disaster-
related member units, including governmental ministries, military, scientific research
departments, and non-governmental organizations. NCDR is responsible forconstructing and managing CNDRSS and will coordinate its member units and
other related institutions with the full support and cooperation of those units.
To guarantee the successful operation of CNDRSS, NCDR will lead its
member unites and relevant experts/institutions to develop relevant standards or
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specifications for data, interfaces, services, etc. as well as mechanism for collabora-
tion, management, operations and maintenance, communication, and cooperation.
CNDRSS’s design, construction, operation, and management will be guided by these
standards and mechanisms.
3.3. Architecture and components
To achieve the above objectives, there are three layers in the CNDRSS architecture:
the Application Layer, the Business Layer, and the Data Layer (see Figure 4).
The Application Layer will be the presentation layer for user clients. Its mainfunction will be to obtain user requests through the Web portal and then transfer the
requests to the Business Layer. When the responses to requests are received, the
results will be presented in a visual frame to the user clients in the form of XML
documents, statistical tables and graphs, images, URLs, etc.
The Business Layer will deal with the requests from the Application Layer. The
CNDRSS Common Infrastructure (CCI) will support it. CCI will be connected to
both the Application Layer and the Resource Layer and will work as a switch center.
CCI will provide a catalog service, which will enable discovery and access of
Figure 4. Architecture of CNDRSS.
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registered resources on CNDRSS, thereby providing a well-documented interface for
the corresponding resources.
The Resource Layer will be the basis of CNDRSS. The resources include
databases, sensors, functional components, standards and practices, computing
resources, workflow templates, etc.
3.3.1. Web portal
The CNDRSS Web portal, the primary user interface, aims to allow the user clients
to search, discover, and access all CNDRSS resources through a single user interface.
Tools will be provided in this layer, such as a visualization system, risk communica-
tion system, data pre-processing system, and data order and dissemination system.
An important feature of the proposed scheme, the event-driven focusing service, will
provide an approach for designing, implementing, and constructing a flexible and
live link among specified resources for different event scenarios. Users will be able to
search and customize workflow templates through the user portal.
The user group of the proposed CNDRSS is basically divided into two parts:
(1) public individuals/organizations and (2) government members. They will have
different grades of authority to access different resources or services. The public
users will be able to access public services and the resources of CNDRSS members
(e.g. real-time disaster risk maps, disaster relief plans, and implementation). In
addition, the government members will be users as well as resource providers (e.g.
professional companies, research institutions) and will be invited to take part in
CNDRSS. The governmental users will mainly include the member units of NCDR.
3.3.2. CCI
Using the design concept of GEOSS for reference (Christian 2008), CCI will consist
of registries of resources and a clearinghouse (Christian 2008, GEOSS Website) for
searching resources. The registry will archive all the resource metadata as the
generalized description information for the provided resources. The standardized
search center (CNDRSS Clearinghouse) will provide for standardized searches
across the registered items and catalog services; and the clearinghouse will be used to
manage the metadata descriptions for resources in the network to provide a detailed
inventory of all registered resources. In addition, as CNDRSS aims to bring various
types of resources together, CCI will require integration of the catalogs for various
types of resources into a catalog federation for user clients to discover and access
relevant resources from a single user interface.
3.3.3. Resource provider
To achieve more efficient and effective disaster-reduction, CNDRSS will bring
together disaster-related ministries/organizations (the resource providers) and
provide the necessary resources to build a platform for sharing and collaboration.
All the resources will be independent of each other as well as CNDRSS, with no
interference from other systems or organizations.
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3.4. Interaction
CNDRSS will be designed in accordance with the SOA standard. The challenge will
be combining the frameworks so that each layer is exposed to each other layer in a
loosely coupled manner, regardless of the underlying technologies, so that the three
layers of the architecture can communicate and interact with each other through
relevant standards and protocols (see Figure 5).
3.4.1. Interactions between user clients and CCI
When the user clients pose requests through the user portal, the requests will be
transferred to the CCI, and CCI will respond. The CCI Clearinghouse will search the
registry to retrieve the relevant registry items and transform the request, and, finally,
then dispatch the transformed request to a corresponding resources center.
3.4.2. Interactions between CCI and resource provider
CCI will be responsible for comprehensive resource management. All the resources
of CNDRSS will be required to be registered in the registry of CCI, and the metadata
of the corresponding resources will be archived to facilitate the discovery and search of
the resources. Managing the metadata catalog will require synchronizing files with theregistered resources; therefore, once the registered resources are updated or deleted,
the corresponding metadata will be renovated or deleted synchronously.
In addition, once CCI receives requests from the Web portal, the clearinghouse
will transform and transfer the requests to the resource providers and bind the
corresponding resources with the requesting users, all of which will be completely
invisible to the user clients so that they will not feel the distribution of resources and
complexity of the process.
3.4.3. Interactions between user clients and resource providers
Resource providers will be bonded with the client terminal after the discovery of
resources from CCI through the web portal, and then the resource providers will
directly provide services to the user clients.
Figure 5. Interaction among CCI, user clients and resource provider.
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4. Key technologies
In order to integrate the distributed resources among which resource sharing and
interoperability can be achieved, various standards and protocols need to be
provided. The key technologies concern the registration for and query of resources,
the building of the sensor web and the federated database, their integration with
CNDRSS, and the implementation of the event-driven focusing service.
4.1. Registration for and query of resources
Resource registration and inquiry will be the core functions of CCI, which will
integrate the distributed resources in a loosely coupled manner through the
registration and catalog services. The Geospatial metadata catalog service based
on the ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM) specifies the interfaces,
bindings, and framework for defining application profiles and can be adopted by
CNDRSS to facilitate the discovery of, and access to, the resources of CNDRSS
(Nebert et al. 2007). Specifically, CNDRSS faces the following challenges:
(1) Practically, many metadata models need to be available: to meet specific
industry needs and respond to the variety of resources, many metadata
schemas, instead of one-size-fit-all metadata standard, can be used in
developing a metadata database for so many types of resources for different
application domains. The resources can be technically, functionally, syntacti-
cally, and structurally heterogeneous.
(2) CNDRSS has to provide a convenient interface for easy submission and
registration of various resources, as well as a homogeneous, single userinterface to enable users to pose queries of various integrated resources.
(3) CNDRSS must be able to match a user request with appropriate resources
using relevant metadata.
To tackle these problems, the strategy is to provide global schema (Effelsberg and
Mannino 1984) of metadata catalogs for various kinds of resources, all of which can
be searched and traced by the descriptive information for resources contained in the
metadata. The distributed resources will be linked together, and the distribution andheterogeneity of the various resources registered in CNDRSS will be shielded.
4.2. Use of Sensor Web to integrate ground-air-space-borne sensors
NASA defines the sensor web as ‘a coordinated observation infrastructure composed
of distributed resources that can behave as a single, autonomous, task-able, reconfi-
gurable observing system that provides observed and derived data along with the
associated metadata by using a set of standards-based service-oriented interfaces’
(Delin and Jackson 1999, 2001; Delin 2002).As shown in Figure 6, CNDRSS also will be a system of sensor systems (Van Zyl,
Simonis, and McFerren 2009) that integrates heterogeneous sensors, both in-situ and
remote-sensing devices, as well as stationary sensors or those attached to mobile
platforms, forming a space-air-ground observation web (Craglia et al. 2012) providing
access to sensors, sensor networks, and corresponding observational data-sets.
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The 12 integrated operational and professional observing systems primarily will
be integrated by CNDRSS. Most of them have their own disaster monitoring
network and operational systems. Some sensor systems are or will be under
construction and include the following: (1) various satellite sensors, such as the
FY serials meteorological satellites, the China�Brazil Earth Resource Satellite, the
Environment and the Disaster Monitoring Small Satellite Constellation (HJ) (there
is a ‘2�1’ Satellite Constellation currently, and a ‘4�4’ Satellite Constellation will
be available in three to five years), and remote sensing serial satellites; (2) aircraft
sensors (e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles) with which many ministries in various regions
are equipped; (3) in-situ sensor systems operated by different systems; and
(4) terminal equipment network. The system will be compatible with existing
satellite navigation systems, like Beidou Second Generation, GPS, etc. and aims to
conduct timely discovery of potential disasters before disaster strikes, rapidly collect
on-site disaster information after disasters, and provide effective communications
security for the grassroots members of disaster reporters, disaster relief volunteers,
and social workers.
As shown in Figure 7, in accordance with the requests of the users, corresponding
diverse sensor observation services can be registered in the registry center in the
CCI, scheduled by the data and sensor planning service, and discovered through the
CCI clearinghouse (Chen et al. 2009). This sensor system of systems can respond
to the requests from CCI to provide real-time or near real-time data services by
determining what sensors will be in the required place at the appropriate time and
Figure 6. The concept map of Sensor Web.
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invoke these sensors to obtain the required data. Additionally, the sensor web is
a main resource for CNDRSS real-time data-updating.
4.3. Federated database
To strengthen data-sharing among various ministries/organizations and to maintain
local data-collection, data maintenance, and autonomy, CNDRSS plans to integrate
these distributed databases by building a heterogeneous distributed and federated
database management system (HDF-DBMS) (Cardenas 1987; Sheth and Larson
1990). In reality, the data may reside in one single database or in physically-separated
databases, managed individually by the same type of DBMS or by different DBMSs
(Cardenas 1987). This federated database system (FDBS) is a collection of cooperat-
ing but autonomous component database systems characterized by distribution,
heterogeneity, and autonomy (Sheth and Larson 1990).
Currently, a number of databases exist in different ministries and regions in
China. In addition, two integrated database systems are under construction:
(1) The National Natural Resource and Geospatial Basic Information Database
(NNRGBID). It includes one data center and 11 physically distributed data sub-
centers: mineral resources, water resources, resources and environmental science,
marine and ocean satellites, mapping, forestry resources, satellite remote sensing,
meteorology and meteorological satellites, resource satellites, military mapping, and
military space resources. The data center was built by the National Development and
Reform Commission and the subcenters are constructed and maintained by the
relevant ministries. (2) The National Geographic Information Service Platform,
which is based on the multiscale national basic geographic information database and
has one master node, 31 partial nodes, and 333 information bases.
As shown in Figure 8, the construction of the whole database system for
CNDRSS involves constructing (1) the FDBS central server that archives the
centralized spatial and temporal metadata of the data in a distributed database. The
central server is part of CCI, through which users are provided a central access path
to keep track of the vast data collection from CNDRSS. (2) The sub-servers that are
connected with a central server and a response to the central server, which includes
Figure 7. Integration between CCI and Sensor Web.
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the provincial level, ministerial level, and in-situ level. When data in affiliated
databases change, the sub-servers will send the updated data to the central server
to make relevant modifications. In terms of content, it will include all levels of
databases, including the information database and the catalog database. The
information database mainly includes the standard specification database, disaster
hazard database, disaster-prone environment database, disaster bearing body
database, disaster-reduction resources database, disaster-reduction ability database,
information exchange database, and disaster-reduction products database.
Data collection and management of such a federated database will be conducted
by the appropriate corresponding ministries/institutions. Depending on the data
timeliness, the CNDRSS data fall into either the static data or dynamic data
categories. Static data are input on a one-time basis into the database and are
updated occasionally and regularly, such as the nationwide administrative map, the
population distribution map, and contact information for relief organizations.
Dynamic data, most of which are local data, will be updated in real-time periodically,
for instance, real-time weather data, the river flow, and the disaster risk map.
4.4. Event-driven focusins service
CNDRSS will serve as a steward of a set of related resources. Ministries collect and
document data and information to conduct normal disaster monitoring and release
disaster information to the public. During an emergency response, a tremendous
amount of information is needed and information and services at different levels are
required. This information is often scattered, though, in various ministries/
organizations and exists at different stages of development. A means to quickly
Figure 8. The framework of federated database.
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and effectively collect the needed information and obtaining integrated information
is essential. The application layer of CNDRSS will provide an event-driven focusing
service oriented to the disaster chain and disaster-reduction process.The focusing service (Yang et al. 2010), a kind of tailored service, has two aspects.
The first aspect focuses on the required information by automatic filtration and
classification, while the other focuses on the service objects: the disaster-chain and
the disaster-reduction process. As shown in Figure 9, CNDRSS will automatically
and sequentially bring the disaster-related ministries and the resources from
corresponding ministries together through relevant templates for the workflow, the
collection of the resources, and the composition of the services. Templates will not
only be registered and constantly improved and updated as resources in CCI, butalso will be customized and generated through the Application Layer.
5. Conclusion and outlook
Building a CNDRSS is a long-term process. It will occur in two stages. In the first
stage, in five years, demonstration applications will be carried out in five to
10 selected provinces, involving at least 200,000 disaster reporters covering thesedemonstration provinces and 12 ministries in charge of the 12 integrated observing
systems. In the second stage, in another five years, the aim is to cover all provinces as
well as all disaster-related ministries in China with at least 720,000 disaster reporters
all over China.
Figure 9. Focusing service flow program.
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This paper proposes a total scheme of CNDRSS from the macro level, including
the framework and the key technologies, in the hope that it will provide valuable
reference to the government. CNDRSS is a massive project, however, and there are a
lot of difficulties to overcome in many aspects of it.
(1) Ensuring efficient, stable, and secure data transmission given the chaoticnature of disasters when infrastructure is destroyed.
(2) Providing efficient collaborative working mechanisms concerning certain
laws or policies. CNDRSS involves numerous ministries/ institutions and
individuals. The challenge is to make them work together effectively, and the
level of cooperation will determine CNDRSS’s effectiveness.
(3) Providing a universal metadata model to hide the complexity and diversity of
integrated databases and systems.
Solutions for all these problems will be the focus of future research and
implementation.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Basic Research Program of China (973Program) under Grant 2012CB719904. We sincerely thank Mr. Steve McClure for honing thelanguage and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and insightful input.
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