Pilot Virtual Observatory

环境科学受到多种碎片化的困扰，在回答重大科学问题和解决重大环境问题方面取得进展取决于开发新的工具来减少这种碎片化、增加知识以及开发和交流综合解决方案。具体问题包括：>对自然资源（如空气、土壤、水和生物多样性）的“筒仓式”管理。新兴信息技术可以为这种碎片化提供解决方案，但环境科学界需要培养对这些新技术的接受度。与计算机科学家和其他人一起工作。环境科学界的许多人并不容易接受新的信息技术，而且在迅速利用新的信息技术的培训方面装备不足。需要制定和测试新的标准，以方便信息交换。试点虚拟天文台（VO）旨在开发一个概念验证或“橱窗”，以激发各级环保界对这些新技术的兴趣和参与，展示其有效性，帮助制定数据和模型交换的国际标准，并探索如何将这些技术用于环境管理。我们将首先关注NERC投资组合中的“土壤和水的可持续利用”部分，因为它很好地说明了虚拟天文台的各个方面，同时提供了可管理的规模数据集和模型。这项工作的一个关键组成部分将是开发环境科学的网络基础设施（即“云”），使各种信息源（包括不同的数据集、传感器数据和模型）与相关信息服务集成在一起，提供这些服务之间的互操作性，并鼓励从数据到知识再到政策制定的流动，以寻求回答重大科学问题。成功将是一个参与和热情的学术和环境管理社区，超越试点项目的土壤和水的重点，并为虚拟天文台项目的下一阶段获得财政支持。

Environmental science suffers from fragmentation of many kinds, and progress in answering big science questions and tackling major environmental issues depends on developing new tools to reduce this fragmentation, add knowledge and develop and communicate integrated solutions. Specific concerns include: > Spatial, temporal gaps in data > Disrupted alignment of data > Multiple portals for access to data > Isolated and unlinked models > Fragmented disciplines, institutes, agencies, countries (within and outwith UK) > 'Silo' management of our natural resources (e.g. air, soil, water and biodiversity) Emerging information technologies can provide solutions to this fragmentation but the embrace of these new technologies by the environmental science community will need nurturing, working with computer scientists and others. Much of the environmental science community does not embrace new information technologies readily and is poorly equipped in its training to exploit new information technologies quickly. New standards will need to be developed and tested to allow easy information exchange. The Pilot Virtual Observatory (VO) seeks to develop a proof of concept or a 'shop window' to stimulate interest and engagement in the environmental community at all levels in these new technologies, to demonstrate effectiveness, to help to set international standards for exchanges of data and models and to explore how the technology can be used in environmental management. We will concentrate on the 'Sustainable use of Soils and Water' component of NERC's portfolio initially because it illustrates well all aspects of a Virtual Observatory while presenting manageable sized data sets and models. A critical component of the work will be the development of a cyber-infrastructure (i.e. the 'cloud') for environmental science that enables the integration of a variety of information sources (including disparate data sets, sensor data and models) together with associated information services to provide both interoperability between such services and encourage the flow from data to knowledge to policy setting in the quest for answering big science questions. Success will be an engaged and enthusiastic academic and environmental manager community beyond the soils and water focus of the Pilot project with secured financial support for the next phase of the Virtual Observatory project.