Ecosystem Services Databank and Visualisation for Terrestrial Informatics

我们的项目将使克兰菲尔德大学的研究人员和学生，以及我们的研究伙伴和合作者，有机会访问，分享和互动广泛的自然资源，土壤和与土地有关的材料，这些材料收集自克兰菲尔德的“世界土壤调查档案和目录”。WOSSAC (www.wossac.com)：克兰菲尔德大学环境科学与技术系在开发和应用土壤、景观生态学、生物多样性和生态系统产品和服务的系统方法方面积极创新。作为其综合方法的一部分，克兰菲尔德大学在过去十年中收集并编目了“世界土壤调查档案和目录”（WOSSAC）。这是一个不断扩大的收藏，包括23,000多份与全球约300个地区的土壤和土地资源有关的纸质文件、地图和其他材料。这些材料复杂多样，有些在物理上很脆弱。它包括许多罕见的灰色文献，对于许多项目，WOSSAC持有唯一可用的副本。该项目将提供以数字形式捕获这些材料的必要手段，以及使研究人员和感兴趣的利益相关者可以访问这些材料的途径。我们的环境研究也引导我们考虑在土壤和土地系统中起作用的物理、化学和生物过程。重要的是发展我们对可能由于自然和人为过程而发生的变化及其影响和后果的共同理解。我们的项目将通过专用的3D扫描和可视化设备，实现这些过程的三维捕获和可视化表示。可视化套件及其专门为地球科学设计的可视化软件，将为探索多维“大数据”提供工具，以及传达结果和分析的新而强大的手段，并将风险和不确定性传达给潜在的研究受益者。还将建立适当的计算设施，以便将这些材料储存和传播给研究合作者和感兴趣的利益相关者。

Our project will allow researchers and students at Cranfield University, together with our research partners and collaborators, the opportunity to access, share and interact with a broad range of natural resource, soil and land-related materials gathered from around the world which are held in Cranfield's 'World Soil Survey Archive and Catalogue', WOSSAC (www.wossac.com).Cranfield University's Department of Environmental Sciences and Technology is active and innovative in developing and applying systems approaches to soils, landscape ecology, biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services. As part of its integrative approach, Cranfield University has collected and catalogued the 'World Soil Survey Archive and Catalogue' (WOSSAC) over the last decade. This is a continually expanding collection comprising over 23,000 catalogued paper documents, maps and other materials relating to soils and land resources in about 300 territories worldwide. The material is complex, diverse and some of it is physically fragile. It includes much rare grey literature and, for many items, WOSSAC holds the only available copy. This project will provide the means necessary to enable capture of these materials in digital form and the pathways to make these materials available for access by researchers and interested stakeholders.Our environmental research also leads us to consider the physical, chemical and biological processes at work in the soil and land system. Important to this is developing our shared understanding of changes that may occur due to natural and anthropogenic processes, and their impact and consequence. Our project will enable the capture and visual representation of these processes in three dimensions through dedicated 3D scanning and visualisation equipment. The visualisation suite, with its specialised visualisation software designed for the geosciences, will provide the tools for exploration of multi-dimensional 'big data' as well as new and powerful means to convey results and analyses, and to communicate risk and uncertainty to potential beneficiaries of research.Appropriate computing facilities will also be put in place to permit the storage and dissemination of these materials to research collaborators and interested stakeholders.