Outline of an Open, Distributed Air Quality Data Integration and Analysis System

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Outline of anOpen, DistributedAir Quality Data
Integration and Analysis System
Notes prepared for a discussion with EPA NERL and
OAQPS December 1, 1998
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The Problem

• The researcher can not get access to the data
• if he can, he can not read them
• if he can read them,
• he does not know how good they are
• and if he finds them good
• he cannot merge them with other data.
• Information Technology and the Conduct of
  Research
• The Users view
• National Academy Press, 1989

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The Winds of Change

• Shift from primary to secondary pollutants. Ozone
  and PM2,5 travel 500 miles across state or
  international boundaries and their sources are
  not well established
• New Regulatory approach. Compliance evaluation
  based on weight of evidence and tracking the
  effectiveness of controls
• Shift from command control to participatory
  management. Inclusion of federal, state, local,
  industry, international stakeholders.

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Challenges

• Broader user community. The information systems
  need to be extended to reach all the stakeholders
  ( federal, state, local, industry, international)
• A richer set of data and analysis. Establishing
  causality, weight of evidence, emissions
  tracking requires the analysis of air quality,
  meteorology emissions and effects data.

Opportunities

• Rich AQ data availability. Abundant high-grade
  routine and research monitoring data from EPA and
  other agencies are now available.
• New information technologies. DBMS, data
  exploration tools and web-based communication now
  allows cooperation (sharing) and coordination
  among diverse groups.

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Recap Harnessing the Winds

• Secondary pollutants along with more open
  environmental management style are placing
  increasing demand on data analysis. Meanwhile,
  rich AQ data sets and the computer and
  communications technologies offer unique
  opportunities.
• It appears timely to consider the development of
  a web-based, open, distributed air quality data
  integration, analysis and dissemination system.
• The challenge is learn how to harness the winds
  of change as sailors have learned to use the
  winds for going from A to B

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Standard Data Support System

• Data management systems, DBMS
• Data processing end exploration tools
• Presentation tools

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Data Flow and Processing
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Infrastructure support for a distributed system

• Data sharing standards. A set of open standards
  for the sharing of AQ data, tools and reports.
  Examples TCP/IP, HTML, XML, FGDC
• Data catalog. A virtual centralized catalog with
  search and retrieval facilities. Examples GCMD,
  web-indexes
• Web-based shared workspace. Place to share
  comments, feedback, plans, ...

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FGDC Compliant Metadata
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North American Integrated Fine Particle Data Set

• The fine particle mass data set (1979-1997)
  consists of 500 urban and rural monitoring sites
  in the US and Canada from 16 networks.

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North American Integrated Fine Particle Data Set
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North American Integrated Daily Max O3 Data Set

• The ozone data set (1986-1996) consists of 670
  Eastern US and 130 Canadian sites from 7 networks
  including EPA's AIRS and Canada's NAPS

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Data Evolution Comment and Feedback
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Benefits of a Distributed and Shared System

• Access to data. Users can get data, tools,
  reports out of the system for specific projects.
  It can be a forum for the exchange of ideas,
  peer-feedback etc.
• Saving time and money. The data, tools and other
  resources in the system could be leveraging the
  dollars and time available for specific projects.
  
• Recycling Data. Data are costly resource. The
  system can help managing, accessing and
  documenting one's own data, and share it with
  others for re-use.