Sensor Web and Geoswift - an Open Geospatial Sensing Service

Sensor Web is a Web-centric, open, interconnected, intelligent and dynamic network of sensors that performs extensive spatialtemporal monitoring of our environment through coordinated work between multiple types and numbers of sensor networks. With the presence of cheaper, miniature and smart sensors; high-resolution remote sensing sensors; abundant fast and ubiquitous computing devices; wireless and mobile communication networks; and autonomous and intelligent software agents, the Sensor Web has become a clear technological trend in geospatial data collection, fusion and distribution. The concept of Sensor Web is new and exciting. Research in Sensor Web is still in its infant stage and several technical issues still remain to be resolved. One of the challenges is to fast deploy intelligent and coordinated sensors into field, perform on-demand sensing, and timely distribute observations through an open distributed GIService for informed decision making. At GeoICT Lab of York University, We are developing an open geospatial information infrastructure for Sensor Web – GeoSWIFT (Geospatial Sensor Web Information Fusion Technology), which serves as a gateway that integrates and fuses observations from heterogeneous spatial enabled sensors. We are also developing a Sensor Web which composed by a group of matchbox-sized wireless sensor nodes and can be fast deployed by simply spreading those tiny nodes in the field. By integrating the Sensor Web and GeoSWIFT, the goal of fast on-demand sensing for better informed decision can be achieved. This paper first reviews Sensor Web technology and its implication for GIS. Then we introduce the components and architecture of GeoICT Lab’s developing Sensor Web. GeoSWIFT, which is built on the OpenGIS standards, XML messaging technology, and its prototype are described in this paper. The examples of this integrated Sensor Web and GeoSWIFT in real-time weather information, earthquake information system, and traffic web cams are also presented in this paper.