Recent research project: SWIMA
A QinetiQ led consortium with the help of the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB), are funding a £900,000 two year project, to research how a standards and sensor web-based control and information system could address data gathering issues for environmental monitoring. The consortium support will deliver the Sensor Web for Infrastructure Management (SWIMA) project.
SWIMA is a 2 year Project aimed at monitoring water quality in river catchments. It will include a fundamental analysis of data gathering methodology and processes, and then implement and field trial a web-based information system Test-bed, based on emerging Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium Inc (OGC). The project will provide a generic interface between users and sensors with specific relevance to gathering and understanding information relating to water quality.
NGI is taking a prominent role due to its expertise in associated geospatial theory and technologies. The project is built upon the Open Geospatial Consortium's Sensor Web Enablement framework (SWE). An SWE Node is a computing element with an IP address connected to the internet which understands the SWE protocols, this could be a desktop PC, Laptop or portable computing device running appropriate software that allows the conversion of its internal sensor interface into the interoperable language of the sensor web.
The SWIMA Project aims to test the use of SWE Standards via a real application, i.e. monitoring water quality. Emphasis is on the management and control of a range of different types of sensor through a common user interface with the concepts and strategies developed being applicable to other types of environmental sensing, such as flooding.
Project partners
- QinetiQ
- 1Spatial
- YSI Hydrodata
- South West Water
- Environment Agency
Project runs: 2008-2010
Project website (restricted access): http://zsite.space.qinetiq.com/swima/
Project contact: Jeremy Morley