EnviroGRIDS Special Issue on “Building a Regional Observation System in the Black Sea catchment"

This issue is now available

This issue is now available for reference with 12 articles including editorial. We would like to express our gratitude to all authors, whose research results have been published in our journal, as well as our referees for their in-depth evaluations.

Complete Issue is available at EnviroGRIDS Special Issue on “Building a Regional Observation System in the Black Sea catchment"

Project Background

The Black Sea Catchment is internationally known for its historical and cultural diversity and richness, but unfortunately also for its ecologically unsustainable development and inadequate resource management, which has led to severe environmental, social and economic problems. The EU FP7 EnviroGRIDS project addresses these issues by bringing several emerging information technologies that are revolutionizing the way we are able to observe our planet. The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is building a data-driven view of our planet that feeds into models and scenarios to explore our past, present and future. EnviroGRIDS aims at building the capacity of scientist to assemble such a system in the Black Sea Catchment, the capacity of decision-makers to use it, and the capacity of the general public to understand the important environmental, social and economic issues at stake. EnviroGRIDS is particularly targeting the needs of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution (BSC) and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) in order to help bridging the gap between science and policy.

Website: http://www.envirogrids.net

Scope of this Special Issue

With 30 partners distributed in 15 countries, the enviroGRIDS project is contributing to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by promoting the use of web-based services to share and process large amounts of key environmental information in the Black Sea catchment (2.2 mio. km2, 24 countries, 160 million inhabitants). The main aim of the project is to assess water resource in the past, the present and the future, according to different socio-economic scenarios. The objective is also to develop datasets that are compatible with the European INSPIRE Directive on spatial data sharing across Europe. The data and metadata gathered and produced on the Black Sea catchment will be distributed through the enviroGRIDS geoportal. The challenge is to convince and help regional data holders to make available their data and metadata to a larger audience in order to improve our capacity to assess the sustainability and vulnerability of the environment.

The mains objectives of the EnviroGRIDS Regional Observation System were to:

Strengthen the Black Sea catchment network of active players in the field of Observation Systems.
Build a regional Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and start providing services into GEOSS and INSPIRE by building capacities on new standards and approaches.
Make the processed information on future regional vulnerability accessible through the Internet to warn concerned populations and authorities.
Raise public awareness about important environmental issues at stake
Create a portal tool on water resource vulnerability.

The enviroGRIDS project has established an important network of scientists, academicians, researchers, and decision-makers within the Black Sea region providing an ideal arena for spreading and exchanging experiences, challenges and lessons learnt.

The objective of the proposed Special Issue is to highlight the main contributions and to present the technical progresses made in building the Black Sea catchment regional observation system. The issue will be therefore focused on putting SDI into practice by improving data and metadata interoperability, using new geoprocessing tools, developing innovative geoportal and building capacity.

The special issue will include high quality papers submitted essentially from authors belonging to the enviroGRIDS consortium, with some external special guests that have collaborated with the project. All papers will undergo a peer review process in accordance with the requirements of the journal. Contributions are encouraged from professionals in research, industrial, and academic environments.

Special Issue Timeline

A preliminary selection of abstract has been made. Selected authors will be invited to prepare their manuscript by the end of May 2013. Then, invited papers will be assessed by independent reviewers selected by the journal without any guarantee of publications.

~~Deadline for submission: July 15, 2013~~
~~Deadline for 1st round of review: August 15, 2013~~
~~Deadline for revised submission: September 15, 2013~~
~~Deadline for 2nd round of review: October 15, 2013~~
~~Final publication: November 30, 2013~~

Guest Editors

Prof. Dorian Gorgan is professor and PhD supervisor in Computer Science at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. He graduated Computer Science and Automation from "Politechnica" University of Timisoara, has PhD in Graphical Modeling and Simulation, Visual Programming, and Graphical User Interfaces at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. For two years he gave technical and scientifical consultancy in Autodesk’s projects (in Milan, Italy) in the fields of location based services (LBS) and geographical information systems (GIS). He is the chair of the CGIS (Computer Graphics and Interactive Systems) Laboratory, director of the MedioGrid project, a Grid software and hardware infrastructure supporting the development of the environmental and geographical applications.

Dr. Gregory GIULIANI, Scientific collaborator at University of Geneva is a geologist and environment scientist who specialized in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analyses and Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). After obtaining a degree in Earth Sciences, he went on to complete a master and a PhD in Environmental Sciences, specializing in remote sensing, GIS, and SDI. He previously worked as a GIS Consultant for the World Health Organization, as a University tutor in remote sensing and GIS and as a GIS Developper in a local Swiss GIS company. He also works at UNEP/GRID-Geneva since 2001 and is the focal point for Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). He is Work package leader in the FP7 enviroGRIDS project and the FP7 AFROMAISON project where he coordinates SDI development and implementation. Project manager of the FP7 EOPOWER project, he also participate in the FP7 ACQWA project. At GRID-Geneva, he is the lead developer of the PREVIEW global risk data platform (http://preview.grid.unep.ch). Participate and contribute actively to various Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) activities.

Reviewer Board

Serena Coetzee (Uni. Pretoria)
Carlos Granell (JRC)
Eric Grosso (IGN)
Joan Maso (UAB)
Ioan Lucian Muntean (UTCN)
Antonio Parodi (Uni. Genoa)
Dana Petcu (UVT)
Hans van der Kwast (UNESCO-IHE)
Florin Pop (UPB)