Land use and land cover maps, zoning and environmental diagnostics, soil surveys, estimates of pasture degradation, carbon emissions and water production, and many other spatial data generated by Brazilian scientific research are organized and available to the public on the Geoinfo platform – Embrapa’s Spatial Data Infrastructure, which will be officially launched on April 24, during the company’s 45th anniversary celebrations.
The digital archive opens with 231 spatial data sets, which will grow as new search results are added. The occasion will also mark the adhesion of Embrapa to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (Inde), which unifies spatial information bases produced throughout the country (see table at the end of the text).
The Geoinfo platform offers useful information for technicians from different areas and capable of subsidizing actions of planning, resource management and elaboration of public policies of different sectors. In the field of agriculture, the data could contribute, for example, to monitoring the dynamics of land use and coverage, to assessing the expansion of agricultural activities or to understanding the impact of climate change on food production. By accessing Geoinfo, you can search by keyword, theme, region, responsible institution, among other categories, and download the data of interest to you.
For the developers of the platform, the biggest achievement was to organize the data generated by the research and present them in a friendly way so that they can serve those interested. “A common challenge for research and development institutions is to organize and share this large volume of geospatial data and information efficiently, to enhance its use in society,” explains Embrapa Territorial (SP) information management specialist Daniela Maciel, project coordinator.
The GeoInfo project
Started in 2015, the project for the implementation of Embrapa’s Spatial Data Infrastructure had as main objective to institute a process for the organization, preservation, qualification and offer of spatial data of the company in order to perpetuate the provision of this service to society. The work followed international standards. “This initiative will make it easier for both the internal (Embrapa) and the external public to find research data on geotechnology and geo-information, and also contribute to avoid redundancy of efforts and investments,” says Debora Drucker, an analyst at Embrapa Informática Agropecuária (SP). coordinated the initial working group and led the project to deploy the GeoInfo platform by mid-2016.
Professionals in the area of geotechnology, information management and information technology involved in the project have consolidated a set of good practices for the curation and availability of spatial data. The work began with the collection of information and existing repositories, such as GeoPortal, created in 2008 by Embrapa Solos (RJ), the Geospatial Library of Embrapa Meio Ambiente (SP) and the Modis Product Bank, Embrapa Informática Agropecuária ( SP). “The team worked on aspects related to data quality and its cataloging, especially the description of the metadata and the application of the controlled vocabulary created for the subject, important for the information retrieval,” explains Daniela Maciel.
Geoinformations in free software
The platform’s construction was based on free software and open source tools, essential for assuring autonomy in technological development and allowing data to be interchangeable. The system will be expanded to all Embrapa units, which can feed it with data generated by research projects. “This sharing of information will further enhance collaborative work and contribute not only to shorten the process of developing ‘new solutions’ but, fundamentally, to improve them,” says Maciel.
According to analyst Job Vieira, Embrapa’s Secretariat of Intelligence and Strategic Relations (Sire), the execution of the project allowed the experimentation of promising results, in line with a governmental law, and its operational implementation will allow the appropriation of management innovations within the Company . “We intend to verify the interfaces of the process of management of geoinformation with other tactical-institutional aspects, with the purpose of articulating this corporate deployment in Embrapa”, he points out.
The implementation of this new corporate process was supported by the Institutional Development Secretariat (SDI) of Embrapa, one of the bodies responsible for data and information governance. For SDI chief Renata Bueno Miranda, the geospatial data exemplifies the enormous amount and variety of information that Embrapa produces as a result of its macroprocess of innovation. “The proper storage, preservation and responsible sharing of these assets is something that both science and modern society have required, for greater transparency, economy and efficiency in the use of public resources,” he adds.
Open Data Culture
Agenda 21, the final document of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio-92), already highlighted the importance of geotechnology and acknowledged the difficulties in accessing and using data produced by institutions – generally found in isolation, without and in systems that did not talk to each other.
This concern has led to the establishment of sharing agreements and the construction of so-called Spatial Data Infrastructures (IDEs), covering technologies, policies and standards for the acquisition, processing, distribution and preservation of geo-information.
IDEs follow standards advocated by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an organization founded in 1994 by governments, universities and the private sector, which today has more than 500 members working in the development and improvement of free software and other technologies to facilitate the exchange of data .
In Brazil, the creation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (Inde) is also part of this global context of promoting open data culture in the digital age. “Opening public data is a way to democratize access to information, meets the demand for more transparency and broadens the participation and engagement of society,” says Debora Drucker, Embrapa Informática Agropecuária (SP).
Free access to scientific data
The open access to scientific data gains adherents worldwide from movements like Open Science, one of the fronts of action of Open Knowledge International. The organization was created in 2004 and has initiatives around the world, including in Brazil with Open Knowledge Brasil, also called Network for Free Knowledge.
Drucker points out that in the case of geospatial data, when its life cycle is documented and opened, the possibility of aggregating more information and even improving the scientific outcome is increased. “While high-strands dealing with the sheer volume of data available today, such as Big Data, e-Science and Intensive Data Science, there are innumerable challenges being imposed on humankind that will be addressed in better analysis of quality data from various sources. It is inevitable that, increasingly, organizations will assume that stimulating this culture of open data will be a good business for everyone, “she believes.