Global Change Information System
{{Short description|Information systems and climate change}}
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) develops and curates the Global Change Information System (GCIS){{Cite web|url=http://data.globalchange.gov/|title=Global Change Information System - GCIS|website=data.globalchange.gov|access-date=2016-05-16|archive-date=2013-08-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130814194026/http://data.globalchange.gov/|url-status=live}} to establish "data interfaces and interoperable repositories of climate and global change data which can be easily and efficiently accessed, integrated with other data sets, maintained and expanded over time."{{Cite web |url=http://downloads.globalchange.gov/strategic-plan/2012/usgcrp-strategic-plan-2012.pdf |title=US Global Change Research Program, 2012. The National Global Change Research Plan 2012–2021: A Strategic Plan for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, 132 pp. |access-date=2015-11-06 |archive-date=2016-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007173958/https://downloads.globalchange.gov/strategic-plan/2012/usgcrp-strategic-plan-2012.pdf |url-status=live }} The initial focus of GCIS is to support the United States Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3), which is to publish reports that enhance the transparency and ability of decision-makers to understand the conclusions and use of the underlying data for their own purposes.{{Cite web |url=http://data.globalchange.gov/about |title=About the Global Change Information System |access-date=2015-11-06 |archive-date=2014-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140509073823/http://data.globalchange.gov/about |url-status=live }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/nclimate2141 | volume=4 | issue=6 | title=Capturing provenance of global change information | year=2014 | journal=Nature Climate Change | pages=409–413 | last1 = Ma | first1 = Xiaogang | last2 = Fox | first2 = Peter | last3 = Tilmes | first3 = Curt | last4 = Jacobs | first4 = Katharine | last5 = Waple | first5 = Anne}}
Scope of work
The project scope includes analyzing alterations in climate, land use and land cover, natural resources including water, agriculture and biodiversity, atmospheric composition, chemical composition and ecological systems that may alter the Earth's capacity to sustain life.
Global change research includes activities aimed at describing and understanding the interactive physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the Earth system; the unique environment that the Earth provides for life; changes that are occurring in the Earth system; and the manner in which such systems, environments and changes are influenced by human actions.
Provenance and semantics
GCIS has developed information models and ontology to represent the content structure of the NCA3 and its associated provenance information and has been extending its models to incorporate more global change information. Records of objects and relationships within the GCIS are represented in a database for the Semantic Web, which can be queried using the SPARQL language. GCIS assigns globally unique persistent identifiers to all of the entities, activities, and agents relevant to provenance. Each identifier is mapped to a uniform resource identifier (URI) in the GCIS namespace,{{Cite web|title = Global Change Information System - GCIS|url = http://data.globalchange.gov/|website = data.globalchange.gov|access-date = 2015-11-27|archive-date = 2013-08-14|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130814194026/http://data.globalchange.gov/|url-status = live}} allowing use of those identifiers for the Semantic Web and other linked data systems. By categorizing, annotating, and linking provenance information, the GCIS becomes capable of answering provenance-tracking questions about global change research.{{cite journal|doi=10.1109/TGRS.2013.2262179 | volume=51 | issue=11 | title=Provenance Representation for the National Climate Assessment in the Global Change Information System | year=2013 | journal=IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing | pages=5160–5168 | last1 = Tilmes | first1 = Curt | last2 = Fox | first2 = Peter | last3 = Ma | first3 = Xiaogang | last4 = McGuinness | first4 = Deborah L. | last5 = Pinheiro Privette | first5 = Ana | last6 = Smith | first6 = Aaron | last7 = Waple | first7 = Anne | last8 = Zednik | first8 = Stephan | last9 = Guang Zheng | first9 = Jin| s2cid=5985389 | url=https://zenodo.org/record/1232245 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.08.002 | volume=61 | title=Ontology engineering in provenance enablement for the National Climate Assessment | year=2014 | journal=Environmental Modelling & Software | pages=191–205 | last1 = Ma | first1 = Xiaogang | last2 = Guang Zheng | first2 = Jin | last3 = Goldstein | first3 = Justin C. | last4 = Zednik | first4 = Stephan | last5 = Fu | first5 = Linyun | last6 = Duggan | first6 = Brian | last7 = Aulenbach | first7 = Steven M. | last8 = West | first8 = Patrick | last9 = Tilmes | first9 = Curt | last10 = Fox | first10 = Peter}}
GCIS ontology
The GCIS Ontology{{Cite web|url=https://data.globalchange.gov/gcis.owl|title=GCIS Ontology|website=data.globalchange.gov|access-date=2016-05-16|archive-date=2016-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160526181028/http://data.globalchange.gov/gcis.owl|url-status=live}} promotes representation and documentation by incorporating the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s recommendation on provenance modeling (PROV) into the design.{{Cite web |url=http://www.w3.org/TR/prov-overview/ |title=Groth, P., Moreau, L., (eds.) 2013. PROV-Overview: An Overview of the PROV Family of Documents |access-date=2015-11-06 |archive-date=2019-08-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809082303/http://www.w3.org/TR/prov-overview/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|title = GCIS Ontology|url = https://data.globalchange.gov/gcis.owl|website = data.globalchange.gov|access-date = 2015-11-27|archive-date = 2015-12-08|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151208050243/https://data.globalchange.gov/gcis.owl|url-status = live}} The ontology uses the namespace prefix GCIS. A conceptual map of the GCIS Ontology version 1.2{{Cite web|url=http://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1MCJMLST0-1G0CSWH-2YH4/GCIS_Ontology_v1_2.cmap|title=GCIS_Ontology_v1_2|website=cmapspublic3.ihmc.us|access-date=2016-05-16|archive-date=2016-03-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305065159/http://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1MCJMLST0-1G0CSWH-2YH4/GCIS_Ontology_v1_2.cmap|url-status=live}} is accessible on the Web.
References
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{{Include-USGov
|agency=U.S. Global Change Research Program
|article=About the Global Change Information System
|url=https://data.globalchange.gov/about}}
Category:Climate change organizations based in the United States