Sensors and earth observation networks deliver a broad range of data about the environment and the state of the earth. To facilitate the access to these sensors and the collected data, the idea of the Sensor Web is an important technological foundation in an increasing number of applications and domains. Typical domains that benefit from the application of Sensor Web technology are for example hydrology, oceanography, environmental monitoring (e.g. air quality measurements, noise monitoring), meteorology, and seismology. In addition, many Sensor Web applications exist in the field of citizen science to handle observations made by humans.
There are several challenges that are in the focus of current Sensor Web research. These comprise for example interoperability (e.g. OGC Sensor Web Enablement standards), best practice recommendations how to build Sensor Web systems in different domains, the processing and analysis of sensor observation data, event detection, and semantics of sensor data. Furthermore, technologies and concepts such as the Internet of Things, Citizen Science, and Linked Data offer new opportunities to enhance existing Sensor Web infrastructures with new types of data and functionality.
This special issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Sensor Web applications as well as advancements of Sensor Web technology. This overview includes emerging ideas and research results, but practical evaluations and case studies are also of interest.
Guest Editors:
Dr. Simon Jirka, 52°North GmbH, Germany (jirka@52north.org)
Dr. Christoph Stasch, 52°North GmbH, Germany (c.stasch@52north.org)