Scientific Variables #

The Scientific Variables Ontology Framework is a methodology for uniformly representing scientific variables. The required elements are an upper ontology consisting of a set of domain-independent categories and a set of design patterns for modular creation of complex variable representations. The customizable lower ontology can be populated with any collection of variables as necessitated by an application.

Relevant Pointers #

• General SVO Website: http://www.geoscienceontology.org/
• SVO Documentation: http://www.geoscienceontology.org/svo/
• Publicly available SVO code: https://github.com/mariutzica/ScientificVariablesOntology

Remote Sensing #

Access to observation data for calibration and validation is essential for building robust models. Earth Observation data from remote sensing satellites has the potential of providing this observation data especially in regions where ground observations are very scarce or completely absent. For example, the link below demonstrates how we are using satellite imagery to monitor river width changes in Ethiopia. http://umnlcc.cs.umn.edu/river-width-demo/