# Development and Sharing of Open Geodata

[](https://itc.nl/)     [](https://www.esciencecenter.nl/)

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**18 January 2023**
ITC Auditorium, Enschede and [Online](https://itc.nl/live)

**Event Page**
https://itc.nl/big-geodata/meetings/event/development-and-sharing-of-open-geodata/

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:point_up: **READ ME FIRST!**

This is the **official collaborative discussion and feedback document** of the meeting.

You can use the document to **ask questions or provide comments** on specific [presentations](#Presentations). It will be also used during the **[plenary discussion](#Discussion)** session of the event.

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- Please **indicate your nickname** in parentheses after your question or comment, so that it doesn't stay anonymous.
- Please provide your **feedback about the meeting** under the [Feedback](#Feedback) section.

**:tv: Live broadcast is available at https://itc.nl/live on 18 January, 9:45-16:00.**

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**Quick Links:**
- [Introduction](#Introduction)
- [Programme at a glance](#Programme)
- [Ask a question or comment on a presentation](#Presentations)
- [Join the plenary discussion on needs and challenges](#Discussion)
- [Provide feedback on the event](#Feedback)
- [Watch the event](https://itc.nl/live)
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## Introduction
*Please do not edit this section.*

Open geodata is the idea that certain geospatial and Earth Observation (EO) data should be freely available to everyone to use, re-use and redistribute without restrictions like copyright or patents, but with requirements such as attribution and share- alike. It is considered as a best practice for modern geo-information and EO research in line with [Open Science](https://www.unesco.org/en/natural-sciences/open-science) and [FAIR principles](https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/). However, developing easily accessible (e.g. cloud-optimised) and re-usable (big) geospatial datasets, and sharing them "effectively" with the research community and other stakeholders is challenging and usually requires a team effort including researchers, research software engineers, technology advisors, and community managers.

Collaboration between research institutions to share technical and practical know-how on best practices, as well as lessons learned while developing and sharing open geodata, supports such efforts and helps in developing an open data culture for open research and development communities. The meeting on "Development and Sharing of Open Geodata" aims to initiate such a collaboration between ITC and OpenGeoHub, by bringing both institutions together to present state-of-the-art research activities with a focus on open geodata, discuss the needs and challenges, and pursue collaboration opportunities especially to produce joint datasets and software.

[OpenGeoHub](https://opengeohub.org/) is an independent research foundation (a DeepTech organisation) with 20 staff, primarily data scientists and technical experts, located at the Agro Business Park in Wageningen. It focuses on promoting open data and open source software solutions to support regional and global projects, and currently leads the [Open Earth Monitor](https://earthmonitor.org/) and [Eco Data Cube](https://ecodatacube.eu/), and is also involved in the Land Carbon Lab project led by WRI. 

## Programme

*Please do not edit this section.*

9:00 – 9:10

9:55 – 10:20

Presentation on ITC and its 4 profiling themes ([Prof. Dr. Karin Pfeffer](https://people.utwente.nl/k.pfeffer), Portfolio Holder Research ITC)

10:20 – 10:45

Presentation on OpenGeoHub Foundation and its open geodata activities ([Dr. Tomislav Hengl](https://opengeohub.org/people/tom-hengl/), Director OpenGeoHub Foundation)

10:45 – 11:00

*Coffee break*

11:00 – 12:30

Presentations of ITC and OpenGeoHub projects:

- [Open Earth Monitor](https://earthmonitor.org/): a cyberinfrastructure bringing together key open source developers in Europe ([Dr. Tomislav Hengl](https://opengeohub.org/people/tom-hengl/), OpenGeoHub)
- [EcoExtreML](https://www.itc.nl/news/2021/9/90221/monitoring-and-predicting-the-effect-of-climate-extremes-on-ecosystems) + [WUNDER](https://www.itc.nl/news/2022/3/479520/nwo-kic-grant-to-ut-research-on-water-use-during-droughts): Towards a Digital Twin of soil-plant system ([Dr. Yijian Zeng](https://people.utwente.nl/y.zeng), ITC-WRS)
- [EcoDataCube for Europe](https://ecodatacube.eu/): combining spatiotemporal ML and open EO data cubes ([Dr. Leandro Parente](https://opengeohub.org/people/leandro-parente/), OpenGeoHub)
- Towards a Global Multitemporal Data Set of Glacier Outlines using Deep Learning and Cloud Computing ([Prof. Dr. Claudio Persello](https://people.utwente.nl/c.persello), ITC-EOS)
- Open Data on Deprivation - Modelling Urban Poverty (IDEAMAPS Framework) ([Dr. Monika Kuffer](https://people.utwente.nl/m.kuffer), ITC-PGM)

12:30 – 13:30

*Lunch*

13:30 – 14:15

Presentations of ITC and OpenGeoHub projects:

- [AI4SoilHealth](https://ai4soilhealth.eu/): accelerating collection and use of soil health information using AI technology to support the Soil Deal for Europe and EU Soil Observatory ([Dr. Ichsani Wheeler](https://opengeohub.org/people/ichsani-wheeler/), OpenGeoHub)
- Open geospatial data publication at ITC ([Masoome Shariat](https://people.utwente.nl/m.shariat), ITC-FB)

14:15 – 14:45

Plenary Discussion:
Needs and Challenges of Developing and Sharing Open Geospatial Datasets

14:45 – 15:00

*Coffee break*

15:00 - 16:00

PhD's in the Spotlight:
Lightning presentations of PhD candidates with a focus on datasets that will be developed during their studies.

- Space-time modeling of vegetation in a changing environment ([Carmelo Bonannella](https://opengeohub.org/people/carmelo-bonannella/), OpenGeoHub)
- Global long-term daily 1 km surface soil moisture dataset with physics-informed machine learning (GSSM 1km) ([Qianqian Han](https://research.utwente.nl/en/persons/qianqian-han), ITC)
- Big and Useful Maps: Land use / land cover classification with high thematic depth ([Martijn Witjes](https://opengeohub.org/people/martijn-witjes/), OpenGeoHub)
- Microwave Remote Sensing for soil moisture estimation and vegetation characterization with Physics-Informed Machine Learning ([Ting Duan](https://research.utwente.nl/en/persons/ting-duan), ITC)
- Mapping land potential / tracking land degradation using EO data ([Julia Hackländer](https://opengeohub.org/people/julia-hacklander/), OpenGeoHub)
- HRVQA: A Visual Question Answering Dataset for High-Resolution Aerial Images ([Kun Li](https://research.utwente.nl/en/persons/kun-li), ITC)
- Mapping soil health indicators with EU soil database ([Xuemeng Tian](https://opengeohub.org/people/xuemeng-tian/), OpenGeoHub)
- An overview of the process for publishing data: Spatiotemporal dynamics of domestic wastewater ([Nestor De la Paz Ruiz](https://research.utwente.nl/en/persons/nestor-de-la-paz-ruiz), ITC)

16:00 - 17:00

*Drinks*

## Speakers
*Please add your name, institution, job title, e-mail address, and nickname to the list.*

- Rolf de By, ITC/UT, UHD, [e-mail], rolf
- Nils Tjaden, ITC/UT, researcher, [e-mail], nils
- Raúl Zurita-Milla, ITC/UT, prof., [e-mail], RZM
- Nina Schwarz, ITC/UT, assistant prof, [e-mail], nina
- Yijian Zeng, ITC/UT, assist. Prof., [e-mail], Yijian
- kshitij Divyansh,BITM,india, researcher,[e-mail]

## Presentations
*Please ask your questions or provide your comments under each presentation by indicating your nickname.*

### ITC and Profiling Themes

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### OpenGeoHub Foundation and Open Geodata Activities

- rolf: Clearly, open source software brings you in contact with intelligent people because its use requires intelligence. Or reversely, some of the commercial software has a dummified interface. ("Every function hides behind a button.")
- rolf: Change "cool hobbies" to "true passions."

- RZM: Thank you for the presentation. Academia is more than research so I am wondering about your views on Open Educational resources (also because of your experience with summer schools)

- Yijian: yes, i agree with Raúl, NWO is currently taking it up as well to acknowledge more than research. A question to Tom is that: How do you view the 'technical threshold' to enable the open science? (there are many knowledge accumulated using for example matlab etc., it would be great the Open Science is inclusive for those software not initially desgined open)

### Open Earth Monitor

- rolf: Not needing data copies is only true if you are in a well-networked environment with a thick cable to the data centre. This is not true for many locations away from the high economies. Especially when results are voluminous themselves you have a problem.
- ...
- RZM: ah, the good old pal Jordi Inglada https://www.jordiinglada.net/sblog/geee.html
https://www.jordiinglada.net/sblog/sympathy.html
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### Towards a Soil-Plant Digital Twin

- Tom: "Digital Twin" cannot predict everything that will happen in physical world. Perhaps, we should say 'simulate' instead of 'predict'.
- Yijian: Fully agree with this observation. This is coming from the general definition of 'digital twin' in industries. For Digital Twin Earth, there are different sectoral sectors (biodiversity, hydrology and Water, Food and Agriculture, etc.https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/destination-earth), and ECWMF is trying to build two digital twins to address the impact of extreme climates on these sectors (https://stories.ecmwf.int/destination-earth/index.html).

### EcoDataCube

- rolf: very interesting work. I am keen to understand what drove the decision to aggregate to (only) 4 dates per year. Some applications in agriculture would like to see more, and perhaps not at constant frequency, but more takes in some part of the year.
- Yijian: The optimization of all elements in your processing chain sounds really cool! I am wondering if there is a paper indicating these perspectives?
- Marcin: in top of what WebGIS soft ecodatacube.eu is build on?
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### Glacier Outlines using Deep Learning

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### IDEAMAPS

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### AI4SoilHealth

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### Open Geodata at ITC

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### PhD's in the Spotlight

#### Space-time modeling of vegetation in a changing environment

- Yijian: what is the key feature determining the vegetation distribution? And is the human activity factored into your modeling?
- ...

#### Global long-term daily 1 km surface soil moisture dataset with physics-informed machine learning

- ...
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#### Big and Useful Maps: Land use / land cover classification with high thematic depth

- Yijian: Similar question to the first talk. What is the key features controlling your classification? And what are physical mechanisms behind such feature importance? If the 'distance to coast' is important in your algorithm, what is the physical explanation of that importance?
- ...

#### Microwave Remote Sensing for soil moisture estimation and vegetation characterization with Physics-Informed Machine Learning

- Martijn: what do you mean by 'physics-informed'?
- ...

#### Mapping land potential / tracking land degradation using EO data

- ...
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#### HRVQA: A Visual Question Answering Dataset for High-Resolution Aerial Images

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#### Mapping soil health indicators with EU soil database

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#### An overview of the process for publishing data: Spatiotemporal dynamics of domestic wastewater

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## Discussion
*Please ask your questions or provide your comments on the needs and challanges of developing and sharing open geospatial datasets by indicating your nickname.*

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## Feedback

*Please provide your feedback about the meeting under this section. Anonymous feedback is also very welcome.*

- A good overall workshop today, intensive, but worthwhile with interesting speakers and applications. We need to give good thought on what is possible as follow-up.
- ...