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GBIF's Role in the Earth Observation System
Building: Grand Hotel Mediterraneo
Room: Sala dei Continenti
Date: 2013-10-30 11:15 AM – 11:30 AM
Last modified: 2013-10-05
Abstract
As the foremost, global network for primary biodiversity data, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) aims to be an essential component of the Group on Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS). GBIF is a registered participating organisation in GEOSS with a particular focus on the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), serving on the GEO BON Steering Committee and the Working Group on data integration and interoperability. GBIF also participates in GEOSS themed projects funded by the European Union, e.g., EuroGEOSS, and the currently running EU BON. GBIF's informatics infrastructure is based on a service oriented architecture approach thus aligning well with the principles of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) which provides an overarching plan for how disparate, distributed systems can be joined up to create a "system of systems". In this presentation, we outline recent developments in the GBIF informatics infrastructure for enabling discovery of, and access to, more than 400 million biodiversity occurrence records. In particular, we highlight the solutions for near real-time indexing using Cloud based computing techniques, development of a central registry, and provision of a rich application programming interface (API) and set of web services for other systems to draw on.