SISelune – the Information System (IS) of the Selune…

An information system (IS), called SISelune, is being prepared to facilitate the management and storage of data from the Selune Observatory. Supported by the program coordination unit, the IS aims at helping scientists associated with the Selune program and all users by making the data publicly available.

How to use SISelune

Finding data from the Selune Observatory

The catalog allows you to find the data you may need from the Selune Observatory. By typing “selune”, all the metadata (sheets describing the data) associated with the Selune Program will appear, as in the illustration below:

Displaying data from the Selune Observatory

Cartographic portal (simple)

The SISelune cartographic portal offers a simple solution for visualising data from the Selune Observatory. On the left side of the interface, you will find the data organized by themes. The “context” section offers additional data (e.g. hydrographic network, etc.):

NB : Guidance on how to use the portal is available by clicking on the question mark at the top left.

Through the catalog (search and download)

If you wish to download a specific dataset from the Observatory, the catalog allows you to visualise the data and its associated metadata (by clicking on the icon indicated by the red arrow in the figure below) and to download this data (link indicated by the green arrow in the figure):

Visualising a geographical dataset from the catalog

The data will be displayed in a cartographic viewer (MapFishApp), a little more complex than the cartographic portal:

Visualising a geographical dataset from the metadata

All datasets from the Selune Observatory can be downloaded in open formats:

Shapefile (GIS format)
CSV (text file, when possible)

To know more about:

The catalog (of metadata) : https://tice.agrocampus-ouest.fr/course/view.php?id=892&section=5
The cartographic viewer MapFishApp : https://tice.agrocampus-ouest.fr/course/view.php?id=892&section=6

From your GIS

If you have a GIS (Geographic Information System) software, the catalog finally offers you the possibility to display the data directly in your software. The figure below shows how it can be used in Qgis, knowing that this solution also works with competing software (ArcGis, etc.):

Displaying data from the Selune Observatory in a GIS software (Qgis)

To display data from the Selune Observatory, aa the WMS stream to your GIS software:

https://geosas.fr/geoserver/selune/wms

To learn more about the use of the WMS stream: https://tice.agrocampus-ouest.fr/mod/page/view.php?id=28652

Understanding SISelune

Objectives of the Information System (IS) of the Selune Observatory

1. To make data from the Selune Observatory publicly available

Monitored data from the Selune observatory are useful to several research projects as part of the Selune program; they are also public data. The information system must therefore make these data accessible to everyone.

2. To centralize and to preserve data from the Selune Observatory

The Selune Observatory is monitoring the environmental conditions of the Selune river over a period of 15 years (2012 – 2027). The sustainability of these data through their storage is a major issue. In addition, several laboratories, through the Observatory, contribute to data collection, which adds to the issue of centralization.

3. To help understand the data from the Selune Observatory

Beyond a simple provision of data, the SISelune should help understanding the data in order to facilitate collaboration between scientists, but also to help the public capture the changes that are being monitored.

Behind SISelune

Architecture of SISelune

An Information System (IS) is more than just a software. It is a system made up of technological resources but also human, whose role are to collect, store, process and distribute information.

SISelune currently has 3 interconnected software blocks:

A data catalog, the central element of the IS that enables data storage
A cartographic portal which facilitates the visualisation of data from the Sélune Observatory
The website (on which you are currently browsing) which must give the keys to access and to understand the IS.

1. The data catalog (IDS)

The data catalog is at the heart of SISelune. Behind the term catalog hides the notion of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) or Geographic Data Infrastructure (GDI). These infrastructures integrate a set of services for the management of geographic information (maps, orthophotoplans, satellite images, etc.).

SISelune is based on the IDS of UMR SAS: GeoSAS and thus benefits from several services:

Metadata catalog (software: GeoNetwork), allowing to find data from textual and/or geographic criteria
Geographic data server (software: GeoServer), which allows sharing geographic data. These data can then be displayed in web applications or on its desktop application (GIS)
Web mapping application (software: mviewer, MapFishApp), to display data and to create cartographic projects

2. The cartographic portal

SISelune has a cartographic portal, which facilitates the display of data from the Selune Observatory that are published in the catalog. More layers are also available to help contextualise the data.

3. The website (you are here)

SISelune relies on the Selune program website (software: WordPress), which will add new contents to:

Become the gate to SISelune by indicating how to access it
Present and help with the use of the IS

The “Philosophy” of SISelune

To respect INSPIRE

The European directive Inspire, published in 2007, describes a number of recommendations for the implementation of Geographic Data Infrastructures (GDI). A user looking for environmental information must be able to:

find the dataset they are looking for using metadata;
see if the dataset associated with the metadata corresponds to his/her expectations, thanks to a consultation service;
download the dataset, when useful, through a download service.

The data made available in SISelune respect INSPIRE.

Data as “FAIR” as possible

Since 2017, the European Commission has encouraged scientists to make their research data FAIR, that is to say:

Findable: the metadata must be rich, and published on the Internet using a unique identifier
Accessible: downloading data must be free; the metadata must remain even if the data is no longer available (obsolete)
Interoperable: the metadata must use a formal language (standard), a controlled vocabulary (thesaurus) and qualified references to other metadata
Reusable: the metadata must be described abundantly, with detailed information on the origin of the data. The data is associated with a clear data license and published on interoperable servers

To conclude, SISelune is in line with the European Union’s policy in terms of Open-data: “As open as possible, as closed as necessary”. Data from the Selune Observatory are public. They will be made available, except if their distribution presents risks (privacy, etc.), as widely as possible.