2 May 2013 – The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) and theOpenMI Association (OA) have announced a call for public comment on the OpenModelling Interface Version 2 (OpenMI) and its accompanying reference manual.This standard defines a means by which independently developed computer modelsof environmental processes, or indeed any processes, can exchange data as theyrun and hence facilitates the modelling of interacting processes.
The original driver for the standard was the European WaterFramework Directive and its requirement for an integrated approach to watermanagement. It was foreseen that implementing the Directive would be verychallenging and that there would be a need to provide help, in the form ofdecision support systems (DSS), to environmental managers. As Earth systems arecomplex and interrelated, these DSS would need to bring together many models inorder to better understand and predict the environmental impacts of events andpolicies. To make it feasible to link together models of different processesfrom different suppliers and hence simulate process interaction, the EuropeanCommission therefore co-funded the research and development of a generic modelinterface, the outcome of which is the OpenMI.
Roger Moore, chairman of the OpenMI Association, said, “TheOpenMI Association sees huge opportunities ahead for many stakeholder groups ifthe linking of models of different processes as they run can be made simple andreliable. Our immediate goal is to facilitate the integrated modelling neededto understand Earth system processes and hence help scientists, policy makers andmanagers find sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. By publishing theOpenMI as an adopted OGC standard, we seek to make the OpenMI standardavailable and accessible to the worldwide modelling community.”
Environmental modelling is not the only application ofintegrated modelling. For example, a possible shorter term application willsimply be in enabling developers to convert their existing large, and oftenunmanageable, applications into sets of linkable components. This could changethe modelling market from one for complete systems into one for components andservices. It could make it much easier for products to be brought to market,widen participation and dramatically drive up the rate of innovation.
The documents being released for comment have been speciallyprepared so that the description of the OpenMI matches the OGC style. They canbe viewed and downloaded at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/101.Comments are due by June 1 2013. More information is available on the OpenMIwebsite at www.openmi.org.
“Progress toward a sustainable future depends on ourimproved understanding of Earth systems and our collective ability to act fromthe local to global levels,” said Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of theOGC. This partnership with OpenMI enables our organizations to work moreclosely to assure that open standards-based modelling capabilities can be seamlessly andrapidly integrated into processing environments.”
The OpenMI Association is an entirely open not-for-profitinternational group of organizations and people dedicated to taking the OpenMI(Open Modelling Interface) forward into the future. Its primary objectives areto develop, maintain and promote the OpenMI and integrated modelling. Learnmore about the OpenMI Association at http://www.openmi.org.
The OGC is an international consortium of more than 475 companies,government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating ina consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGCStandards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web,wireless and location-based services, sensors and mainstream IT. OGC Standardsempower technology developers to make geospatial information and servicesaccessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatiallyenabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.
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