Hydroseek Demo: Semantic Mediation in Action

HydroSeek Demo:
Semantic Mediation in Action

Prep

1. In your web browser, add bookmarks to
http://his.cuahsi.org/

2. Resize your web browser and then close the browser to set the desired site and position of the browser. The window size should be large enough to display the map and the menus on the left and right side of the HydroSeek GUI. The browser should open with those same settings when you are ready to give the demo. If projecting on a screen with low resolution, you may want to change browser options to hide unnecessary toolbars, menus, etc. In a pinch, many browsers have a “Full Screen” toggle that does this for you. In IE7 and Firefox, press F11 to toggle full screen mode.

3. Clear your browser cache. In particular, delete inputs on forms. Otherwise, if you’ve run the demo before, previous items that you supplied for the keyword or watershed will show up and obscure the autocomplete results that HydroSeek provides.

4. Install MS Excel (version 2003 or later).

Demo Procedure

This demo shows semantic mediation in a data discovery web application called HydroSeek. General search terms for variables are entered and automatically translated to the appropriate search for every web service registered with HIS Central.

In this demo, you will search for nutrient data in the Chesapeake Bay region.

1. Navigate to HydroSeek.
We’ll use the HIS website to get there, so that people get the sense that the HIS website is their starting point for entry into HIS.

a. In a web browser, navigate to http://his.cuahsi.org/.

b. Under the Data Discovery heading, click the link for HydroSeek.

2. Search for nutrient data in the Chesapeake Bay area.

a. In the Where & When box, click to search by watershed.

b. Start typing “Chesapeake (Upper) Basin”. Pause to show autocomplete, and then select Chesapeake (Upper) Basin. Leave the start and end dates as the default.

c. Enter “Nutrients” as the keyword, and click Go.

3. Highlight results of the nutrient search.

a. Zoom in to see sites. You can zoom in by scrolling the mouse wheel, double clicking on the map, or pressing the “+” and “-“ keys on your keyboard. Ideally, you zoomed into a location that has sites for NWIS (blue triangles), STORET (red squares), and CIMS (purple squares).

b. Note that the different styles for icons represent different observation networks. HydroSeek search for data from all registered networks.

c. Show the keyword hierarchy.

i. Draw the audience’s attention to the Search Results box on the right.

ii. Show how the general concept of Nutrients has search results in categories of Macronutrients and Micronutrients. As you expand Macronutrients, you can drill down to Nitrogen and then Nitrate Nitrogen to see that at the leaf level, search results are also organized by data type, e.g., Instantaneous, Weekly Average.

iii. Click on Nitrate Nitrogen to show only sites that measure Nitrate Nitrogen.

iv. Click on Nutrients to show all sites that matched the search.

d. Show data for a site.

i. Hover the mouse over a site. CIMS sites are usually good because they have many time series values, as opposed to a single time series value as is common with NWIS.

ii. Click See Details.

iii. Show the basic site information and observation network logo.

iv. Show the bottom drop down box, which lists variables that matched the search. The terminology used in the search box is that of the observation network, and has been mapped to the concepts in the Search Results box.

v. Show the top drop down box, which lists all variables measured at the site.

4. Show HIS Central. Here you’ll find the networks that HydroSeek is searching on.

a. Navigate to http://his.cuahsi.org/.

b. Under the Data Discovery heading, click the link for CUAHSI Water Data Services.

c. At the top, click the link for Registered Services.

d. Briefly scroll through the list.

5. Show the ontology. These are the concepts that HydroSeek searches on. Each variable available in registered networks are mapped to concepts in the ontology.

a. Navigate to http://his.cuahsi.org/.

b. Click the link for CUAHSI Water Data Services.

c. Click the link for Hydrologic Concept Ontology.

READ THIS IF YOU ARE USING A PROJECTOR

Tim found that while his laptop was hooked up to a projector, he couldn’t get the Java app in HydroTagger to load. He had to unhook the projector (or stop projecting), navigate to HydroTagger, and then hook the projector back up (start projecting again) in order for the tagging application to load. If you have trouble getting HydroTagger to load during your presentation, try the above procedure. Of course, it’s always good to run through the entire demo in the expected presentation environment before giving the real demo.

Demo Tips

· If you don’t have an internet connection or don’t feel comfortable giving the demo, you can show the video HydroSeek.wmv.

· If you decide to stray from the demo procedure and search in a new area or for different data, don’t forget about the Start and End Date. If the data you are looking for begins before 1998, you will need to change the Start Date accordingly, or else your sites will not show up in the map.

· If you enter a search that should work, but the sites you expected don’t show up, try leaving the keyword blank and performing a search. When no keyword is specified, all sites in the search area will show up, even if their variables haven’t been tagged. If you site shows up, it probably means you variable hasn’t been tagged. If the site still doesn’t show up, it probably means the web service for your network hasn’t been harvested.

FAQ

Where does the basemap for HydroSeek come from?

HydroSeek uses Microsoft Virtual Earth.