1. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd The agmodel project: Live linking between natural resource models and weather databases, online map services, and digital elevation models. Matthew Laurenson (HortResearch) and Seishi Ninomiya (NARC)

2. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Background » Project began in 1999 in Dept of Information Science and Technology at National Agricultural Research Centre in Tsukuba, Japan » Supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency, initially through a two year STA Fellowship » In 2000 recognized as one of the “Top 10” research projects for the year with the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry » Work on framework continues under the JST project…

3. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Project Goal » Promote model “portability” e.g. » Develop a natural resource model in Thailand with Thai data, then run the model in New Zealand with New Zealand data » Challenges » Database heterogeneity (same kind of data, different logical structure and format) » User interface localization » Initial focus on weather data (because used in many agricultural decisions.

4. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Outputs » MetBroker – weather data from 18 databases » ChizuBroker – maps from multiple online sources » DEMBroker – digital elevation models for the World and Japan » ResourceServer – multilingual labels in many languages » CountryServer – country and administrative region boundaries » Suite of client applications

5. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd MetBroker and ResourceServer Retrieves data from any of 12,000 MetBroker-linked stations Weather elements and resolutions available from station Station’s period of operation

6. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Coverage from NOAA WMO weather database

7. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd ResourceServer

8. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd CountryServer (and MetBroker)

9. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd ChizuBroker, DEMBroker and CountryServer

10. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Using Multiple Brokers Spatial Risk Applet MetBroker DEMBroker ChizuBroker Background maps Elevation data Meteorological data Resource Server Application text Country Server National boundaries

11. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Frost probability based on interpolated temperature

12. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Possible measures of success » Continued existence » Awards » References » Improved weather data availability (measured by usage) » Model for development of other systems (eg SoilBroker) » Uptake by developers outside of NARC/HortResearch

13. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Important Accessibility Milestones for MetBroker 1 » Version 1.0 available (two databases, RMI access only)  potential adopters can test, see real performance, and use MetBroker » MetBroker documented and open-sourced  developers can rely on future access to MetBroker » Tanaka links his models to MetBroker  other Java developers can create broker-linked applications » Otuka develops servlet access  users can test without installing Java Plug-in » HTTP wrappers developed  users behind firewalls can access

14. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Important Accessibility Milestones for MetBroker 2 » SOAP access developed  non-Java developers can create broker applications » Apirak replaces PSEPro with free OODB, retaining applications, database drivers, and configuration files.  anyone can run their own copy of MetBroker  other implementations of MetBroker core are possible » Meng links NOAA World data set  relevant data for many more users » Yamakawa makes MetBrokerEJB – simplifying deployment of MetBroker and related Web services and allowing use of any underlying relational database for metadata

15. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Ideas » Make something useful and encourage use and casual experimentation » Publish early and often » Don't exclude developers through choice of technology » Design of system interfaces is critical – Interfaces (between client application and broker, and between broker and databases) are perhaps most valuable part of MetBroker

16. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Things we should have done » Installation of Java Plug-in was barrier to casual experimentation  Should have made better Web application (HTML) instead of applets » Need to license commercial OODB was barrier to experimentation  Should have used free relational database for metadata instead of commercial OODB

17. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Positive Points of MetBroker » Pragmatic approach – doesn’t require much effort of database owners » Careful separation between: » Client application API » Internal Implementation » Database driver API Client applications don’t need to know about/download most server classes Database drivers are easy to write (1 week) and are dynamically linked at runtime » Multilingual labels and metadata

18. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Future for MetBroker – technical side » Use emerging Grid computing standards » Revise architecture

19. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Existing structure for MetBroker - Metadata Interface for Client Applications Interface for Database Drivers Client Application Internal Implementation Database Metadata Request Metadata Response Metadata Request Metadata Response MetBroker Driver

20. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Existing structure for MetBroker – weather data Interface for Client Applications Interface for Database Drivers Client Application Internal Implementation Database Data Request Data Response Data Request Data Response MetBroker Driver

21. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd New structure for MetBroker based on Web services Database Wrapper Client Application Metadata Registry Database MetaData Request MetaData Response Data Request Data Response MetaData Request MetaData Response Register Broker (not shown) acts as wrapper for smaller databases without their own wrappers.

22. © 2005 The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd Agmodel Project – administrative side » Ensure a well-supported standard version is available (with up-to-date source code) » Establish governance structure » Establish maintenance/support structure