Environmental data and models to be given an online makeover

Environmental data and models to be given an online makeover

New cloud computing platform should enable people to access and exchange data and algorithms about environmental changes - News

By Tanya Gubbay
Monday 11 July 2011

Researchers are creating a web-based cloud computing platform where people can access and exchange data and algorithms to manage risks associated with environmental changes, in a new project announced last Friday.

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The Open Platform* project will see Imperial College Business School and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London collaborating with the Met Office and IBM, in a multi- million pound initiative funded by the Technology Strategy Board, as part of the Digital Economy Collaborative R&D programme. The Met Office are the Open Platform* consortium leader.

Currently, many organisations struggle to access reliable external information about environmental perils such as floods, wind and earthquakes when they are trying to make investment and insurance decisions, or decide where to focus resources. Not only is the data hard to obtain, but it is also difficult to find models that can 'compute' the data into useful information and organisations often need to call in experts to interpret the outputs. In addition, where data and models are accessible, it is not always clear how reliable these predictions are as making comparisons between models is complex and expensive.

The Open Platform* project aims to address and overcome these issues, by creating a site for climate and environmental data that can be used in as simple a way as the website 'Amazon'. The idea is to bring a wealth of data and algorithms into one place, making it easy for people to search through, and allowing customers to rate the usefulness of information, so that other users can gauge which data and algorithms have proved most reliable. Essentially, users should also be able to combine, create and exchange data and algorithms to better understand environmental risk. The Met Office and IBM have developed innovative new technology to power the Open Platform*.

Organisations currently struggle to access reliable external information about environmental perils such as floods.

It is hoped these measures will help organisations to better understand and mitigate the risks arising from the environment and climate change, as they will have indications about the validity, quality and origin of the information they are using. The researchers are exploring the most effective business models to allow Open Platform* users to access services free at the point of use as well as business models appropriate for commercial applications.

Initially the offering will focus on risk management, enabling Government bodies and specialists in disaster risk and insurance to exchange knowledge, data and modelling techniques. As a result, organisations may then be more able to find innovative solutions to managing risk and adapting to environmental change and extremes. Once they have created this new platform, the researchers anticipate it could ultimately be used for applications across many other industries.

Professor David Gann, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Director of the Digital Economy Lab at Imperial College London, said: "The Open Platform* will enable new business models to provide better use of data, improve business performance and open avenues to manage environmental impact. Imperial College Business School is pleased to contribute our expertise in innovation and entrepreneurship to this project. The results of our research will also inform new projects in the Digital Economy Lab."

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London added: "This is an exciting new venture in the area of climate science and a great opportunity for encouraging the use of climate data in new and innovative ways. We’re delighted to be involved in it at this early stage of its conception."

The researchers hope that the new website will be available in 2012.

* Name is subject to change

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