Web Services for Environmental Informatics

This paper presents the description of an open architecture for the management of environmental content using Web Services. The Web Services technology can be effectively exploited for integrating on one hand the needs for dissemination of analytical data about environment, such as air, noise, traffic, etc., and on the other hand the needs of different users concerning the accessibility requirements of their devices, distributed and heterogeneous systems, remote and mobile control access. The case study of this paper is based on the OASI (Environmental Observatory of Southern Switzerland) project that permits access to the air, noise and traffic measures for Southern Switzerland. Other than through traditional web pages, this access is also made possible thanks to the deployment of software applications based on Web Services. To this aim, a number of Web Services are defined using the UML analysis and developed. They identify a) a group handling the air information, b) a group implementing the access to the noise information and c) a group implementing the access to the traffic information using the OASI’s database. In addition, another group allows users to manage his/her own information, e.g. e-mail, OASI’s news, user’s group, etc. In conclusion, the Web Services Technology could be a good solution for the management of environmental content because it provides open and mobile access to data, interoperability among different client-server nodes, easy extensibility for integrating any kind of device into the system.