PI: Mark Parsons Project Title: Community-based Data Interoperability (INTEROP)International Network of Arctic Knowledge (INAK)
Rapid Arctic change has critical implications for global climate, biodiversity, geopolitics, international transportation, and local society. To understand and respond to this change and its implications, it is necessary to understand the Arctic as a system. The International Polar Year (IPY) was a huge international effort to improve our interdisciplinary understanding of the Arctic and Polar Regions, how they are changing, and their impact on the Earth system and human society. IPY produced a large, diverse array of data that increases the challenge of interdisciplinary data discovery and use. The data is enriched, but the challenge is increased, by the explicit inclusion of social science research and local and traditional knowledge of the Arctic. Yet, IPY and the rapid change in the Arctic have generated considerable international resolve and formal collaboration that can be harnessed to improve the semantic understanding and interoperability of Arctic data.
NSIDC, working with domain and community-building experts at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and elsewhere, use the opportunity of IPY and the developing Polar Information Commons to improve the knowledge and interoperability of sea ice and related Arctic data through the extension and enhancement of an international data management network. Through focused workshops and broad community interaction, a formal, sea-ice ontology, and an expansive interdisciplinary knowledge framework for the Arctic are developed. Proven and maturing semantic web methodologies and ontology creation tools, including visual tools like concept maps, are used to develop the underlying infrastructure. The support and ongoing evolution of this infrastructure relies on the engagement of the people and communities who use, enhance, and maintain that infrastructure?the INAK. The need for interdisciplinary understanding of the Arctic system (driven by the profound changes in the Arctic) motivates the network, and the occasion of the IPY provides a unique opportunity and mechanism to develop the network, but ultimately, the network is sustained when members see how their network activities benefit their immediate scientific and practical science needs. The project engages the diverse Arctic community, including Arctic residents and indigenous people, to contribute to and use the INAK. Ultimately, the ontologies go beyond direct data user needs and grow the INAK and Arctic semantic insights into the future.
