NavScales: navigating through scales in space, time and domains of knowledge

Abstract

Climate change research requires considering multiscale interactions that vary from the micro granularity (bacterial) to the macro one (the Earth). To exploit the evolution and interaction of such complex systems, research groups (and disciplines) must consider distinct entities of study, submitted to particular time and space dynamics. This poses a whole new set of challenges in spatio-temporal information management and in collaboration across scientific domains. The goal of this project is to attack a few of these challenges, by proposing algorithms and software tools that will allow scientists to "navigate" across data in multiple scales, and "navigate" across scientific literature in distinct domains. It will exploit solutions that involve concepts associated with spatio-temporal databases and database versioning, and the Semantic Web, in particular, ontologies and linked data. Given the large spectrum of problems to attack, we will start from preliminary results of our work along these lines, developed at UNICAMP. Besides standard scientific dissemination mechanisms, we will take advantage of our WebLectures project to produce and disseminate associated course material on the Web. Results will be validated against two case studies, in agriculture and biodiversity. The proponent team, composed by 3 computer scientists, one biologist and one agro-scientist, has a history of past collaboration, with joint publications and co-supervision of students. (AU)