Benefits of CORDA platform features Functionalities, main tools and the benefits of using CORDA platform Copernicus service providers (land monitoring and emergency services) require reference data for creating, verifying and validating information products and services derived from satellite images. The CORDA platform has been created to help these service providers to create products from validated national and regional geospatial reference data quickly and easily. The platform provides several features to meet these needs: Basic, advance and spatial search of datasets A complete catalogue of datasets by data provider Single login solution Fast access to frequently used spatial data services Continuously updated portal and communications Monitored and updated content Comprehensible and structured information Direct communication with administrator and content editor team This document is intended for Copernicus Land Monitoring and Copernicus Emergency Management Service providers. The CORDA main tools and functionalities are described by placing emphasis on the functional benefits of using the platform. Benefits of CORDA platform features 1
Basic, advance and spatial search of datasets CORDA meets service providers requirements in order to provide an immediate response with readily available and high quality data. With that in mind, an alphanumerical and spatial search engine has been developed to locate datasets by checking metadata attributes and/or using the spatial tool to define a geographic area. they are listed next to the authority s logo and country flags. All the datasets are available in only one click and the user has direct access to the data provider geoportal. Users can search datasets by data provider classification or/and by country at a glance. The metadata of the datasets has been reviewed by the content editor team so an alphanumeric search brings you directly to the desired information. Each dataset is tagged with intelligent keywords with their titles modified to take users straight to the needed spatial data services. Additionally, advanced searching tools have been included to search datasets by INSPIRE theme, area, resolution, scale or validity year. The spatial searching tool provides more accurate results in conjunction with the alphanumeric search. The data is filtered by spatial coverage for those cases in which the service provider is working in a specific region. This search could be also performed using a KML file (Keyhole Markup Language). Single login solution The single login concept is designed to make life easier for users and to maximize transparency and accessibility. These are important added benefits of CORDA compared to existing data access methods. The authenticated services are internally managed by the application, so the user has direct access to the data while logged into the platform. The platform handles the unique credentials centrally and gives the service provider one single login to all available spatial data services registered in CORDA. Fast access to frequently used spatial data services A complete catalogue of datasets by data provider A catalogue of data providers is accessible from the CORDA interface to provide find wellstructured datasets. For each dataset a data provider has been registered and classified and Two list of spatial data service compilations are accessible from the portal search page. The first one is the result of a continuous analysis of the data. The content editor team collects here the most interesting spatial data services. These services are available in collections and can be used or previsualized in only two clicks. The suggested data is continuously updated to encourage users to explore the latest spatial data Benefits of CORDA platform features 2
services. These data collections gather together the most relevant datasets by thematic areas, useful for the analysis of land use in Europe. On the other hand service providers are also free to create their own data collections. These spatial data services are compiled in user views, only visible for the owner. Continuously updated portal and communications CORDA datasets and spatial data services are regularly updated by the content editor team. Users can check any registered and modified data in the What s new site page with powerful and dynamic analytics provided for this purpose. More dashboards (maps and graphs) are available in the statistics page with: interesting interpretations of the INSPIRE themes coverage; choropleth maps showing the authenticated services coverage; service type percentages and many other detailed dashboards. The statistics page is designed to interpret the status of collected spatial data. The theme establishes a structure for spatial referencing of features by coordinates. The about page explains the main objectives of the CORDA project providing the general public with information about the portal and its benefits. Similarly, a help page has been created for users to better understand how to exploit the tools from basic concepts to the latest features of each release. A news channel also communicates recent improvements and developments to service managers and providers. Every new release of the portal is announced with a detailed description of the new features included. Events and workshops are also posted as news along with latest news from the Copernicus programme. Monitored and updated content A monitoring process is working daily in order to ensure that the collected data is always available. The platform is monitoring the availability of each of the data services and geoportals, rounding the 98% of availability. Furthermore, the content editor team is alerted whenever one of the registered services raises an issue. This monitoring process traces the modifications in the working services, so the data can be reviewed and updated. Date, spatial Benefits of CORDA platform features 3
data service title and metadata URL are checked automatically every week. Reports by country are available in the public section but registered users can access all data providers, datasets or spatial data services registered in CORDA by selected area. This means that they can consult the published dashboards and refine the selection to understand the situation in a specific area. Comprehensible and structured information Presenting technical information effectively is a major recurrent problem. With large amounts of data analysed, validated and registered in the platform, one of the big challenges has been learning how to present the information. The real value of the presented data is in the quality and in how it is organized and presented. Each data provider, dataset and spatial data service has been compiled in comprehensible cards with a description of each element. The entities are represented with recognizable icons and the information is listed so it can be understood at a glance. Depending on the entity type, certain actions can be performed for each element like preview, add to my view or review statistics. The actions are intuitively accessible from the top right corner option button of the card. The related entities are navigable. The user can navigate from one entity to another using breadcrumbs which is very useful for understanding where the searched data is coming from. The datasets cards are completed with the collected information. The essential information is validated and translated into English. The spatial data itself is analysed and a rating is given by the content editor. The cards include a Thumbnail, a coverage map and the possibility of previsualizing the data in a web viewer. Coloured labels are used to identify the spatial data service type and the data is labelled with the most relevant keywords. It is set up to provide compiled information to the service providers in a fast and visual way. Direct communication with administrator and content editor team CORDA has been created to support operational Copernicus Services. A technical and content editor team is in place not only to answer questions and resolve any issues, but also to learn from service providers in order to improve the platform. The Give us your feedback, channel is useful for validating the registered data and improving applications. This is always available from any page of the CORDA portal and comments are sent directly to the administration team. User can also share their knowledge and comments with other service providers in the dataset detail page. This collaborative channel can be helpful for contributing some particular information or providing user experience. Similarly, datasets can be easily rated by the user with a like or dislike rating tool included at the Benefits of CORDA platform features 4
end of dataset detail page. This can help to evaluate the validity of the registered data. All these tools are ready to be used and are de-signed to give instant support to the service providers. User Support Users can explore a large catalogue of the datasets and data providers with each data service reviewed by the content editor team and monitored by the system. The content editor team is responsible for acquiring, validating and organizing high-quality datasets and spatial data services, as well as build relationships with data providers. The users always have the best and latest reference spatial data at their disposal, with analytics showing the availability and performance of the services monitored. The system administrator is responsible for the configuration, upkeep and reliable operation of the platform. CORDA is a live product and the administrator and content editor teams are available to answer to user needs. Dataset comments and ratings are useful for assessing the content so the feedback channel is open to comments and suggestions. These tools constantly improve the service and the human intelligence behind CORDA brings added value to the portal. Benefits of CORDA platform features 5
Conclusions CORDA is ready to meet the needs of the service providers with a broad set of functionalities to help them in their day-to-day work and longer term projects. Advanced searching tools, data monitoring, analytic dashboards and direct support are all aimed at helping end-users get the most out of the platform. Consequently, we would encourage service managers to use CORDA and to share their results and experiences with others so it can be used and validated by as many service providers as possible. Getting started There are different ways to learn more about CORDA: Do you want to know the objectives of CORDA? Visit the portal about page. Keep up-to date by visiting the news page. Check the actual number of providers, datasets and spatial data services registered in CORDA in the statistics page. Are you a service provider? Register now by filling in the membership request. Benefits of CORDA platform features 6