Integrated Real Time Geospatial Sensor Web and Visual Analytics for Environmental Decision Support

In this paper, we present an integrated Real-Time Geospatial Sensor Web and Visual Analytics systEm (RT-GeoSWAVE), which allows user-driven creation and visualization of derived "virtual sensors" that transform and repurpose existing sensors for real-time situational awareness. We illustrate this cyber-sensing system through a near-real-time urban flooding and sewer overflow scenario in Chicago, where NEXRAD Level II data are converted through a series of spatial, temporal and thematic transformations to a group of persistent polygon-based virtual rainfall sensors at the urban hydrological unit scale (i.e., sewersheds), which in turn can be visualized on demand as a real-time animated movie in space and time on the integrated Web-based Google Earth to assess rainfall patterns in an urban sewershed. Such a system is invaluable for real-time decision support as the spatial distribution of intense rainfall significantly impacts the triggering and behavior of urban flooding and sewer overflows. Furthermore, the system also demonstrates a critical capability for environmental observatories that will enable their users to dynamically evolve a suite of derived data products to meet changing research and management needs.