International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XXXIX-B4, 2012
XXII ISPRS Congress, 25 August — 01 September 2012, Melbourne, Australia
COLLABORATIVE WEB GIS PLATFORM FOR SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION OF LAKE
GENEVA
Yosef Akhtman, Lorenzo Martelletti, Olga Grandjean and Ulrich Lemmin
TOPO Lab, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
{yosef.akhtman,lorenzo.martelletti,olga.grandjean,ulrich.lemmin } @epfl.ch
topo.epfl.ch, www.elemo.ch
KEY WORDS: GIS, Mapping, Surveying, Visualisation, Navigation, Web-GIS, Database, Underwater
ABSTRACT:
We have developed and deployed a Web-based GIS data management framework, which facilitates an effective and highly structured
search, retrieval and visualisation of multi-modal scientific data, as well as its subsequent dissemination in multiple and standardised forms
beneficial for both the research partners involved in the project and the general public. In the context of the long term objectives of the
Élémo project, the developed methodology may be utilised for automated and systematic collection of the multifaceted scientific data and
with the goal of assembling a comprehensive database encompassing all aspects of currently planned and future scientific investigations.
Figure 1: General structure of MIR 1 and 2 submersibles (Adopted
from www.elemo.ch). Examples of onboard instrumentation in-
cluded (a) projectors; (b) 3D camera system; (c) articulated arm;
(d) sample storage; (e) mobile camera; (f) water sampling device;
(g) particle filters.
1 INTRODUCTION
The Élémo project (www.elemo.ch) constitutes a multidisciplinary
collaborative research initiative involving two deep-water submersibles
operated by the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanography of the Rus-
sian Academy of Science, as well as ten leading Swiss and inter-
national research institutions. The objectives of the project include
a comprehensive "source-to-sink" investigation of the multiple as-
pects of the lake Geneva environmental functioning encompassing
its geology, chemistry, biology and physics.
The initial stage of the Élémo project involved a period of intensive
field work during the summer months of 2011, including the total
of 30 diving days for each of the two MIR submersibles operated by
the Russian collaborators. In the course of the initial field campaign
a wide range of state-of-the-art scientific equipment attached to the
MIR submersibles illustrated in Figure 1 has been utilised to col-
lect a comprehensive array of environmental, navigational, as well
as dense sensory data. The instruments employed included among
others multiple extended CTD analysers, two advanced in-situ mass
spectrometers’ and a voltammetric profiling system?. Both discrete
and continuous sampling of water and lake-floor sediment has been
carried out using a Rosette sampling system?, Niskin bottles, par-
ticle filters’, as well as a sediment coring system". The physical
properties of the lake-floor sediment have been probed using Nim-
rod and cone penetrometers^. The navigation and environmental
data has been further acquired using a 3D imaging system, Doppler
velocity logs and a multi-beam sonar’, as well as an onboard artic-
ulated camera and an augmented GPS-based navigation system’.
The initial field campaign has been carried around the three repre-
sentative regions of Lake Geneva, as illustrated in Figure 2. Specif-
ically, the Vidy bay represents a densely populated coastal zone,
where the outfall of the Lausanne sewage treatment plant brings
water masses and pollutants into the lake. The Rhone river delta
constitutes a major source of water and sediment. While, the deep
water zone in the centre of the lake act as the “sink” for the vari-
ous materials and pollutants that introduced into the lake along its
coastal line.
From a scientific point of view, the project presents a unique oppor-
tunity for cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration. This
opportunity, however, is accompanied by a major challenge associ-
ated with the development of both effective and efficient methodol-
ogy for management, sharing and dissemination of diverse, multi-
modal, and often poorly synchronised scientific data(Dragicevic,
2004, Fu and Sun, 2010).
The rest of this paper is constructed as follows. In Section 2 we dis-
cuss three major stages in the data organisation process. Namely,
we detail the consolidation of the master navigation data in Sec-
tion 2.1, we describe the process of indexing of the video logs in
I Richard Camilli, et al., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA.
2Marylou Tercier-Waeber, Jean-Luc Loizeau, et al, University of
Geneva, Switzerland.
Samuel Aray, et al., EPFL.
^Ulrich Lemmin and Nicolas Le Dantec, EPFL, Switzerland.
9Oscar Pizaro et al., University of Sydney, Australia; Angelos Mallios,
University of Gerona, Spain.
6 Anatoly Sagalevich, Shirshov Institute of Oceanography, Russia.
