The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) invites participation in a Hydrologic Forecasting Interoperability Experiment (IE). This activity, which will begin on September 22, 2011, is designed to advance the development of WaterML 2.0 and test its use in a forecasting context with various OGC service interface standards.

The objectives for the Hydrologic Forecasting IE are to implement and test WaterML 2.0 and OGC services within a real-time forecasting context. This will address the time and ensemble dimensions of a forecast, as well as the ability of the services to facilitate incremental data updates, and notifications to trigger data exchange capabilities. The work will focus on testing information models and service delivery mechanisms, and in addition, participants are expected to use new and upgraded web services. The ultimate goal is to improve the overall availability of water data and the interoperability of water information systems for hydrologic research and water resource management.

The OGC members that are acting as initiators of the Interoperability Experiment are:

-  US National Weather Service (NOAA/NWS)

-  Deltares USA Inc.

-  US Geological Survey (USGS)

-  Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

  (CSIRO) (Australia)

-  KISTERS Environmental and Resource Management Software Solutions

  (KISTERS) (Germany)

A summary of the activity plan, requirements for participation, schedule, and kick-off meeting details are available at http://external.opengeospatial.org/twiki_public/HydrologyDWG/HydrologicForecastingInteroperabilityExperiment.

Expressions of interest for participation are due by September 22, 2011.

Contact   John.Halquist@noaa.gov  for further details or to register as a participant.

OGC testbeds, pilot projects and interoperability experiments are part of the OGC's Interoperability Program, a global, hands-on collaborative prototyping program designed to rapidly develop, test and deliver proven candidate specifications into the OGC's Standards Program, where they are formalized for public release. These initiatives enable users and providers of geospatial technology to share the costs of developing standards that provide a foundation for "future-proof" enterprise architectures. Providers reduce their costs of developing and maintaining interfaces and encodings while gaining industry recognition, the confidence of an initiative's sponsoring organizations, and the market growth that results from open standards.

An OGC Interoperability Experiment is a rapid, low-overhead, formally structured OGC-facilitated activity in which members achieve specific technical objectives that further the OGC Technical Baseline. A key outcome of this IE will be an OGC Engineering Report.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 415 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact/.