A SMART groundwater portal: An OGC web services orchestration framework for hydrology to improve data access and visualisation in New Zealand Hermann Klug a,n , Alexander Kmoch b a University of Salzburg, Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), Schillerstr. 30, Building 15, 3rd Floor, 5020 Salzburg, Austria b AUT University, Geoinformatics Research Centre (GRC), 640 Great South Road, Manukau 2025, New Zealand article info Article history: Received 23 October 2013 Received in revised form 29 April 2014 Accepted 30 April 2014 Available online 9 May 2014 Keywords: WebGIS Interoperability Harmonisation Metadata CSW SDI abstract Transboundary and cross-catchment access to hydrological data is the key to designing successful environmental policies and activities. Electronic maps based on distributed databases are fundamental for planning and decision making in all regions and for all spatial and temporal scales. Freshwater is an essential asset in New Zealand (and globally) and the availability as well as accessibility of hydrological information held by or held for public authorities and businesses are becoming a crucial management factor. Access to and visual representation of environmental information for the public is essential for attracting greater awareness of water quality and quantity matters. Detailed interdisciplinary knowledge about the environment is required to ensure that the environmental policy-making community of New Zealand considers regional and local differences of hydrological statuses, while assessing the overall national situation. However, cross-regional and inter-agency sharing of environmental spatial data is complex and challenging. In this article, we firstly provide an overview of the state of the art standard compliant techniques and methodologies for the practical implementation of simple, measurable, achievable, repeatable, and time-based (SMART) hydrological data management principles. Secondly, we contrast international state of the art data management developments with the present status for groundwater information in New Zealand. Finally, for the topics (i) data access and harmonisation, (ii) sensor web enablement and (iii) metadata, we summarise our findings, provide recommendations on future developments and highlight the specific advantages resulting from a seamless view, discovery, access, and analysis of interoperable hydrological information and metadata for decision making. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Population growth and increasing land use intensity has led to growing demands and exploitation of natural resources in New Zealand. Following the almost total allocation of surface water bodies, groundwater bodies are among the most important and valuable natural resources available, but at the same time they are also the most endangered ones (White, 2001; White and Reeves, 2002; White, 2007). To understand the hydrological state of the environment and groundwater dynamics, datasets and measure- ments need to be made available and accessible to scientists, planners, and stakeholders to ensure proper decision making. In New Zealand, datasets are presently archived by different institutions (e.g. Crown Research Institutes, regional councils, and Ministries). These institutions hold spatial data and metadata in various formats that use different nomenclature, storage technol- ogies, interfaces and even languages. This setup complicates searches, discoveries, and accessibility for users. Thus, searching for, obtaining, and pre-processing of datasets consume valuable time and personnel resources on both the data provider and data user side (Beran and Piasecki, 2009; Ames et al., 2012). This has resulted in the need for new data management techniques, tools, and data models to effectively manage the vast amount of new hydrologic data being collected (Goodall et al., 2008; Wojda and Brouyère, 2013). Data must be collected, transmitted, stored, error checked, manipulated, retrieved for analysis, and shared within the hydro- logic community under commonly accepted rules and standards (Carleton et al., 2005; Ranatunga et al., 2011, Kao et al., 2011; Horsburgh et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2010). In order to plan and implement integrated water resources management practices, and to facilitate a rational exploitation and allocation of the available Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cageo Computers & Geosciences http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2014.04.016 0098-3004/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ43 66280445261; fax: þ43 66280445260. E-mail addresses: hermann.klug@sbg.ac.at, office@hermannklug.com (H. Klug). Computers & Geosciences 69 (2014) 78–86