ABOUT

The Research Unit is located in Florence and it has been institutional formed since April 2013.

Florence division's activities are focused on research and development of innovative methodologies and technologies for multi-disciplinary data and information interoperability and sharing, in particular for enabling the Earth System Science and addressing the challenges posed by global changes.

The main research themes of our division in Florence include but are not limited to the followings:

• Advance the Earth Observation information systems –both in situ and remote sensing;

• Develop innovative brokering and intemediation technologies to complement standards and lower the present entry barriers for interoperability and data sharing;

• Develop effective data models as to spatio-temporal aspects as well as their accessibility and interoperability;

• Develop fast cyber-infrastructure for Big Data management;

• Address uncertainty and quality challenges stemming from data and web services chaining;

• Apply ultimate Information Technology to Earth Science domains to enable integrative research, resources sharing, multidisciplinary interoperability, and Policy Makers support;

• Address Data Policy and Data Sharing challenges.

As far as these themes are concerned, the UOS has gained an international reputation in the framework of two important initiatives:

• The European Directive INSPIRE;

• The Global Earth Observation System of System programme launched by G8 and managed by GEO (Group on Earth Observation).

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In these framework the UOS played an important role in several projects funded by the European Commission, such as: EuroGEOSS, GeoViQua, and EGIDA.