1. Digital Asia Network (DAN) Shin-ichi Sobue 1), Ryuzo Yokoyama 2) 1) National Space Development Agency of Japan 2) Asian Center for Research on Remote Sensing

2. Proposal of Digital Asia (1) Background –A lot of geo-spatial data are available in Asia. –Geo-spatial data include satellite remote sensing data, geographical data, in-situ observation data, etc. –Digital Earth proposed by former vice President Mr. Al Gore was launched in U.S.A and has been implemented by international society including (USA, Japan, China, etc.) with UNEP. –Geo-spatial data are powerful tools for investigationg various socio-economic and Earth environmental topics.

3. Proposal of Digital Asia (2) Issue –Lack of trans-boundary data and information sharing. Proposal – Digital Asia –To provide easy and effective sharing of Geo-spatial among Asian countries for practical application and global change studies for sustainable development and global environmental protection.

4. The Digital Earth Vision I believe we need a “Digital Earth,” a multi-resolution three-dimensional representation of Earth. For scientists to understand the complex interaction between humanity and our environment. Multiple geo-spatial information sources various resolution. Needed a user interface networked, browsable, displaying, integrating, (Gore, 1998)

7. Digital Earth Technology Digital Earth activities OpenGIS Consortium (OGC): a collaborative effort between government agencies, private companies and universities to develop interoperable web mapping and data access. OGC's Web Mapping Testbed (WMT) Web Map Server (WMS) Interface Specification.Web Map Server WMT phase 2, now in progress, is extending WMS and defining new standards to access georeferenced data.

9. Digital Asia: Easy Access to Geo Spatial Information Earth Observation Data Stake Holders Decision Maker GIS Geographic Information System Digital Asia Expert

10. Map Server Map Server Service Repository Data Server Web Viewer Immersive Viewer Portal Desktop GIS Internet Catalog Common Interfaces Digital Asia System Concept (Based on the Digital Earth Concept)

11. Three Year Plan for DAN supported by NASDA and other partners 1) Digital Asia Workshops/Sessions –Host Digital Asia workshops and/or special sessions to promote the Digital Asia concept and call for participation in DAN at international remote sensing and GIS conferences (such as ACRS, GMSARN and APAN) through support from NASDA/RESTEC and other sponsors. 2) DAN Home page –Develop and maintain a home page for DAN to promote the Digital Asia concept and call for participation in DAN. –Maintain a mailing list for all DAN participants, the Steering Committee, the Technical Support Team and users. 3) Prototype demonstration systems –Each participant is expected to implement a prototype demonstration system for data sharing using OGC WMT and IT. These demonstration systems will be evaluated by users, the Steering Committee and DAN participants to compile issues and lessons learned information for future development of operational systems.

12. Structure of DAN 1) Steering Committee –Propose and coordinate the Digital Asia concept and future direction. –Formulate sponsoring agencies, participating agencies and IT and GIS experts. 2) Technical Support Team –Support the implementation of demonstration systems by participating agencies through provision of technical training courses and consulting services. –Collect and maintain freeware GIS and IT tools. –May provide their own developed software as a shared tool. 3) The Secretariat -Located at ACRORS/AIT and supported by NASDA and other sponsors. -Coordinate with the Steering Committee and participating agencies to host a DAN workshop or special session at remote sensing and GIS conferences. -Support overall management of DAN, training courses and homepage which will provide Digital Asia information and freeware tools. Since DAN is a self-funding best-effort forum, each participant has the responsibility to develop and operate their own data sharing system.

13. DAN Promotion (1) OGC training course at AIT 11/11-15, 2002 Purpose –To make a capacity building for data sharing and management using IT and GIS Outcome 16 participants from 9 countries (India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippine, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam) Very high interest of this training course and request to continue this training course coming years Request to provide experts to make a training course in requested countries to increase number of partcipants in each countries

14. DAN Promotion (2) DAN special session at ACRS in Nepal 11/27, 2002 Summary of session –About 120 participants ． –8 papers presentations for Open GIS concept, Digital Earth concept, Digital Asia concept, demonstration system ． Outcome –AARS agreed to endorse DAN activity in Asia –High interest from participants ． –Need to focus to the target of DAN in specific application field ． ACRS ： Asian Conference of Remote Sensing

15. DAN Promotion (3) (Today) Joint session of DAN at APAN Earth Monitoring WG Fukuoka, 1/21, 2003

16. DAN Promotion (4) DAN special session on 2/27, 2003 at Digital GMS regional conference Digital GMS regional conference: Feb 26- 28, 2003 at Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok Organized by Greater Mekong Subregion Academic and Research Network, Founded by ASEAN Foundation. NASDA is a co-sponsor of the conference. Digital Asia special session will be held from 9:00 am to 17:00 pm. More than 15 papers on Web GIS, Open GIS, Data sharing, will be presented. For detail click: http://intraweb.ait.ac.th/digital_gms/

17. Strategy （１） 1. Coordination - Request to assign a staff as a coordinator to have a training course in his/her country/region. - Request to assign a staff as a liaison to install WMS server at his/her country related agencies / institutes / universities and/or link his/her country related GIS system - Request to help to find potential regional level application information to ingest to DAN information system 2. Outreach - To hold a special session, or at least, make a presentation to inform of the latest information of Digital Asia Network

18. Strategy （２） 3. Training and Education - DAN will have a training course for Web based GIS system during workshop. 4. Publication - Publish OGC training course text. - Publish WMS cookbook test with WMS server free software CD-ROM. 5. Test bed - Deploy test bed by using demonstration systems to show interoperable Web based GIS system.

19. Example Images from DAN demonstration systems NASDA/MAFF WFS/WMS –JERS-1 L-band SAR South East Asia Mosaic –Thailand forest fire risk map by AVHRR –Thailand forest fire hot spot by AVHRR and DMSP/OLS Chiba University WMS –Asian land use map by AVHRR Chulalongkorn University WMS –Ton Le Sap environmental information database shared by stake holders. National Information Tech. Institute. South Asian Institute of Tech. –South Asian and Himalayan environment

20. Next Step Call for Participation –Request to co-host training course –Request to co-host Digital Asia Special Session in international symposium GMSARN, APAN, ACRS, Global Map Forum, Water Forum, etc. –Promotion (Outreach) – distribute brochure, WMS cookbook CD-ROM, WMS text –Collaborate to list up potential sharing data and information –Join to test-bed activity

21. URL Please visit the DAN homepage. Thank you http://www.acrors.ait.ac.th/digital_asia