All Posts
Revolutionizing Farming with Decentralized Networks and Multi-Temporal Crop Classification Modeling
- 06 December 2024
Ever wondered how satellites help us understand what’s growing on our planet? In a world facing population growth, erratic weather, and food security challenges, crop classification has become a crucial tool for modern agriculture. Using satellite data to identify and track different types of crops, we can deliver critical analyses of global agriculture information. This post’ll dive into how NASA’s Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) data and the USDA’s Cropland Data Layer (CDL) are used in a multi-temporal crop classification pipeline. We’ll explore the use of decentralized networks such as IPFS and Filecoin and how they offer a more resilient and accessible approach to agricultural analysis and decision-making processes. Whether you’re new to crop classification or just curious about how these systems work together to forecast yields and inform agricultural decisions, this post will give you a perspective into the process and its potential impact on global food security.
Changes in ipfs-stac v0.2.0
- 04 November 2024
One of the pivotal projects the EASIER Data Initiative has produced is ipfs-stac. The Python library is a testament to the feasibility of onboarding and interfacing geospatial data on IPFS. The library enables developers and researchers to leverage STAC APIs enriched with Filecoin and IPFS metadata to seamlessly fetch, pin, and explore data in a familiar manner. In an ambiguous ecosystem with everchanging advancements, updates, breaking changes, and new features of the infrastructure will emerge. The team has made it a responsibility to adhere to these changes and that has prompted our projects to remain flexible. This notebook will explore the many new features and changes to ipfs-stac in version 0.2. To stay up to date with the development and release of new features, consider starring our respository for ipfs-stac
GEDI - The Force Awakens in Open Science
- 28 October 2024
Measuring the impact of deforestation is one of the many overarching goals of the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) project. With support of the GEDI’s LIDAR system and hitching a ride on the International Space Station, high-quality laser ranging observations collect a 3D structure of the Earths forests for which can be used to estimate the height of forests, the density of vegetation, and providing detail on the Earths carbon cycle. In this blog post, we will explore the GEDI dataset by leveraging IPFS with the ipfs-stac python library.
Workshop Executive Summary Now Live!
- 26 July 2024
We’re excited to share the executive summary of our Workshop on Open Geospatial Science and the Decentralized Geospatial Web! This one-and-a-half-day event brought together over 30 experts from innovative organizations, federal agencies, and universities to explore how open science and decentralized web technologies can enhance the geospatial sector. This summary captures the key discussions and insights from the workshop, highlighting the potential to boost data accessibility, transparency, and collaboration. The full summary can be found here
Workshop Recap
- 18 April 2024
The EASIER Data Initiative would like to extend our appreciation to everyone who participated in and was involved with our Workshop on Open Geospatial Science and the Decentralized Geospatial Web! This was a one-and-a-half-day event with 30+ domain experts and leaders from innovative organizations, federal agencies, and universities who cultivated discussion and showcased projects covering the overlap between geospatial science, the decentralized web, and open science.
Using Content Addressable aRchives to store decentralized data
- 25 January 2024
When dealing with large geospatial datasets, such as Landsat 9 imagery, effective management, storage, and seamless transfer of massive data are key challenges for both data stewards and users seeking to access the content. One common solution for bundling and compressing these datasets is using .tar files (a type of File archiver), which aids data stewards in organizing into collections and simplifying data transfer for users. Transitioning into the realm of decentralized systems, Content Addressable Archives (CAR) present a solution akin to .tar files. CAR files, like their traditional counterparts, play a role in maintaining data organization and accessibility in decentralized setups. In this blog post, we’ll look into the technical details of CAR files and explore some practical advantages inherent to InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and Web3.
Project Showcase - Web3 Geospatial Dashboard
- 24 January 2024
What does user access to geospatial data look like in Web3? How can they find data or download content? Spoiler alert! Not much different than today but with the advantages of a decentralized network. One of the projects currently being fostered by The EASIER Data Initiative has been focused on user accessibility of decentralized content with a Web3 Geospatial Dashboard application and a Chrome extension. The dashboard is the entry point for a user to discover content, specifically Landsat 9 Collection 2 Level-1 imagery. With the Chrome extension enabled, a user is able to “pin” an image from our implementation of the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalogs (STAC) running alongside our IPFS node. Let’s dive into the details of our Web3 implementation.
Proof of concept for querying spatial data on IPFS using geohash
- 22 January 2024
In this post we’ll be exploring how to store and access geospatial data in a decentralized way using Geohash and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Geohash is a spatial indexing system that divides the Earth into a grid of squares and assigns a unique identifier to each square. IPFS is a peer-to-peer network that uses Content Identifiers (CIDs) to store and share data. By joining geohash to CIDs of spatial features , we can create a hierarchical indexing system that organizes geospatial features into a directory system based on the geohash encoding. This allows us to store and query geospatial data on IPFS, without relying on centralized servers or databases.
Preloading a cache for a tiered storage system
- 19 January 2024
In this blog post, we explore the practical aspects of tiered storage systems, focusing on the nuances of hot and cold storage layers using different cache system strategies. The premise starts with the system’s initialization and an empty hot layer or cache and illustrate the impact of prepopulating a cache with randomly selected geospatial data. Specifically centered around landsat scenes within the continental US, the two layers—cold storage and hot storage (set up as a least recently used cache)—play key roles in the experiment. We’ll delve into the mechanics of data requests categorized as region, state, or county, and how the system strategically manages landsat scenes in the least recently used cache.
NDVI on Landsat 9 imagery with data using IPFS
- 30 August 2023
Geospatial professionals frequently handle vast data sets, like satellite imagery, for tasks ranging from object detection to land cover classification. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a widely-used metric for assessing vegetation health in a given area. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through calculating NDVI using Landsat 9 imagery and the IPFS network with the help of the Python library, ipfs-stac, in a Jupyter notebook. We’ll also discuss the benefits of leveraging IPFS in geospatial workflows, such as content-addressing and decentralization.
Proof of Concept Workflow Atomization Demo
- 01 July 2023
With a couple of use cases of code atomization now defined (shown in the previous post), this article will present a proof of concept for atomizing a simple Python workflow and generating a manifest of CIDs for the components used.
Decentralized and Deconstructed Approach to Code Artifacts
- 30 June 2023
For scientific publishing, being able to share artifacts such as data and code is imperative to illustrate a methodology in practice and support the validity of findings through replicability.
John Solly's Talk at CoD Summit
- 27 June 2023
Watch John Solly, the Lead Geospatial Developer at the EASIER Data Initiative present at the Compute Over Data Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. His talk will explore the importance of satellite imagery and other geospatial data and how decentralized technologies have opened opportunities to the workflows with such data.
Implementing Geospatial Calculations on the EVM using Linearized Approximations
- 25 June 2023
The implementation of mathemematical formulas in EVM programming languages such as solidity is difficult and uninutitive due to the lack of floating points. Additionally, contracts might rely on libraries for functions that are deprecated, or insecure. This article will present a method to implement any mathematical function on an EVM smart contract, with the ultimate purpose of creating a framework for geospatial calculations within a smart contract.
FIL Network Base Austin 23 Lightning Talk
- 12 June 2023
Watch John Solly, the Lead Geospatial Developer at the EASIER Data Initiative present his lightning talk at the FIL Network Base in Austin Texas. His talk will explore use cases for Filecoin and IPFS being utilized to store publicly funded geospatial data to promote accessibility for research and academic institutions.
Seamlessly Fetching Files from IPFS － A Proof of Concept for Building a Flexible Local Client
- 24 April 2023
As decentralized web technology continues to develop, the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) offers an alternative approach to distributed file storage and sharing. In this notebook, we will present a proof of concept for building a flexible local client capable of fetching files from IPFS, regardless of whether the user has a local IPFS node or not. We will also discuss the advantages of using a local IPFS node over relying on public gateways, and showcase how to implement a fallback mechanism for maintaining uninterrupted access to IPFS content.
A New Way to Reference and Retrieve Geographic Data
- 02 December 2022
Web3 is an exciting and rapidly evolving space for geographic information. This post explores how EASIER uses STAC, Filecoin, and IPFS to store, retrieve, and analyze geospatial data.
The EASIER Data Initiative Launch
- 09 September 2022
We are thrilled to announce the EASIER Data Initiative, a @umdgeography, and @FFDWeb collaboration. We make it easier to upload and retrieve geospatial data from decentralized storage systems including #Filecoin and #IPFS.
About
- 08 September 2022
We aim to facilitate data analysis and extraction to create a streamlined process to bring data off the Filecoin/IPFS network in an actionable and useful capacity. The goal is to design and optimize offloading techniques that are compatible with existing geospatial workflows, integrating with existing standards such as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs (COGs), and SpatioTemporal Asset Catalogs (STACs). To solidify the accessible offloading experience, we are creating several approachable client programs in common languages such as JavaScript, Python, and Go.