As part of the OPERANDUM project, different Nature-based Solutions are being studied in so-called Open-air Laboratories (OALs). The research of these is primarily focusing on assessing how effective the Nature-based Solutions are in reducing specific hazards (e.g., flood) but also their additional benefits. Explore our OALs in more detail in Best Practice.

Go to the Interactive Map and analyze an area of your interest. You can use the layers available in the Interactive Map (and Data Catalogue) and/or upload your own layers. The Interactive Map includes some basic GIS functionalities to support your analysis.

Register & Sign-in

Do I need to register and log in to use the platform?

Actually, you don’t need to! But you can get more benefits and features when you do! For example, you can review your added content. It’s getting complicated? First start browsing the platform and think about registering later!

If you decide to register, simply click on the button in the top right corner and sign up:

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Step 1: Sign up

Enter your details and click on the ‘Register’ button.

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Step 2: Sign in

Log in with your email address and password

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Where do all these Nature-based Solution case studies come from?

The case studies are all crowdsourced - meaning that any user can add case studies to the Case Study Collection! Are you aware of any Nature-based Solutions in your area? You can add them to the catalogue by using the tool: Contribute → Add your NBS project.

How do you make sure the case studies are of good quality?

All entered Nature-based Solutions are reviewed by OPERANDUM experts. You can see in the top right corner of each solution whether they are reviewed or pending review (see image below).

Search and filter the Nature-based Solutions for your needs!

You can search from the map or by setting filters:

Search by filters:

After clicking on ‘filters’, a blue search bar offers to search for and filter Nature-based Solutions:

1. Type your keywords in the search field or select filters for a specific Nature-based Solution Type or Hazard (if you click on the two arrows, you will get more filter options).

2. Select your choice and press the search button.

3. The results will be shown on the map and listed underneath the map. 

How can I get more information?

Simply click on the Nature-based Solution that interests you and a new page will open with a lot of more information!

Can I share a Nature-based Solution?

Yes, once you have clicked on one Nature-based Solution and you see more information, you find share buttons under the table of content on the left side (see image below). Simply select the social media channel or only ‘Copy NBS link’ and share the solution with your peer!

How can I compare different Nature-based Solutions?

1. In the results list, on the bottom of each Nature-based Solution, you find a ✓

2. Click the ✓ of the ones that interest you (up to 5) and the tick will double

3. Click on the orange button (see image below) to compare the selected case studies

4. A new page will open for comparing them

Do you want to know which hazard is most commonly tackled with Nature-based Solutions (collected in the NBS Catalogue)?

→ Open ‘statistics’ by clicking on the statistics button (see image below) and start exploring the NBS Catalogue statistics.

You can always cancel the entry.

You can always save your draft and continue later (when logged in).

Once you have filled in all required information, you can

• Save your NBS;

• Save your NBS and add policies that were influencing the implementation of the NBS; or

• Save and add datasets presenting the NBS or that you used/produced for pre-assessment, monitoring, or evaluation.

What is the layer manager?

It is the place where you can get information about the layers or where you can change settings (e.g., change the opacity). Have a look at the figure below to see which buttons do what:

Do you want to know how many people live in 1 km2 in your street or get other information?

1. Simply click on the point of your interest on the map and you will get the values of all maps that you can see on the interface. You can also click on the Nature-based Solution location icons to get more information.

2. After selecting a point of your interest, a window will pop up presenting you the information of the point of interest (see image below).

Explore all datasets stored in the Data Catalogue and download them or add them to your own GIS-interface!

Below, you can see the search result for the key word: flood. On the left side you can see the search results with metadata information. This can be any kind of data ranging from policies to spatial data. On the right side, you can see the spatial coverage. Two buttons are available to either download the data or to copy it and paste it e.g., into your GIS interface. On the bottom left you can get more information or contact the owner.

To get a picture about the city, its physical characteristics and the flood risk, you can use the Interactive Map. At first glance, you can see a map and on the left side, you can see which layers are opened at the moment. You are interested in the physical characteristics of the city and, so far, there is only the land cover map and the flood hazard map.

Step 1: Add layers to the interface

To add more layers, you can click on the icon in the middle of the layer box.

Navigate through the catalogue and add the following layers:

Environment > Soil > Global Hydrological Soil Groups

Environment > Water > European Rivers

Once a layer was added to the interface, the layer is checked off and the layer will be visible in the interface.

Step 2: Organize the layers

Now, remove the layers Open-Air Laboratories and the NBS layer by clicking, firstly, on the ‘wheel’ next to the layer name and then on the remove button.

Step 3: Zoom in to the location of your interest

Zoom in to the city Leichlingen by typing the city name in the search bar.

Step 4: Analyze the area

You can start analyzing the layer Global Hydrological Soil Groups. To have a better overview you can hide the flood hazard and land cover layers by clicking on the ‘eye’ button next to the layer’s name.

After clicking on the ‘settings wheel’ button of the Global Hydrological Soil Groups, from the legend, you can see that the city is located where there is the highest surface runoff potential. Underneath the legend, you can adjust the opacity of the layer; thus, you can see the base map with the roads, etc. Then zoom in a bit more.

Here, you can see that not the entire city has a high runoff potential but mostly the center of the city through which a river flows.

Adding the Flood Hazard Map, you can see where surface runoff potential and river flood potential is.

You know that the River Wupper flows from north to south in this view. Next to the icon, you see that there is a minor flooding potential. To examine this area better, you can unhide the land cover map.

You can see that the area with minor flooding potential is close to the green area which can function as water storage area. Since the north of the city is very rural with water storage areas, you decide to build the detention pond rather in the center of the city where there is a high runoff and river flood potential.

Step 5: Identify a suitable location for the NBS

By hiding all layers, you can see that this area is densely built but there area some parks which could gain a detention or also a retention pond that could make the park more attractive.

To get more information on e.g., the potential river flood water depth, you can click on the button on the right side

Then click on the point of your interest. A window will pop up presenting information of all visible layers at that time.

The potential flood water depth is about 2 meters at this point.

Step 6: Explore other layers to get more insights

If you want to explore more physical information, you can do this in a similar manner. Explore e.g., the slope of the area.

What does the Policy Catalogue has to offer?

→ you can open the policy document directly

→ it shows you a selection of similar policies

→ it presents you which NBS case studies (from the NBS Catalogue) are linked to this policy document

You can add your institution to the database or add funding opportunities:

Find future partners:

You can either browse through the database but since it is quite extensive, try out the filters!

Find funding opportunities:

Browse through the list of possible funding opportunities or filter them!

Do I need to register and log in?

You don’t need to log in if you simply want to browse datasets. However, if you want to add datasets, you will need to log in first. You can register by clicking on ‘Register’ in the top menu.

Register:

Enter your information and click create an account.

Log in:

The login can be reached from the top menu. Enter your username and password to login.

To add your data: 

1. Log in;

2. complete the list of metadata;

3. click on save dataset and add data;

4. add the actual dataset by clicking the button add data and either upload a file or provide the link to the dataset; and

5. save.

Metadata are data about data which help easier discovery of data (geospatial and non-geospatial as well). Metadata enrich information about data and help both, users and computers to better understand data. In OPERANDUM we encode metadata in compliance with INSPIRE EU directive^[1].

Here, you can find explanations for each of the metadata fields:

Title: This should be concise and descriptive. It should contain at least the type of data, rough geographical coverage/name.

• E.g. Flood events in OAL Greece in last 100 years.

• Average temperature in EU in the last 30 years.

• Locations of ground stations in OAL Austria.

• Bad examples of titles: 1. Flood, 2. OAL Austria, 3. Stations, etc.

Abstract: In the abstract you explain in more detail what the dataset contains, the source and spatial and temporal extent.

License: See drop down menu.

Organization: This is set by default to the organization that the user belongs to. If the user belongs to multiple organizations, they will be ordered alphabetically, and the user needs to select one.

Visibility:

• Public - Everyone can see the dataset.

• Private - Only the owner of the dataset and other members from the organization.

• Only visible to OPERANDUM members - Only OPERANDUM partners will be able to view/download datasets.

Resource type: Resource type is one of most important attributes because it determines the rest of the metadata elements which are generated. For instance, spatial data, data series or service have more spatial metadata while other types such as “Policy” have less.

• Spatial dataset (file or a layer from a service): not restricted only to geospatial formats such as GML, GeoJSON, WMS, WFS. It could be also a text file that contains locations of flood events or locations of sensors.

• Spatial data series (one or more files that contain data over time): for instance, observations of temperature in last 50 years or annual temperatures in Europe in last 100 years.

• Spatial data service: the service that contains geospatial data such as OGC WMS, WFS, WCS service.

• Observation/measurement data: data produced by observation instruments or sensors.

• Policy document: any policy or permit document.

• Questionnaire/survey: any kind of document that shows collected responses from people.

• Other non-spatial dataset.

Has NBS relation: If the dataset is associated to a specific NBS case study user can select Yes and associate the dataset to the NBS, otherwise NBS key elements have to be entered automatically. If the NBS doesn’t exist, the user has to enter it before adding dataset.

• Yes – user selects the desired NBS intervention. NBS interventions can be explored in the NBS Case Studies. By associating an NBS with the dataset we have access to all NBS key elements.

• No – user adds manually information about NBS key elements. All fields allow multiple selection.

Data status: Dataset can have multiple statuses. For example, user can upload raw observations, then after processing the processed version the OPERANDUM committee checks the dataset status and can set it to “Approved by OPERANDUM committee”.

Topic category: This is high level classification of a dataset. User can select one or more categories.

Thematic accuracy: Accuracy expressed in the percentage and the description of error concept for the dataset.

Keywords:

• Three to five keywords describing dataset separated by comma.

• Very important to increase discoverability of the dataset.

Geographic bounding box: Spatial extent of the dataset. Even non-spatial data can have this attribute. For instance, an EU directive can have a spatial extent of Europe or a questionnaire done on citizens of Austria will have a spatial extent of Austria.

• BBOX coordinates – user can enter lat/long of lower left and upper right corner of BBOX rectangle expressed in WGS84.

• BBOX selector – if the user doesn’t know the coordinates, he/she can select a region/country and BBOX coordinates will be extracted from the selected region/country.

Date of creation: Date of adding dataset, i.e. filling out the metadata. Must be in ISO 8601 format (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD -> 2019-12-16).

Temporal extent start: Date of acquiring or date of observation. Also, if the resource contains multiple time epochs, here the user can denote the timestamp of the oldest time epoch.

Temporal extent end: If the dataset has an expiry period, here the user can define the end of temporal extent. In case of multiple time epochs, here the user will denote the timestamp of the newest time epoch.

Temporal resolution: If the resource contains multiple time epochs, here, the user can specify their resolution in days (1, 7, 28, 365, etc.).

Temporal validity: The time period between the last update of the dataset and the targeted NBS creation date expressed in days. For instance, if the dataset is older than one year then it can be estimated as an invalid dataset for that NBS.

Lineage: This is the description of the process that was applied to produce the dataset/s. For instance, for imagery one could enter photogrammetric survey, LIDAR. For questionnaire, one could write, a survey performed on the citizens of county XY.

Conformity specification: This is the statement on the conformity against certain specification if such specification exists. For instance, for INSPIRE datasets one can insert a link or write the name of technical guideline for the dataset. For imagery, one could put a link to national standards to perform photogrammetric/UAV surveys. If no specification has been applied, then just write No conformity specification.

Conformity degree: Here, you write whether the dataset is conformant/non-conformant, or the conformity has not been evaluated.

Limitations on public access: If the owner has set limitations on public access, they should be listed here.

Conditions applying to access and use: Under which conditions the resource can be accessed and used.

Responsible party for described resource: The name of the responsible organisation or person.

Responsible party email for described resource: Email address.

Responsible party role for described resource: Select from drop down menu.

Resource language: The language of the textual information in the resource. If the resource contains non-textual information, select Non-textual information only.

Metadata dependency on the resource type: For spatial data, spatial data series, spatial service:

• Main data type – a finer grained classification of spatial resources: vector, raster

• Spatial data service type - applicable only to spatial service.

• Spatial data service classification - applicable only to spatial service.

• GEMET keyword – a set of predefined keywords to classify the dataset.

• EPSG code – the code of the projection used to display geospatial data. List of projections can be found at http://epsg.io/ .

• Vertical spatial coverage – extent of the resource in a vertical direction.

• Horizontal spatial resolution.

• Vertical spatial resolution – if the dataset contains information about heights.

Applicable to Policy documents, questionnaires/surveys or other non-spatial document:

• Main data type

• Other: Documents, building diaries, permitting path

^[1] http://inspire.ec.europa.eu

Can I make changes to the metadata?

You can edit the dataset that you or a member of your organization have created. In order to edit existing datasets:

1. select the dataset;

2. click on the ‘Manage’ button, which is placed above the dataset title;

3. then the ‘Edit dataset’ view is displayed where you can edit any metadata field or you can manage (add, delete) files within the dataset; and 

4. save your edits.