Challenge #3: Mid-term Report

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This mid-term report of Challenge #3 contains the most interesting and valuable achievements, which have been done so far.

  • There are 19 registered participants in our challenge.
  • A collaboration with challenges has been established or being negotiated:
  • CHALLENGE #8 Digitalization of indigenous knowledge in African agriculture for fostering food security – through the incorporation into the African community around such a challenge, 
  • CHALLENGE #13 Calculation of agro-climatic factors – potential source of information for forecasting regional food supplies – through the visualization and map sharing of calculated agro-climatic factors (ongoing),
  • CHALLENGE #4 Rural Attractiveness Visualization – through the sharing of maps created in this challenge (negotiated).
  • Our intention is based on map data sharing using three main open source components (see the figure below representing a schema of map data publishing):
    • Layer Manager (Layman) QGIS Plugin
    • HSLayers-NG
    • Digital Innovation Hub (particularly SmartAfriHub)

Thanks to the intensive use of the mentioned components, there is a rapid development of them, fixing bugs appeared, enhancing user experience and spreading information about such tools for map data publishing among users.

    • Solved issues regarding authentication of QGIS plugin
    • Layman plugin installer updated to be more intuitive
    • Plugin refactored to request Layman asynchronously
    • Czech localization added to the plugin
    • Resolved sharing from HSLayers client to social networks
    • HSLayers Layman errors notifications made more user friendly
    • Fixed bugs and adapted GUI of HSLayers drawing tool based on user feedback
    • Another minor bug fixes
  • Creation of Covid-19 related maps and map compositions. See the examples below:
    • Map composition of Covid-19 cases and deaths (new and cumulative) on 1st October 2020 worldwide displayed in QGIS SW

  • Map composition of Covid-19 cumulative cases from the previous example displayed in the HSLayers web client, i.e. map composition is stored on a HUB and visualized using a web browser

  • Map composition on Covid-19 weekly cases/cured/deceased in the Czech Republic from 30th September (ongoing work)

  • Components for metadata harvesting have been set up in Micka catalogue and tested (https://www.agrihub.cz/micka/). Map compositions and data layers had been harvested from the Czech National GeoPortal (https://geoportal.gov.cz/)
  • A webinar covering Challenge 3 topics was broadcasted on the 1st of October, the webinar’s recording is available here: https://event.webinarjam.com/replay/59/nkpy0i5pumzcvyur50 
  • Step-by-step video sequences on how to use Layman QGIS plugin (available here: https://youtu.be/8Z1Gube6nuc) for map compositions and how to use HSLayers-NG for online creation and visualization of map compositions (available here: https://youtu.be/JFAhBCYPaSU) were shooted
  • Future plans:
    • Further development of the mentioned involved tools
    • Further incorporation of users in development of the tools
    • Spreading the information about our tools and our open source-based approach
    • Sharing more maps and information helping to established Citizens Science Network for Peer to Peer Maps Sharing
    • Fulfill cooperation with other challenges of Covid-19 INSPIRE Hackathon