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Abstract

The increase of data in volume and complexity creates significant challenges for researchers in fields such as environmental science and hydrology. These challenges include difficulties in finding relevant data, pre-processing and storing datasets, and using analytical tools. The V-FOR-WaTer web portal provides a platform that integrates tools for data pre-processing and analysis that address these issues. The main strength of this portal is its emphasis on allowing researchers to access heterogeneous data sources, execute workflows, and use predefined analysis tools. It reduces the risk of errors that could happen by handling data manually and increases the reproducibility of analysis steps. This ensures that the portal provides consistent structured datasets, allowing the community to download and use data more efficiently.

The workflows and predefined analysis tools are contextualized to a catchment area, as commonly done in hydrology. Using V-FOR-WaTer, available datasources are harmonized on spatial and temporal scales, while maintaining extensive metadata. The architecture of the portal is scalable since each instance of the tools is deployed in separate containers, which are accessible through the GeoAPI processes of the OGC standard. Therefore, integrating new tools is feasible without altering the established workflows.

As environmental datasets are complex, V-FOR-WaTer is designed to handle this heterogeneity. The V-FOR-WaTer portal empowers scientists to run tools on a wider variety of supported datasets by simplifying data processing and reducing the cost of comparing or validating tools in different catchments.