=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2030/HAICTA_2017_paper7
|storemode=property
|title=The Contribution of Smart Cross-Border e-Gov Systems to Life Sciences and their Applications
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2030/HAICTA_2017_paper7.pdf
|volume=Vol-2030
|authors=Sideridis Alexander,Protopappas Loucas,Pimenidis Elias
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/SideridisPP17
}}
==The Contribution of Smart Cross-Border e-Gov Systems to Life Sciences and their Applications==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2030/HAICTA_2017_paper7.pdf
The Contribution of Smart Cross-Border e-Gov Systems
to Life Sciences and their Applications
Alexander B. Sideridis1, Loucas Protopappas1, Elias Pimenidis2
1
Ιnformatics Laboratory, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece,
e-mail: as, loucas.protopappas}@ aua.gr
2
University of the West of England, UK, e-mail: elias.pimenidis@uwe.ac.uk
Abstract. The latest technological advances in e-Government systems, that
were only made available in 2016, have taken advantage of readymade
platforms of e-Authentication, e-Signature and e-Identification, and can offer
considerable benefits in important areas of Life Sciences and their
applications; such as e-Agriculture, e-Forestry, e-Environment, e-Food, etc.
The emphasis, in this paper is placed on the use of Smart Cross Border e-
Government Systems, including all the latest emerging techniques (Big Data,
Cloud Computing and Internet of Things). Such smart systems, offered via
innovative and reliable services to producers, can for example further facilitate
the transport of agricultural products beyond national borders. These benefits
can be accrued by reducing bureaucratic cross border barriers and thus
increasing the speed of transport and reducing the final cost of agricultural
products in reaching distant markets, to the benefit of consumers. The
motivation behind this research is drawn from the long-term plans and efforts
of the European Commission, since 1993, in supporting Single Market of trade
and business on a grand scale. The application of such Cross-Border systems
will enhance the benefits of the European Single Market on demand as their
availability and applicability support further integration at federal state level.
This emulates the situation in the USA where all trade movements are
conducted freely between States, based on the same currency and governed by
the same laws and regulations.
Keywords: E-government, e-Agriculture, Smart Cross-Border e-Gov Systems,
e-Identification, e-Authentication, Smart Applications in Agriculture.
1 Introduction
The evolving role of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), as well as
the continuous improvement in the security of Internet systems have resulted in the
development and implementation of a number of e-Government standards to support
integrated services in almost all areas of human activity. The core aim of the
evolution of e-Government standards is the improvement of the quality of life, the
commercial activities and the relations between the State and its citizens.
46
Globalization of the economy and the creation of state or local associations, such
as the European Union (EU), the USA, ASEAN, TURKPA, etc., in which integration
and free movement of citizens and goods are permitted, require the development of
e-Government Services in cross-border environments (Sideridis, 2017). This kind of
services are primarily developed by the Public Administrations to Citizens (G2C) and
Businesses (G2B) as well as private businesses (B2B) with the ambition of providing
eHealth and Banking Services, Trade and Customs Transactions (E-Custom, e-
Commerce) and, agricultural products (e-Agriculture) quite recently (Sideridis, 2013;
Sideridis and Protopappas, 2015; Sideridis et al., 2015). In order to limit these time-
consuming formalities of the above mentioned services, the EU has launched IT
projects such as STORK 1.0 and STORK 2.0 to create specific e-Authentication (e-
AU), e-Identification (e-ID) and e-Signature (e-SIGN) platforms (Tauber et al, 2012).
These platforms have been implemented to serve initially areas of e-Banking, e-
Health, e-Commerce, e-Custom, etc. However, it has also been suggested that they
should be used in other areas, such as in migratory agricultural products, where the
import or export activity becomes challenging or even impossible due to rigorous
customs controls and trade formalities (Nielsen S., 2001).
The exploitation of the STORK 2.0 platforms simplifies and automates the
existing e-Health, e-Banking, E-Commerce and e-Crime Services and enables the
development of these Services for (E-Agriculture, e-Environment, e-Forestry, e-
Food) in cross-border environments. The combination of innovative Big Data, Cloud
Computing and Internet of Things (Zhang et al, 2010) and STORK 2.0 readymade
platforms for E-authentication, E-signature and E-Identification has made it easy to
design intelligent Systems and support advanced e-Government Services (a)
Governments of EU Member States (EU) to citizens (G2C), (b) Governments of EU
Member States to businesses (G2B) and (c) Business to Business (B2B) (Sideridis et
al., 2017). According to relevant legislation and decisions of the European Commis-
sion, the proposed schemes simplify and automate the relevant procedures for the
movement and establishment of citizens, products and businesses within the borders
of the European Union.
It is clear that the flexibility and speed which is provided by the proposed Smart
Cross Border e-Government Systems (SCBeG) in export / import activities of
agricultural products between EU trading partners and in the automatic processing of
the relevant banking services (Sideridis et al., 2015). The benefits of developing
SCBeG systems are also evident in further deepening and realization of the EU
objective of creating a Single Digital Market in the EU, which encourages the
governments of the Member States, through the launch of various projects, to adopt
the existing platforms for the development of Government to Government (G2G) and
Administration to Administration (A2A) systems (Pimenidis and Georgiadis, (2014).
The cross-border eGovernment system model and its enhanced structure within
the eAU, eSIGN and eID platforms, which achieve the cross-border utilization of the
proposed ED systems, are described in the second section. The section 3 describes
the applications of SCBeG systems in the fields of Electronic Agriculture. Finally, in
the fourth section it is attempted to draw conclusions from the adoption at the level of
productive use of SCBeG systems in applications of Electronic Agriculture (ITU,
2016).
47
2 Smart Cross Border e-Government Systems (SCBeG)
In October of 2015, results were published regarding the achievement of the major
project of the European Commission called STORK 2.0. Meanwhile, efforts have
been made to activate various national scientific teams of the EU Member States to
exploit the technological platforms that were earmarked through this project for eAU,
eSIGN and eID, for exploiting existing eGovernment systems and enabling them to
support national and cross-border Intergovernmental Services to citizens and
businesses (European Commission (c)). The design and implementation of cross-
border e-Gov systems is now imperative and primary systems in e-Health, Justice (e-
Justice), Commerce (e-Commerce), Customs (e-Customs) and Education (e-
Education) have already been developed. The proposed SCBeG systems involve
artificial intelligence components and are combined with innovative Big Data, Cloud
Computing and Internet of Things technologies, which can support a variety of
security-sensitive areas such as Life Sciences (e-Agriculture, e- Environment, e-
Forestry, e-Food). Efficiency, speed and cost savings of the proposed SCBeG
systems are ensured by the new platforms for automating time-consuming
bureaucratic procedures, Document Authentication, Electronic Signature and
Electronic Identification, provided by STORK 2.0. (STORK 2.0 (b), (c)).
The development of SCBeG systems and their dynamics depend on numerous
factors; with the most basic being security and privacy. The EU, through various
programs, has reached the adoption of a multilevel security framework (Figure 1), for
safeguarding the security and reliability of services (Kefallinos et al, 2012).
Fig. 1. IDAS node. Source: https://www.eid-stork2.eu
48
The multi-layered architecture of eGovernment systems, which is shown below, is
enriched and reinforced by new building blocks provided by the innovative
developments of Big Data, Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things.
A central piece of procedure and architecture of the systems represented above, is
STORK 2.0, which is grounded in recognized registered international standards
(OASIS web SSO, ISO/IEC 27001, OASIS DSS) and it resides to a combination of
subsequent models of identity (Pan-European Proxy Services (PEPS) & Middleware
Model (MW) (Leitold, 2009). Moreover, each one delivers eID verification for
various service providers, combined with techniques of next-generation such as CC.
This prominent architecture is entitled to STORK VIDP, and can be shown below in
Figure 2.
Fig. 2. Extended VIDP architecture supporting eID based cloud authentication
3 Applications in Agriculture
The applications of Smart Cross Boarder e-Government (SCBeG) systems, which are
proposed to be developed on the basis of the architecture and standards which are
mentioned in the previous two sections, attract already a lot of interest to various
organizations, and agricultural cooperatives since they have been promising fast, not
time-consuming and bureaucratic procedures, automated and safe services in
agricultural products in national and cross-border environments (Sideridis et al.,
2015), (Sideridis, 2017). Particularly, the import / export trade of sensitive
agricultural products, will be benefited for the speedy response, efficiency,
authentication and security of the data exchanged in various documents, which
49
guarantee the direct supply of goods from their place of production to the country of
the consumer, regardless of the national borders and any long distances.
The services supported by the SCBeG systems, in addition to speeding and, as a
consequence, reducing the cost of migrating goods, enlarge the role of the European
Union's Small and Medium-Sized Agricultural and Manufacturing Operators, as the
European citizen becomes automatically a consumer of agricultural products of any
kind country of production (COP) within the EU (Ntaliani et al, 2010). In this sense,
the welfare of wider populations is upgraded, high standards of production are
standardized and ensured, agricultural demand is increasing and farmed isolated
areas are economically supported.
Furthermore, the agricultural economy in broad effects of SCBeG Systems and
other sectors of Agriculture and the environment are favored by providing them with
all the necessary information and valid data in a timely manner at their local farm
level. For example, the hitherto predictability of weather phenomena refers to broad
spatial and temporal data. The new SCBeG systems are equipped with building
blocks of Big Data (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012), Cloud Computing and the
Internet of Things will "personalize" the information provided, so that farmers can
cope with the phenomenon of appropriate preparation and measures to prevent or
even suppress any disastrous consequences (Bandyopadhyay and Sen, 2011).
Fig. 3. Applications in Smart Agriculture. Source: http://invoke.pt/en/strategy-solutions/
agriculture
Generally, farmers and businesses in the sector will be able to take advantage of
their land and other available resources (water, soil, atmosphere, etc.) in a more
convenient and economical way, having quantitative and qualitative elements (e.g.
transnational agreement on the exploitation of water flows and stocks).
SCBeG systems and their supported services will contribute to the qualitative
upgrade of agricultural products by providing advisory information that will deliver
more economical, more efficient and safer use of agricultural fertilizers and
pesticides. The services offered are ergonomic and understandable, as they have
50
excellent interfaces through which the user - farmer optimizes her/his production (see
Figures 3 and 4). Below are mentioned indicative partial applications of SCBeG
systems in Agriculture and the Environment (Sideridis, 2013), (Sideridis, 2017).
• Prediction of accurate harvest time, health monitoring and treatment of diseases.
• Prediction of possible catastrophic weather events for agricultural crops (Sideridis
and Stamelos, 1988).
• Personalized protection and maintenance applications, in proper temperature,
humidity and ventilation conditions, for agricultural warehouses.
• Mobile applications, installed on the tractor, inform the farmer regarding soil qua-
lity and accurate local data, using Internet of Things (IoT) technology (Li et al,
2011).
• Applications for determining the level of ripe and harvesting of production.
Nowadays, similar systems are operating and they can not only determine the stage
of maturation but also the intervention, through the IoT systems, to accelerate the
maturing time.
• Applications for maturing time monitoring by measuring sugars and other indica-
tive data for vintage grapes harvesting on farms.
• Applications for monitoring and control of atmospheric pollutants, especially CO2,
produced by factories, industries, cars and agricultural holdings.
• Applications for measurement and control of soil moisture.
• Applications for the detection of hazardous pollutants in drinking water sources,
reservoirs, rivers and irrigation water in agricultural holdings, water-exporting
industries and agricultural holdings.
• Applications for microclimate control and appropriate storage conditions for the
excellent preservation of agricultural products.
• Applications for control of the most suitable conditions in irrigation of cultivated
land.
Fig. 4. The role of the IoT in precision farming. Source: https://www.linkit.nl/ knowledge-
base/209/Agriculture_the_Internet_of_Things
• Applications for controlling livestock development and diseases data.
51
• Grazing monitoring applications and controlling the driving of farm animals in
appropriate areas and the accurate at any time
• Monitoring and ventilation control of farm animals in closed farms.
• Mobile applications that are installed in small self-propelled robots are monitoring,
managing and controlling the farmer's crops through on-line maps of his rural area
(Lav et al, 2012).
• Applications for weather forecasting, rainfall, drought, windstorms, snowfalls and
movements of microbiological disease organisms.
• Forest and agricultural monitoring and control applications for the detection of any
gases and other hazardous materials that cause fire, with the intention of automa-tic
extinguishing.
4 Conclusions
Cross-border eGovernment systems, enriched with innovative capabilities in the
fields of Big Data, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things, as discussed in the
context of G2C, G2B and B2B in this paper, offer major advances in further
deploying applications to almost all Life Sciences sectors and applications.
Meanwhile, the capabilities of authentication, electronic signatures and electronic
identification offer essential prerequisites for the additional development in specific
application areas such as those of e-Agriculture and Agricultural Economy. The trade
(import and export) of fresh and sensitive agricultural products could hugely benefit
from secure Cross-border transactions, the automation and the speed of carrying out
all the necessary procedures digitally and the ensuing reduction of the costs of
multiple handling of goods. All these enhanced services will significantly contribute
to the stimulation and reinvigoration of small and medium-sized enterprises in the
sector and could support opportunities for their economic survival within the contexts
of globalization and the implementation of the key principle of the European Union
in the creation of a Single Digital Market.
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