Ivan Marchesini & Arnaldo Pierleoni (Eds.), 2018, Proceedings of the 4th Open Source Geospatial Research and Education Symposium (OGRS2016), ROMA: CNR EDIZIONI, 2018,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/427879

The 4th Open Source Geospatial Research and Education Symposium (OGRS 2016) was organized by the Research Institute for Geo-hydrological Protection (IRPI) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), in Perugia (Central Italy) in the period 12-14 October 2016. During those days a seismic sequence hit this part of the country with two major earthquakes (August 24 and October 30) and the IRPI institute intensively engaged in field survey activities. Therefore we are even more grateful to the people who decided to attend the symposium in Perugia under these conditions. OGRS is an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to sharing knowledge, new solutions, methods, practices, ideas and trends in the field of geospatial information through the development and the use of free and open source software in both research and education. The conference is built around the spirit of open science and promotes all the processes based on cooperative work and new ways to diffuse scientific knowledge by using open data, open standards, open source and open publications. OGRS is not only a vision of the future but also an opportunity for geoscientists and geoteachers to build together new methods and tools to meet the new challenges of humanity that require a systemic and collaborative response. The OGRS2016 conference offered two days of scientific presentations and one day of Workshops. Grouped by thematic sessions, presentations (including posters as well) described original and recent research results, educational practices and innovation experiences. Workshop sessions on specific topics and software have reinforced the educational dimension of the Symposium. Fifty-five contributions (short papers) were submitted to the symposium. The short papers were rapidly made available online in an "OGRS2016 Collection", using the PeerJ PrePrint publication system and were independently reviewed by at least two referees chosen among the eminent colleagues who accepted to be part of the Scientific Committee. The review process was carried out through an open procedure consisting of referees comments and authors replies which are still accessible online at the following link_ https_//peerj.com/collections/35-open-source-geospatial-research-and-education-symposium-2016/ (short version_ https_//goo.gl/5RBC27). Fifty one of the originally submitted manuscripts were included in the OGRS2016 program and are included in the present book of the symposium proceedings. The symposium was enriched by 3 keynote talks_ Maurizio Napolitano (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy), Riccardo Rigon (University of Trento, Italy), Maria Brovelli (Politecnico di Milano, Italy). As mentioned before, OGRS2016 also included workshops. They focused on specific topics and software and have reinforced the education side of the Symposium. We want to sincerely thank all the colleagues and friends who organized the workshops, shared and disseminated their knowledge among the participants. The event could not have been organized without the support of the Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection of the National Research Council of Italy, through its Director Fausto Guzzetti and of all the other friends and colleagues who are working for this institution. The symposium was also supported by other institutions and persons in particular by Pierluigi de Rosa, from the Department of Physics & Geology of the University of Perugia, who has provided a substantial and fundamental aid in the organization of the event. We also thank the members of the OGRS steering Board, and in particular Olivier Ertz from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HEIG-VD), Stéphane Joost from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Erwan Bocher and Gwendal Petit from the CNRS LAB-STICC laboratory (Laboratoire des Sciences et Techniques de l'Information, de la Communication et de la Connaissance) in France. They supported the scientific organization of the event. We want to stress also the important patronages of the main administrative authorities of Perugia_ the Legislative Assembly of the Umbria Region, the Province of Perugia and the Municipality of Perugia. Finally we also want to mention the support provided to the symposium by the Italian Geological Society, the Hazard and Risk Commission of the International Geographical Union, the Italian OSGeo Local Chapter and the Society of Professional Engineers of the province of Perugia.

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