other marine data standards
There are a number of existing standards to improve the reuse and exchange of marine data. These are under consideration by MEDIN and should be used in the absence of anything more suitable.
metadata standards
The MEDIN Discovery metadata standard should be used by MEDIN partners. Other discovery metadata standards (which the MEDIN standard is derived from) include:
- The metadata discovery standard produced by INSPIRE, which is also based on ISO 19115.
- ISO 19115 (Geographic Information - Metadata) is an international standard that sets out a number of metadata fields for describing spatial information datasets. ISO 19139 (Geographic Information - Metadata - XML schema implementation) is the standard that aims to define an XML encoding for the metadata elements defined in ISO 19115.
- The UK GEMINI Discovery Metadata Standard is a defined element set for describing geo-spatial, discovery-level metadata within the United Kingdom. It is derived from, and therefore compliant with, ISO 19115 Geographic Information – Metadata and the UK eGovernment Metadata Standard (eGMS). GEMINI was originated by the Association for Geographic Information and is currently being revised to produce GEMINI 2.
data guidelines
A data guideline defines the data and information that must be stored with a data set so it can be easily used in the future. As this type of information may be very specific for different types of data, guidelines are required for each theme (benthic invertebrates, hydrography, etc). Currently available guidelines are split into broad categories. If there is no link to the guideline please contact enquiries@oceannet.org and we will request it for you.
Marine Geology and Geophysics:
Marine Survey Data Management Handbook v1. British Geological Survey
Mapping European Seabed Habitats (MESH) Guidelines
IHO standard for Hydrographic Surveys, Special Publication S-44
MCA requirements for survey reporting
ICES multibeam echosounder data
Marine Biology:
Seeley, B., Pass, J., Evans, J. and Lear, D. (2008) Establishing best practice for the documentation and dissemination of marine biological data
Physical/Biological/Chemical Oceanography Measurements:
The ICES Working Group on Data and Information Management
term lists
The NERC DataGrid makes its term lists available through a ‘vocab server’ that allows other applications to directly link into the term lists using web services. A user-friendly version of these lists are available here. In particular the parameter groups and codes that are used may be searched through a dynamic interface built as part of the European-funded SeaDataNet project.
Other term lists also exist, for example those used by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).
Using an agreed term for a species is also fundamental for sharing biological data. The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is an authoritative taxonomic list of species occurring in the marine environment and should be used by MEDIN partners.