INTER-AGENCY COMMITTEE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (IACMST) |
National Marine Environmental Data (MED) Co-ordinator |
ANNUAL REPORT 2000 - SUMMARY |
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Introduction |
This summary of the Annual Report covers the fourth year of activities of the National Marine Environmental Data (MED) Co-ordinator and associated Action Group. The MED co-ordination activity is a partnership between Government departments and agencies with an interest in marine environmental data. It is currently co-funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), the Fisheries Research Services of the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department (FRS/SERAD), the Environment Agency (EA), the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO), the Met. Office, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). The project operates in the form of a distributed network between the marine environmental data managers in the various agencies and user groups. The focus is provided by the MED Co-ordinator assisted, since October, by a second full-time post. Progress against the 2000 Action List items is summarised below (the Action List and Milestones are in the main report), starting with a brief review of the expansion of the MED Network activity into the coastal zone. |
Coastal data activities |
The MED Action Group organised a meeting in February to discuss issues relating to coastal zone data. The aim of the meeting was to follow up the recommendations and actions from the MAFF/CEFAS Workshop held the previous June. Three key areas were identified for further development: increased co-ordination of coastal data initiatives, including better sign-posting and profile raising; the need for an easily accessible common base map, freely available or available at a reasonable cost; and simplified licensing agreements and less expensive pricing of data. A further workshop was held in September to ascertain stakeholder views and comments, and to take steps towards agreeing a specification for a digital base map of the UK coastal zone. The UK Hydrographic Office, Ordnance Survey and British Geological Survey have been evaluating ways of providing integrated data to form a digital coastal zone base map and produced a demonstration data set for the workshop. This work is, in part, being driven by the initiatives of modernising government, improved service delivery, joined-up government and joined-up geography. Following on from a successful expression of interest, a full proposal has been submitted to the Government's "Invest to Save" budget. |
Raising the visibility of MED activities |
A brochure and a mousemat advertising the UK Marine Environmental Data Network and its associated web site, OceanNET (www.oceannet.org), were produced and widely distributed during the year. The MED Co-ordinator has given presentations at various meetings during the year describing the work of the MED network and fostering collaboration with other initiatives. |
Developing and maintaining data inventories |
One of the key requirements for providing an overview of marine environmental data is the production of data catalogues. During the year, much of the contact information has been reviewed and updated in the UK Directory of Marine Environmental Data. Following on from this, the entries were sent back to their originators for updates and additional data set descriptions. A web interface has also been designed to allow on-line searching of the database. A web interface has also been developed for the UK Cruise Inventory. This includes information on over 4500 cruises. New information is added to the database as it is received. Further progress has been made in electronically scanning the accompanying paper cruise track charts (1000 have been completed this year bringing the total to 2800). The UK Inventory of Marine Monitoring Observations is currently being updated. A new database has been designed and the existing information loaded. A web interface is being implemented which is currently under test. It will shortly become available. |
Developing data management guidelines |
A workshop "Marine Oceanographic Collections - their value, use and future", was held in April at the Natural History Museum (NHM), just prior to their "Nature's Treasurehouses" Conference. The workshop, which considered oceanographic collections and their role in modern research, was one of the best received events of Nature's Treasurehouses. Participants agreed that it was very useful having the meeting open to both biologists and geologists; cross discipline research should be encouraged. Both groups face similar problems, the major one being a lack of long term funding for sample curation. Funding bodies often set up relatively short-term projects and make no provision for the longer term preservation of samples. A Workshop Report will be published as an IACMST Information Document. There are plans for a further meeting in 12-18 months time. |
Mechanisms to facilitate data exchange |
The meeting of the IOC International Data and Information Exchange committee (IODE XVI) was held in November. The MED Co-ordinator led the UK delegation. The UK contributes actively to IODE, and the UK report of the meeting is included as an Annex to the main report. Further progress has been made over the year in forwarding temperature and salinity data from 45 NERC cruises to ICES. The annual supply of these data from FRS and CEFAS cruises continues. |
A proposed Action and Milestone List for 2001 is included in the main report. |
The emphasis in the coming year will be on continuing to raise the visibility of the network, in particular by enhancing the OceanNET web site; continuing to develop the inventories of marine environmental data, with a particular emphasis on data collected in the coastal region; and supplying data to the world data centre system for inclusion in global data sets. In addition, more funding is being sought for expanding the coastal data activities. A joint project with the GOOS Action Group will also be undertaken to produce an Ocean Climate Status Report for the waters around the UK, and to develop a prototype web-based time series atlas. |
Lesley J. Rickards |