INTER-AGENCY COMMITTEE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Marine Environmental Data (MED) Action Group and Co-ordinators

ANNUAL REPORT 2006

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The primary aim of the IACMST Marine Environmental Data Coordination activity is to improve access to UK marine environmental data for scientific research, quality of life and wealth creation. Its core activities are: to develop, maintain and make available inventories of data; to improve mechanisms to facilitate data exchange (including contributing UK data to global databases); to develop guidelines for data management; and to raise the visibility of the UK Marine Environmental Data Network.

This MED Annual Report covers the tenth full year of activities of the Marine Environmental Data (MED) Coordinators and associated Action Group (MEDAG). The Action Group funders met in March and June, and a slightly expanded group met in December (Annex 1). The MED Coordination 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 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency, the Fisheries Research Services of the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (FRS/SEERAD), the Met Office and the UK Hydrographic Office. At the beginning of the year, the MEDAG Review Group set up by IACMST completed a comprehensive review of MEDAG. Its conclusions were endorsed by IACMST at its January meeting and implementation of its recommendations is underway.

The activity operates in the form of a distributed network between marine environmental data managers in the various agencies and user groups. The focus is provided by the MED Coordinator (funded by NERC) assisted by a second full time post, funded by subscriptions from departments and agencies above, and other BODC staff on an ad hoc basis. Thus, the MED Network Team now comprises: Dr. Lesley Rickards, Dr. Gaynor Evans and Dr. Mark Charlesworth.

At the end of 2005 a plan of work was agreed by the MEDAG members: this planned (and actual) distribution of effort is shown in Figure 1 of the main report. Table 1 (main report) shows in more detail the activities from the agreed work plan accompanied by summaries on the progress of each activity and whether they have been completed. Most activities have been successfully completed, in particular:

• All of the funding organisations except the EA have been visited and discussions held on future MEDAG work. This has formed the basis for developing a draft five year plan which has been distributed for comment.

• Three products have been completed:

• UK Wave Data Catalogue (available from the OceanNET web-site): includes metadata for 354 wave data sets from around the UK, which can be queried via an interactive map. See:

www.oceannet.org/medag/data_catalogues/uk_wave_catalogue/wave_cat_index.html .

• UK Moored Current Meter Data Set DVD: includes time series measurements of ocean currents from approximately 4000 moored instruments, collected in the shelf seas around the British Isles bounded by the area 48N – 62N, 20W – 10E. Data are presented as ASCII files with accompanying html documentation.

• Marine and Coastal Photographs and Videos: their availability uses and curation. This is a report of the workshop held in November 2005 and includes 14 articles that were presented as papers or posters at the workshop and also a summary and recommendations.

• Work has continued updating the metadata catalogues; this year particular emphasis has been given to the UK Cruise Inventory. In addition, discussions on an upgraded marine monitoring metadatabase have taken place - this likely to come to fruition over the next year and will most probably be known as the UK Directory of Marine Observing Systems (UKDMOS).

• Further collaboration with MDIP including developing the MDIP web-site (funded by MDIP) and co-chairing the MDIP Data Archiving Centre (DAC) Working Group.

The five year forward look was discussed at the December MEDAG meeting and the feedback incorporated into the draft (attached the main report as Annex 3). A background paper, to provide context to the MEDAG five year forward look, was also produced detailing UK and international data drivers and initiatives relevant to MEDAG activities. Due to the number of data drivers and initiatives that are currently under development and are likely to influence the work of MEDAG, it is anticipated that the plan will be reviewed and updated annually. The forward look also took into account the recommendations of the MEDAG Review.

The forward look begins with the vision statement:

“The Marine Environmental Data Action Group (MEDAG) and MED Coordinators will provide data management support and coordination for the UK marine community to improve access to and availability of marine environmental data and information of all types.”

This will be achieved by development in a number of key areas. These will continue the core activities undertaken by the MED Coordinators together with developing new areas of work via special projects with input, guidance and increased participation from the MEDAG members. Anticipated deliverables and their delivery dates are given for each of the key areas. These key areas are:

• Developing catalogues and standards

• Providing coordination of UK activities to ensure best possible use of resources

• Improving communication and awareness of MEDAG and other data initiatives

• Providing international coordination, awareness and knowledge transfer

• Providing data to global marine data centres and networks

• Coordination with, and support of, MDIP

• Coordination with, and support of, GOOSAG

• Making a difference in specific data themes or data management

At present (2006/07) funding is available from NERC (through BODC) to fund one MED Coordinator post and further funding is contributed by Defra, EA, FRS/SEERAD, Met Office and UKHO. This latter is currently £49k per annum. In the past NERC has been able to charge low overheads (i.e. 46%) and thus these contributions have funded a second post and running costs (e.g. travel and subsistence, printing costs for reports and brochures). In the near future NERC will have to charge FEC, which means that the current level of contributions will only fund approximately half a post. Therefore to maintain the present level of activity and deliverables additional funding needs to be identified.

A more detailed work plan has been developed for 2007; this can be found in Section 10 of the main report. Histograms showing the distribution of effort are also included; these show the effort in terms of person months of effort and the financial cost. These histograms also indicate the shortfall in funding if costs are on an 80% FEC basis (as opposed to the 46% overhead currently charged).