CoastGIS’99: geomatics and coastal environment
Ceux-ci ont été mis en valeur lors d’une conférence d’experts (InfoCoast : the Local Challenge), comprenant le CIFG et une partie des dirigeants locaux de la zone côtière. Cet article rapporte les résultats de la
conférence qui entreront dans le développement du futur système de
démonstration et renforceront la stratégie intégrée dans la gestion de
l’information de la zone côtière.
Introduction
The amount of data and information for coastal zone management is
growing at a phenomenal rate (e.g. the exponential growth of environmental treaties since 1950; French, 1995). However, it has been
little over a decade since the issue of data and information started
appearing in the coastal zone management literature in its own right.
From an analogue viewpoint, Hooke (1988) stressed the need for cataloguing and inventories”, bringing together the information at the
base of policy implementation and design. There are direct parallels with
this and the current metadata provision issue.
Data and information bases are essential tools for current ICZM, helping
reduce a high level of uncertainty and providing decision makers with
the means of identifying relevant coastal issues (Unep, 1995; French,
1997). The use of data and information in the coastal zone has largely
been scientific in nature and specialized, having a marginalising effect
on information, which may have the effect of loss of contact with the
coastal stakeholder (Davos, 1998). A consultation process that involves
the coastal stakeholder from the beginning, making use of their perceptions and access to relevant technology, was recommended. This
was stressed in Agenda 21 of the Rio Earth Summit (French, 1997).
Coupled with this desire to consult with the stakeholders is a move
towards the holistic view, with wide-ranging information taken into
account (Doody, 1996). Recently, data and information have been
collected and collated for numerous individual projects of local scale.
This has meant that there is a large volume of data, but it is fragmented,
leaving substantial gaps. The data may also be largely undocumented,
so it may be of uncertain quality. An overall strategic viewpoint is called
for, where these gaps can be identified and prioritized, making for an
issue and user-led situation, as opposed to a data-led situation (Busby,
1999; EC, 1999).
A call for a holistic viewpoint is also a call to physically integrate data
and information. Historically, this has been difficult and expensive to do
(disparate locations, incompatible formats) and has been regarded as one
of the most complex tasks in data management (Busby, 1999; Unep,
1995). A case in point is the effort made to collate data for the Land-Ocean
Interaction Study (LOIS) Overview CD-ROM (Morris ct al., 1999).
The use of metadata (or ‘data about data’) has become a way to bring
data together into one base without physically integrating them. By
bringing summary information to the attention of users, the metadatabase facilitates the discovery and usage of disparate data sets (in effect,
94
Ceux-ci ont été mis en valeur lors d’une conférence d’experts (InfoCoast : the Local Challenge), comprenant le CIFG et une partie des dirigeants locaux de la zone côtière. Cet article rapporte les résultats de la
conférence qui entreront dans le développement du futur système de
démonstration et renforceront la stratégie intégrée dans la gestion de
l’information de la zone côtière.
Introduction
The amount of data and information for coastal zone management is
growing at a phenomenal rate (e.g. the exponential growth of environmental treaties since 1950; French, 1995). However, it has been
little over a decade since the issue of data and information started
appearing in the coastal zone management literature in its own right.
From an analogue viewpoint, Hooke (1988) stressed the need for cataloguing and inventories”, bringing together the information at the
base of policy implementation and design. There are direct parallels with
this and the current metadata provision issue.
Data and information bases are essential tools for current ICZM, helping
reduce a high level of uncertainty and providing decision makers with
the means of identifying relevant coastal issues (Unep, 1995; French,
1997). The use of data and information in the coastal zone has largely
been scientific in nature and specialized, having a marginalising effect
on information, which may have the effect of loss of contact with the
coastal stakeholder (Davos, 1998). A consultation process that involves
the coastal stakeholder from the beginning, making use of their perceptions and access to relevant technology, was recommended. This
was stressed in Agenda 21 of the Rio Earth Summit (French, 1997).
Coupled with this desire to consult with the stakeholders is a move
towards the holistic view, with wide-ranging information taken into
account (Doody, 1996). Recently, data and information have been
collected and collated for numerous individual projects of local scale.
This has meant that there is a large volume of data, but it is fragmented,
leaving substantial gaps. The data may also be largely undocumented,
so it may be of uncertain quality. An overall strategic viewpoint is called
for, where these gaps can be identified and prioritized, making for an
issue and user-led situation, as opposed to a data-led situation (Busby,
1999; EC, 1999).
A call for a holistic viewpoint is also a call to physically integrate data
and information. Historically, this has been difficult and expensive to do
(disparate locations, incompatible formats) and has been regarded as one
of the most complex tasks in data management (Busby, 1999; Unep,
1995). A case in point is the effort made to collate data for the Land-Ocean
Interaction Study (LOIS) Overview CD-ROM (Morris ct al., 1999).
The use of metadata (or ‘data about data’) has become a way to bring
data together into one base without physically integrating them. By
bringing summary information to the attention of users, the metadatabase facilitates the discovery and usage of disparate data sets (in effect,
94