A Marine Infonnation System for Ocean Predictions
41
The importance of data management has been stressed in many reports and international meetings at national, European and global level. In particular, the 1992
Earth Summit in Rio requested States to co-operate with international organisations
in order to: 'consider mechanisms to develop comparable and compatible techniques, validate methodologies and measurements, organise regular scientific
reviews, develop options for corrective measures, agree on formats and storage,
and communicate the information gathered to potential users'. The interpretation
ofthis Agenda 21 statement has important consequences on the organisation ofthe
data management organization in terms of (Manzella and Nair, 1998):
- data collection
- data and information flow
- storage
- quality assurance protocols
- analysis and dissemination
In practice the quality of data is based on concepts which comprises the quality
assurance of fieldwork, the quality control of the data and their proper use (lOC,
1995).
A particular attention must be devoted to data quality which is depending on:
• precision of instruments
• calibration of instruments
• in situ sampling methodology
• intercalibration/intercomparison
• data quality checklregional validation
• trained personnel.
There is a wide range of potential usage of a data management system: archiving,
dissemination, development of management plans, support to major experiments,
development monitoring systems, developments of standard for data processing,
etc. It is then vital to cIearly determine the objective of the data management system and the level of activity to be achieved. There are several groups of potential
clients that need support from an information system, but alI their needs cannot be
generally satisfied by a unique, centralised system. The potential users ofthe information system are:
- The research community. This community need to have data proces sed and
documented properIy in order to improve the effectiveness of scientific programmes.
- The environmental authorities. They need to regulate activities such as marine
resources exploitation, ferry and ship operations, ocean dumping, etc. Data and
information are then required for an assessment of the state of the system, the
trends and the effect of the human activities on the marine environment.
- Marine engineering communities. They need data available for (e.g.) building
and operating marine facilities.
41
The importance of data management has been stressed in many reports and international meetings at national, European and global level. In particular, the 1992
Earth Summit in Rio requested States to co-operate with international organisations
in order to: 'consider mechanisms to develop comparable and compatible techniques, validate methodologies and measurements, organise regular scientific
reviews, develop options for corrective measures, agree on formats and storage,
and communicate the information gathered to potential users'. The interpretation
ofthis Agenda 21 statement has important consequences on the organisation ofthe
data management organization in terms of (Manzella and Nair, 1998):
- data collection
- data and information flow
- storage
- quality assurance protocols
- analysis and dissemination
In practice the quality of data is based on concepts which comprises the quality
assurance of fieldwork, the quality control of the data and their proper use (lOC,
1995).
A particular attention must be devoted to data quality which is depending on:
• precision of instruments
• calibration of instruments
• in situ sampling methodology
• intercalibration/intercomparison
• data quality checklregional validation
• trained personnel.
There is a wide range of potential usage of a data management system: archiving,
dissemination, development of management plans, support to major experiments,
development monitoring systems, developments of standard for data processing,
etc. It is then vital to cIearly determine the objective of the data management system and the level of activity to be achieved. There are several groups of potential
clients that need support from an information system, but alI their needs cannot be
generally satisfied by a unique, centralised system. The potential users ofthe information system are:
- The research community. This community need to have data proces sed and
documented properIy in order to improve the effectiveness of scientific programmes.
- The environmental authorities. They need to regulate activities such as marine
resources exploitation, ferry and ship operations, ocean dumping, etc. Data and
information are then required for an assessment of the state of the system, the
trends and the effect of the human activities on the marine environment.
- Marine engineering communities. They need data available for (e.g.) building
and operating marine facilities.