Towards a pan-european infrastructure for marine data & information by ir Dick M.A. Schaap on behalf of the Sea-Search consortium

National Oceanographic Data Centres Europe has National Oceanographic Data Centres and Focal Points, that are skilled and experienced in Marine Data Management More than 10 years ago a closer cooperation was initiated: to achieve a more cost effective approach to ocean and marine data & information management to fulfill the growing demand for these services and support from scientists and other communities to stimulate more use of data & information resources and more interaction and transfer between users and providers

Development over time: – 1998 EC-MAST Programme: MAST Data Committee of NODC’s Code on Data Management in MAST projects Compiling large international environmental data sets Creating data thematic networks MAST Data Committee => EURONODIM network: Concerted action of 16 NODC’s + EC To provide users with central overview and better access to ocean and marine data & information in Europe To exchange experience and to cooperate in data & info management practices and methods EURONODIM => Sea-Search: Pan-European network for ocean & marine data and information management

Sea-Search project ( ) Pan-european dimension (30 countries – 33 partners) EURONODIM network expanded with NODC’s and MDC’s from Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Israel, Malta, Cyprus, Croatia, and Morocco. adopting the mechanisms and populate the meta-data directories of Sea-Search exchange of experiences between present and new partners concerning dm practices and methods. new partners contribute to dissemination of Sea-Search and its products in their countries

Sea-Search Partners 1. Marine Information Service (MARIS) - Netherlands 2. British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) - United Kingdom 3. Deutsches Ozeanographisches Datenzentrum (BSH - DOD) - Germany 4. Systemes D'Informations Scientifiques pour la Mer (IFREMER-SISMER) - France 5. National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) - Denmark 6. Hellenic National Oceanographic Data Centre (HNODC-NCMR) - Greece 7. Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia (IEO) - Spain 8. Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) - Sweden 9. Irish Marine Data Centre - Marine Institute (MI) - Ireland 10.Norwegian Marine Data Center - Institute of Marine Research (IMR) - Norway 11.Finnish Institute of Marine Research (FIMR) - Finland 12.Management Unit of the Mathematical Models of the North Sea (RBIN - MUMM)- Belgium 13.Marine Research Institute (MRI) - Iceland 14.Instituto Hidrografico (IHPT) - Portugal 15.ENEA La Spezia (ENEA) - Italy 16.Netherlands Oceanographic Data Committee (NODC) - Netherlands 17.Centre of Marine Research, Ministry of the Environment (CMT) - Lithuania 18.Institute of Meteorology and Water management, Maritime Branch (IMGW- OM) - Poland

Sea-Search partners 19.All Russian Research Institute of Hydro-Meteorological Information (RIHMI- WDC)- Russia 20.P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO-RAS) - Russia 21.Marine Hydrophysical Institute, Ukrainian National Academy of Science (MHI) - Ukraine 22.Institute of Oceanology, Department of Marine Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Science (IO-BAS) - Bulgaria 23.Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Geography and Geo-Ecology, UNESCO Oceanological Research Centre (TSU-UORC) - Georgia 24.Middle East Technical University, Institute of Marine Sciences (METU-IMC) - Turkey 25.National Institute for Marine Research and Development (NIMRD) - Romania 26.Institute Nationale de Recherche Halieutique(INRH) - Morocco 27.Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Latvia (IAE-UL) - Latvia 28.Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IORS) - Croatia 29.University of Malta, Physical Oceanography Unit (IOI-MOC) - Malta 30.Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute (IOLR) - Israel 31.Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, Laboratory of Physical Oceanography (DFMR-OS) - Cyprus 32.Tallinn Technical University, Marine Systems Institute (MSI) - Estonia 33.Instituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS) - Italy

Sea-Search Partner countries

Portal website and network of partner websites

European Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets (EDMED) with more than 3800 descriptions of Datasets from more than 590 Data holding centres

European Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets

Other Sea-Search products so far European Directory of Marine Environmental Research Projects (EDMERP) with more than 780 descriptions of Research Projects from more than 240 Research Institutes Directory of EC supported marine research with more than 530 descriptions of EC Research Projects European Cruise Summary Reports database, including on- line entry facilities

Sea-Search further activities  Development of Common Data Index (CDI) meta-database to individual datasets, held at partner databases  Development of a number of online Data Access pilots  Adoption of new technologies and data policies  adoption of open standards ISO19115  adoption of XML  adoption of Geographical Search and Presentation  use of high-bandwidth communication networks Further cooperation and exchange with Operational Oceanography, Remote Sensing, Coastal environmental management communities, Regional Conventions and EEA (Water Framework Directive – Marine Strategy)

Common Data Index - CDI: To give users a highly detailed insight in the availability and geographical spreading of marine data across the different Sea-Search partners and beyond. Low treshold for other dataholding organizations to join the CDI-network with up-to-date indexes to their data. Development includes definition and promotion of data dictionaries and XML schema following ISO19115 Implementation of online Geographic search and display functionalities

CDI Search & Updating infrastructure Source 1 BODC Source 2 IFREMER Source 3 BSH-DOD Source 4 ………. CDI-1 XSL CDI-2 XSL CDI-3 XSL CDI-4 XSL CDI database CDI Search & Navigation Geographic + Alphanumeric Interface User 1User 2User 3User 4User..

CDI- pilot user interface

Sea-Search involvement  Sea-Search partners are involved in many other European and international projects, contributing and safeguarding good data management  Some recent examples:  Services for the marine geological institutes in Europe in the projects EUMARSIN, EUROCORE and EUROSEISMICS See Services for EUROGOOS for the European Directory of Ocean-observing Systems (EDIOS) See Services for the MERSEA project in the framework of the Global Monitoring system for Environment and Security (GMES

User Interface - homepage:

Overall search results + factsheets per survey / line:

Pop-up enlarged map + only geo-samples layer on:

- simple search

- search results

Conclusions Sea-Search partners are leading data managers in the European marine & oceanographic community and oversee large volumes of marine environmental data. These data centres are divisions of major national marine and oceanographic institutes and governmental departments, ensuring long-term consolidation of the infrastructure The Sea-Search infrastructure is operational, has a strong foundation and is developing steady towards full detailed overview and access of data & information by internet Sea-Search partners widely support national and EC projects with data management and dissemination

Next step: SeaDataNet  further development of Sea-Search into pan-european and harmonised infrastructure for archival and provision of marine environmental data  providing full and transparant data access by internet  streamlining overall process from data acquisition, QC and storage to online dissemination and distribution  adopting overall standard QC protocols  providing standard automated data & information products

SeaDataNet long-term objectives  To give easy access to marine data currently collected by hundreds of organisations under as many different systems To construct a standardized system for managing the large and diverse data sets collected by the oceanographic fleets and the new automatic observation systems. To prepare synthetic value added information products To provide a fruitful basis for application users for producing their end-user products and services

SeaDataNet concept of Regional networks

Prototype architecture User portal SeaDataNet-DS Virtual Private Network Replicated Common Catalogue User portal NE-Atlantic Node E-Mediterranean Node W-Mediterranean Node Black-Sea Node Normalization Interface Baltic Database Normalization Interface North-East Atlantic Database Normalization Interface Eastern Mediterranean Database Normalization Interface Black Sea Database Normalization Interface Western Mediterranean Database Baltic Node

SeaDataNet proposal A proposal for SeaDataNet is now under preparation for the Research Infrastructures programme of the EC Involvement of more than 60 data centres from all coastal states around European Seas  Cooperation and involvement of many interest groups, active in application areas, such as EuroGOOS, GMES, ICZM, ERA, European Water Directive, Marine Regional Conventions, Marine Strategy