1. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Enabling Parameter Discovery Roy Lowry, Michael Hughes & Laura Bird British Oceanographic Data Centre

2. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 Background In the 1980s oceanographic data management handled <20 parameters During the 1990s the number of parameters handled increased dramatically, largely due to JGOFS BODC adopted a controlled vocabulary approach to parameter management A parameter dictionary with >9000 entries has been developed EnParDis is a project to build on this

3. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 Background BODC’s data holdings are marked up with controlled vocabulary codes Mark-up requires copious quantities of skilled labour In an ideal world the data would be marked up by scientists using a standard dictionary This won’t happen unless scientists can see benefits, such as improved data access EnParDis aims to address this

4. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Objectives Enhance the BODC Parameter Dictionary into a worthy international standard vocabulary. Develop interoperability between the BODC Parameter Dictionary and other organisations’ dictionaries. Examine the potential of semantic and ontological tools for dictionary management and parameter discovery.

5. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Work Outline Work Package 1  Map biological entities in the dictionary to ITIS  Implement ITIS taxonomy as a dictionary parameter grouping tool

6. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Work Outline Work Package 2  Develop keyword group mappings (SeaSearch and GCMD)  Investigate feasibility of user- definable groupings  Investigate techniques to support parameter interconversions (e.g. unit conversions)

7. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Work Outline Work Package 3  Expand the BODC dictionary to cover other known dictionaries  SISMER (France)  SMHI (Sweden)  DOD (Germany)  Pangaea (Germany)  Rijkwaterstaat (Netherlands)  US JGOFS  MEDS (Canada)  BIO (Canada)  ICES Contaminants Database  CF?  Any others I can find

8. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Work Outline Work Package 3 (continued)  Review the current dictionary  Revise implementation structure – Eliminate classification that is hard- coded into data markup  Improve the clarity of parameter descriptions  Improve the valid parameter value ranges stored in the dictionary  Investigate if dictionary could be mapped through a data model into an ontology

9. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Progress WP1 Progress  ITIS database installed at BODC  Initial mapping between dictionary biological entities and ITIS  Over 100 spellings in the dictionary standardised to ITIS  A couple of errors in ITIS identified and their correction agreed  163 additional genera/species submitted to go to ITIS. A further 81 identified for submission  Access and Web taxonomic browser demonstrators developed

10. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Progress WP1 Taxonomic Browser  Driven by two tables  Map between BODC code and ITIS code plus parameter measured  Implementation of ITIS Taxonomy – ITIS code plus taxonomy (27 levels) encoded in a 216-byte string  Allows all BODC codes for a given parameter to be extracted at any taxonomic level (eg abundance in water column for all species of a given genus)

11. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Progress WP1 Next Stage  Operational implementation of ITIS mapping  Revision of map design to facilitate operation with RIKZ DONAR and WADI data models  Map maintenance protocols  ITIS database update protocols  Incorporation of demonstrator technology into BODC data retrieval tools

12. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnParDis Progress WP2 Progress  First-cut mapping to GCMD parameter valids  SEASEARCH groupings implemented (in June) WP2 Next Stage  Consultations with GCMD on their parameter valids  Implementation of GCMD groupings as an alternative to SEASEARCH  Look into potential of RDF or OWL for parameter classification management

13. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 EnparDis Progress WP3 Progress  Work commenced on RIKZ, SISMER and US JGOFS manual mappings  Dictionary entries in preparation to fill gaps identified by mappings  Units abbreviated titles standardised (NPL)  Revised dictionary structure implemented WP3 Next Stage  Continue mappings and dictionary extension  Research more elegant techniques for large scale mappings (semantic analysis?)  Data model mapping and ontology research

14. GE/BCDMEP Meeting March 2004 Contacting EnParDis An e-mail discussion list has been set up for EnParDis List address is: enpardis@mailman.nerc-bidston.ac.uk URL for subscription to the list: mailman.nerc-bidston.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/enpardis