1. REMOTE SITE MANAGEMENT OBJCTIVES ·To provide global coverage of readily accessible, consistently presented, relevant data for use by a diverse group of users. ·To permit data downloading, data exploration, and data transformation ·To link to and format data for the online modeling with the LOICZVIEW geospatial clustering tool. ·To enable automatic data exchange and transfer with distributed online data sources residing in heterogeneous platforms. An internet-based tool is built into the system to enable remote management, data entry, and editing of all the database contents of the site. ABSTRACT Data, Data Everywhere - And Not a Way to Choose Misgna, G; Bartley, J D; Buddemeier, R W The proliferation of electronic data sets has been a mixed blessing for researchers and others interested in environmental and biological information. The information potential in the expanding data offerings is often obscured or unrealized by the inability of would- be users to make effective evaluations and comparisons of data sets for the purposes of interest to them. Even within fairly well-defined user communities and applications, data selection can be a tedious and uncertain process. In the projects supported by the joint database of the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) and the Biogeography of the Hexacorallia projects, the intention is to make useful, relevant data broadly available to non-specialist and multidisciplinary user communities. This requires standard formats for visualization and presentation, a convenient means of reviewing the variables and datasets available, ready access to both local and primary metadata, and importantly, means of visualizing both the numerical and the geographic distributions of the data within a given set. These needs have been addressed by adopting a grid system with appropriate scale and classifications, and by constructing a dynamic `front end' for a web-served relational database. This design provides rapid access and flexible development. This presentation describes not only the underlying structures, but also some of the tools provided as part of the data selection and download process. These permit the user to select geographic or numerical ranges, filter or transform the data, exclude or modify selected ranges of values, view single-variable distributions as histograms or scatter plots, and construct correlation matrices for multiple variables. For a relatively modest investment of development time, these features greatly increase both the use, and the appropriateness of the use, of the data. Supported by NSF grants DEB-9521819 and DEB-9978106 to Daphne G. Fautin (in the program Partnerships to Enhance Expertise in Taxonomy), and OCE-0003970 to DGF and R. W. Buddemeier (in the National Oceanographic Partnership Program) COASTAL AND MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL DATABASE Misgna, G, gmisgna@kgs.ukans.edu, Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas 1930 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047 Bartley, J D, jbartley@kgs.ukans.edu, Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas 1930 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047 Buddemeier, R W, buddrw@ku.edu, Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas 1930 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047

2. Source Raw data is processed in GIS and loaded in to Oracle RDBMS. DATA SOURCES AND FORMATS ONLINE CONTENT PRESENTATION DATA EXPLORATION AND TRANSFORMATION DATA RETRIEVAL Content database Presentation table Metadata table Configuration table Raw data is obtained from various online sources. It comes in various formats including image, proprietary, or binary formats. APACHE WEB AND COLDFUSION SERVERS Content database, presentation information, metadata, and configuration information are built in to separate database tables for easy site management and flexibility. ~ 124 variables ORACLE DATABASE SERVER http://deuteron.kgs.ukans.edu/hexacoral/envirodata/main.htm Data is presented online in an intuitive and user friendly manner. It permits data downloading, data exploration, data transformation and is also linked to and formatted for the LOICZVIEW geospatial clustering tool. Image formatSources of other formats Binary format

3. Automatic server-to server or web interaction and data exchange with other online data sources. Interoperability is achieved through XML/GML/Delimited text data transfer protocols. CephBase Hexacorallia Loiczview XML / Delimited text http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/biogeo/biogeo.cfm http://www.kgs.ukans.edu/Hexacoral/ http://www.palantir.swarthmore.edu/loicz/ DISTRIBUTED DATABASES INTERCOMMUNICATION