Work Package 8 Data Management Meeting 13-14 Sept 2012 Akureyri, Iceland

Download full report for this meeting

 

A two-day data management meeting took place in Akureyri, IS, between the WP8 team (H. Lantuit, K. Elger, J.-P. Lanckman, Ævar Karl Karlsson) and GTN-P (represented by H. Lantuit and I. May, the executive director of the IPA). An overview on the main results are given here, the minutes of the workshop are in the Appendix (11.5).

After a short demonstration of the database structure and online interface, several decisions were made on detailed database-related questions (e.g. if and how certain parameters are implemented in the database, how to calculate the mean elevation in a grid, definition of a year – solar vs. hydrological, etc.) and the formulation of open questions to address to the GTN-P EC in November.

It was agreed on the following data submission process:

  • There are three kinds of hierarchies: (1) the site manager (SM), (2) the National Correspondent (NC), and (3) the Database Administrator (Admin).
  • During the year the SM can permanently continuously? (Another suggestion was: “at any time”) submit his/ her data of 1 – x boreholes/ CALM grids… to the database (he/ she has to register to become a SM).
  • There will be one period (about 2 months – this has to be discussed) during the year, when submission by the SM is not possible. Within this period, the NC will check the data for completeness and accuracy. If any problems arise, he will contact the IBM again to solve it.
  • After the two months period the SM and/ or NC (?) submits the data to the Admin who will go through it again and finally publish it.
  • After submitting to the Admin, changes will be only possible by contacting the Admin.
  • Data levels
  • Coordinates, geographic location accuracy
  • Quality and validity of spatial data sets (1) time resolution, (2) degree of conformity with the implementation rules, (3) metadata completeness, and (4) Instrumentation
  • Keywords and semantic links
  • Classification of spatial data and services
  • Public authorities responsible for establishment, management, maintenance and distribution of the data sets and services.
  • Conditions applying to the access and use

A quality control shall be included in the database. It will automatically calculate the quality of the data based on:

A long session was dedicated to the definition of metadata fields based on the commented (by the GTN-P EC) proposal of the Copenhagen meeting (section 4.2). The main results were:

The metadata will be divided in two general parts

General site-related metadata. A site may have several boreholes, one or two calm grids, an Eddy tower, a climate station, etc.).

The site-related metadata will be integrated by the data manager based on existing information (e.g. CALM or TSP metadata) and in cooperation with the national correspondent/ or data producer.

The general aim is to retrieve as much site-related information from global datasets (e.g. maps, DEM). If maps are not available, drop-down menus are the next choice. This is essential for an effective search in the DB and also for statistics. If neither is possible (and to keep existing information) free text fields are created.

For each site, the system will calculate an overview coordinate (centroid of all elements at the site) and also provide a general elevation (from DEM). Both are not exact values, but can be used for overview maps, etc. (and also help to identify typing errors). Parameter-specific metadata: for boreholes, CALM grids, or additional measure stations (a “joker” for additional parameters) entered by the data producer/ national correspondent.

Each borehole/ CALM grid has one or several managers who’s names, affiliations and country will be entered here. This keeps track of the country running and/ or financing a borehole/ CALM grid (example case: one country manages a borehole in another country).

Detailed geographical coordinates for each borehole are requested. For CALM grids, the coordinate of the lower left node of the grid is requested. It might be useful and necessary to implement a coordinate transformation tool in the DMS.

Strategy and Implementation Plan