Information management and InfoBase

Access to detailed data on LTER Sites and LTSER Platforms: LTER InfoBase

A key feature of LTER is the emphasis on long-term management of data and information. Because LTER activities are planned with a long-term view, careful consideration is given to data management, storage of specimens, locations of measurement plots and so on. The same cannot always be said of shorter-term research. Data management in particular is an important issue within the LTER community, and there is much activity to improve methods of long-term data management, data sharing and provision of access to data.

Data as well as metadata are managed by the different Sites and Platforms and often the use of research and monitoring data is hampered by technical difficulties, legal difficulties and difficulties in the harmonisation and semantic translation of the contents. Although the aspect of data sharing is widespread in the field of science a lot efforts are taken to get the data and transform them to fit your own needs. Often this process can not repeated.

The functionalities required to support the integrated and interdisciplinary approach outlined above were conceptualized and key elements were implemented (Figure 1), comprising i) a concept for the technical framework for semantic data integration, ii) a core ontology for ecological and socio-ecological observations (SERONTO) and iii) a metadata collection and entry system (LTER InfoBase).

Information management can be understood as the application of management principles to the acquisition, organization, control, dissemination and use of information relevant to the effective operation of organizations of all kinds (Wilson 2002). 'Information' in this sense refers to all types of information of value, whether having their origin inside or outside the organization, including data resources, such as production data; records and files related, for example, to the personnel function; market research data; and competitive intelligence from a wide range of sources. Information management deals with the value, quality, ownership, use and security of information in the context of organizational performance (Wilson 2002).

Figure 1: Main pillars of LTER-Europe´s information management (modified original of J. Peterseil, with permission: http://www.lter-europe.net/Structure/key-documents)

A major challenge for a network like LTER-Europe arises from the distributed nature of its infrastructure and data. Due to this heterogeneity and operational aspects, it was decided to integrate data and databases through an ontology covering any kind of object investigated by LTER and all measured properties of these objects (parameters) across domains. In the ALTER-Net work package on data management, a basic concept was developed to allow the seamless integration of data in a network. Basic features, like the semantic data integration, were tested during the project. In a network like LTER-Europe, concerted processes on data sharing and data transformation are needed.

LTER InfoBase

An important step in information management is the provision of metadata on the network of sites. For this, tools to collect meta information for the LTER InfoBase and present it on the web were developed. The LTER InfoBase contains the meta information of the site network. See here for further details on LTER InfoBase, including how to access it.

Further information on LTER-Europe information management

If you need further information or details please contact johannes.peterseil@umweltbundesamt.at or for LTER InfoBase direct to LTERInfoBase@umweltbundesamt.at.