Best Practices for Environmental Data Management Systems

Herbert Kroehl
CODATA Task Group on Virtual Laboratories and EGY Working Group on Best Practices

Recognizing the challenges presented by the rapid growth in the volume and multi-disciplinary use of scientific and technical data, the CODATA Task Group on Virtual Laboratories in cooperation with the Electronic Geophysical Year convened a group to discuss and define a set of best practices for environmental data management systems.  Over the past 10 years, these online systems have undergone a significant evolution and the current best practices were gleaned from the experiences of those responsible for the successful systems.  A limited number of data managers, system developers and scientific users were invited to attend the meeting, held in the summer of 2006 in Boulder, Colorado.  Discussions focused on critical components including ease of use, interoperability, required documentation, availability, integrated functionality, consistent access, attribution, and stewardship of environmental data.

The group’s set of best practices will be presented.

Keywords: Keywords: Data Management Systems, Environmental Data