Providing information on environmental change: data management strategies and Internet access approaches within the UK Environmental Change Network

The interpretation and presentation of environmental data will have a crucial role to play in helping to solve the environmental problems which face national governments and regional authorities. Efficient information management and access systems are essential if the benefits of large-scale data capture programmes are to be realised. Data from existing ground-based monitoring systems are frequently under-used because of the difficulty of accessing the data and assessing whether they contain anything of relevance, and because of the delay between data capture and availability. The UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) is taking an integrated approach to information management which aims to achieve a seamless transition from data capture through to access and interpretation tools for the detection of patterns of change. The ECN is the UK's multi-disciplinary, long-term monitoring network, established to provide comparable, reliable, long-term runs of data on environmental change. Data quality standards are maintained through quality control, assessment and validation procedures, and rules for managing the resulting information within the data and meta-database. Rapid access to ECN meta-information and summary data is provided over the Internet using the World Wide Web with direct database links. A WWW prototype system for providing interpreted information based on simple models showing the main patterns in the data has been developed, with the eventual aim of providing an environmental information and interpretation system.