|
The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) has upgraded the online portal with over 50 updates and improvements to make searching for marine data easier. The MEDIN portal provides free access to nearly 16,000 marine datasets from around the United Kingdom.
|
|
|
|
The portal is newly compatible with Version 3.1 of the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard. Autocomplete is in place in all search boxes (see figure below) and it is now possible to search by season or month of the year. On the front page, a 'Data collections' sections allows quick access to all the MEDIN Data Archive Centre (DAC) holdings.
|
|
|
*Top Tip* You can do a phrase search by wrapping terms in double quotes i.e. "bird survey".
The map is decluttered upon searching for data as it only displays the bounding boxes from the first page of results. We now use the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) bathymetry as the background map. You can choose to have the map as the whole page view, or the text part as the whole page view. There is a new tool to measure distance on the map and you can upload your own shapefile and Web Map Service. The portal features information icons ('i') to find out what each metadata element means.
|
|
|
Over the last couple of years, we have been collating feedback from MEDIN portal users which has informed these changes. Contact us with your ideas and suggestions for further improvements you would like to see us implement.
Email: enquiries@medin.org.uk
|
|
|
MEDIN's September workshop
|
|
|
The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) and OceanWise successfully ran our second online workshop: Marine Data Management, Governance and the MEDIN toolset over 5 days between the 13th and 17th of September. The course was hosted on OceanTeacher Global Academy and attracted an international audience. The pie chart below shows the countries of delegates who interacted with the September MEDIN workshop.
|
|
During the week we provided interactive training and discussion sessions, quizzes, and assignments to help attendees become familiar with:
- Why data management is important and how it can and arguably should be part of an organisations business management framework alongside quality, occupational health and safety, and information security.
- The role of a data policy and management plan, and how data can be shared, published and re-used.
- Data management principles, standards, and components, including data lifecycle and quality, the role of vocabularies (or data dictionaries) and the importance of creating, maintaining, and publishing metadata.
- The resources and other benefits of MEDIN and practical instruction in the use of the MEDIN data guidelines, metadata standard, and controlled vocabularies.
- How data management ‘best practice’ can improve organisational efficiency in data acquisition, analysis, curation and sharing. This included data use with respect to corporate risk, re-use, audit and traceability, whilst at the same time helping minimising costs.
|
|
Here’s what some of the attendees said about the course:
"This course was brilliant and really helpful. The instructors were patient and well-spoken and the course structure will encourage you to actively learn during it."
"I found the course very useful and well organised. It being an online course has advantages: no travel costs and time to do other work in between and so on."
"The MEDIN toolset sections of the course were extremely well thought out with excellent structure in the course materials and assignments."
|
|
|
|
The static resources for this course will soon be made openly accessible, so keep an eye on the OceanTeacher course page if you want to read-up about MEDIN and data management best practise in your own time!
|
|
|
Unifying UK marine heritage data
|
|
|
The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) is excited to be part of a new project called 'Unpath'd Waters: Marine and Maritime Collections in the UK' led by Barney Sloane from Historic England. The project, which involves partners from over twenty organisations, including the three components of the MEDIN Historic Environment Data Archive Centre (the Archaeology Data Service, Historic Environment Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales), is one of five discovery projects funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) ‘Towards a National Collection’ programme.
|
|
|
Image above:
© Kevin Camidge and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society, for Historic England
Image left: Port bow view of the passenger liner Malta (1865) wrecked off the rocks in the bay on the north-east side of Kendijack Castle.
The project aims to reshape the future of UK marine heritage and expand access to records across all four UK nations. It will devise new ways of searching across collections of marine heritage data, visualising underwater landscapes, and identifying wrecks and artefacts from them. MEDIN's involvement will ensure that the resources developed through the project are interoperable with data and metadata from the wider marine community. The project will start in November 2021 and will last 3 years.
|
|
|
|
OceanWise awarded the UK National Tide Gauge Contract
|
|
The prestigious 'National Tide Gauge Network' (NTGN) contract from the Environment Agency (EA), who own and operate 42 'Class A' tide gauges on behalf of the UK Coastal Flood Forecasting (UKCFF), has been awarded to Hampshire based OceanWise Ltd who alongside RS Divers, will deliver this multi-year contract.
Image below: Map showing the NTGN sites around the UK
|
|
|
As Dr Mike Osborne, OceanWise's Managing Director explains, "We are delighted to have been given the responsibility of maintaining the NTGN on behalf of the nation. We already support and maintain numerous tide gauges, as well as weather stations, around the UK for our port customers, so this contract is a natural extension of our work. We are particularly looking forward to working with the EA and NOC to upgrade the network, using our expertise and experience in sensor, and data acquisition and management technologies, whilst at the same maintaining and enhancing the legacy 'bubbler' based systems to improve the reliability and quality of the data overall".
|
|
|
|
The purpose of the NTGN is to observe sea level throughout the UK in near real-time, as input to monitoring and forecasting coastal surge, and to provide a long-term and strategic record for climatological and coastal engineering studies. The network currently consists of 21 sites in England, 10 in Scotland, 7 in Wales, 2 in Northern Ireland, 1 in Jersey and 1 in the Isle of Man.
The data provided by the network of gauges is also used by academics and researchers for a variety of other scientific purposes. Several of the gauges are part of the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) and are of international and historical significance, with some datasets dating back to the 18th century.
|
|
|
|
Image above: An OceanWise site engineer servicing a tide gauge at a UK Port.
|
|
|
Government announces £24 million for cutting-edge science and fisheries research
|
|
Fishing businesses across the UK will now have access to £24 million of investment to develop technology, trial new gear and support world-class research to improve the productivity and long-term sustainability of the industry.
The funding released by the Government to support better science and innovation projects is the first part of £100 million UK Seafood Fund designed to level up coastal communities across the UK. It will ensure industry is able to process more fish landed in the UK, and create more job opportunities across the supply chain. It will also upskill the workforce and train new entrants, as well as investing in technology to put the UK at the cutting edge of new safe and sustainable fishing methods.
|
|
|
Environment Secretary, George Eustice, said:
“Over the last nine months, we have taken some important steps in the right direction for our fishing industry.
“We’ve taken our independent seat at the Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, we have agreed a quota exchange mechanism, and we have seen an uplift in quota for UK boats.
“Now, this major investment will benefit coastal communities up and down the UK. The first investment from our £100M Seafood Fund will boost science and innovation in the fishing industry and, coupled with our Fisheries Act, help us ensure that we have the most sustainable fleet in the world.”
|
|
|
|
The £100 million fund has been divided into three pillars:
- The Science and Innovation pillar, launched today, will see the fishing and seafood industry supported to work jointly with scientists to research new types of more productive and sustainable fishing gear, gather new data to more sustainably manage the UK’s fish stocks, and trial projects such as new biodegradable packaging for chilled fish and seafood to reduce single-use plastics. These advancements in science and research will boost efficiency and help to ensure the long term sustainability of the industry.
- An Infrastructure pillar, to be announced later in the Autumn, will invest in projects to strengthen the supply chain in the UK, allowing the industry to make the most of increases in quota secured through the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Potential projects include funding for the modernisation of ports, logistic hubs, freezing facilities, improvements to processing plants and new fish markets.
- A further Skills and Training pillar will support career opportunities and upskilling in the sector to ensure the industry has the right skills, capacity, and expertise. This will be a significant boost for training in the industry, which often has lacked formal routes for training and progression.
Further detail on how to bid for funding for both of these schemes will be announced in due course.
|
|
|
Investing in our Digital Future
|
|
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is delighted to have been awarded CoreTrustSeal certification in October 2021. Certification is based on requirements established by the World Data Systems (WDS) and the Data Seal of Approval (DSA) reflecting the core characteristics of trustworthy data repositories. HES is the accredited digital repository for heritage data in Scotland, and along with the Archaeology Data Service (ADS), one of only two accredited repositories for heritage data in the UK. Both organisations are part of MEDIN’s federated Historic Environment Data Archive Centre and partners in the innovative UKRI Towards a National Collection funded 'Unpath'd Waters: Marine and Maritime Collections in the UK' project commencing in November. CTS certification provides both depositors and funding agencies with the reassurance that data deposited with HES is preserved and remains accessible for future generations.
Digital data is far more vulnerable to irrecoverable damage than physical drawings or photographs. Digital media (CDs, DVDs, memory sticks etc) must be transferred into a preservation system within a relatively short period of time otherwise important archive about the historic environment could be lost. The rapid pace of technological change means that hardware, software and storage media can become obsolete and inaccessible within a short period. This poses a significant threat to the survival of this resource for future generations.
|
|
|
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1404999
Detail of a carved wooden putto or cherub recorded during the Archaeological Diving Unit diver inspection of The Swan in 992. Like digital data, organic material preserved in waterlogged and submerged conditions, requires careful conservation to ensure continued preservation when transferred to a different environment.
|
|
To meet preservation standards, we undertook a large-scale data cleaning exercise, auditing our entire digital archive to enforce new rules for appropriate standards conformance. We have also developed new guidance for depositors including recommendations for file formats for long term preservation and access which can all be found on our depositor information page on Canmore.
We have greatly improved our backup infrastructure and resilience. Adding a Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device or “FRED” to our ‘off network’ quarantine workstation allows us to view and create copies of digital media without damage or alteration of the original media.
Integrating Preservica (specialist preservation software) into our own repository service tools and catalogue ensures the continued accuracy and integrity of our digital records. More of our processes are automated to achieve greater value from existing resources. Preservica’s suite of migration pathways enables us to automatically generate dissemination copies upon ingest making more content publicly available in a streamlined way.
HES Archives currently holds more than 1.2 million catalogued digital items which equates to around 52 terabytes (TB) of archived data. Although our maritime holdings are a relatively small part of our existing holdings, they provide significant records of underwater archaeological investigations.
|
|
Highlights of our marine digital holdings include archive relating to the early 17 th century Kinlochbervie Wreck and the wreck of The Swan, which foundered off Duart Point, Isle of Mull on 13th September 1653. Online galleries present highlights from our marine collections, the work of Paula and Colin Martin, noted underwater archaeologists as well as a selection of underwater dive footage converted from VHS to digital format with the support of MEDIN. |
|
|
|
Call for Distribution of FISP assessor and Marine Expert Database
|
|
|
To support Defra in its delivery of research which supports decision making and policy development they would like to create a database of subject matter experts in fisheries, aquaculture, marine and/or seafood research who can provide ad hoc expert input in the following areas:
- Peer review of research publications;
- Scientific challenge to support policy-making;
- Knowledge of the current research landscape;
- Steering groups and/or expert panels.
Defra are also looking for experts to act as independent assessors for applications to the Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) element of the £100 million UK Seafood Fund. Responsibilities will include scoring applications and participating in a moderation panel to recommend projects for funding (maximum funding allocation is £300,000). FISP Assessors will be remunerated.
If you are interested in either being an assessor for the FISP scheme or joining the Marine Expert Database please register here by 26 th October. Work will be allocated at Defra’s discretion and dependent upon acceptance of the relevant terms and conditions. |
|
|
|
|
Friday 22nd Oct 2021 11:00GMT – 
