WA Node of the Australian Ocean Data Network (WAODN)

The diversity and amount of marine data being collected is increasing dramatically in Western Australia. Similar data is being collected by government, universities and private organisations, however it is rarely shared and access is a challenge. There is a need to improve the quality and discoverability of marine data available to support decision making, as well as the underlying infrastructure for accessing and disseminating marine spatial data in a timely manner.

The vision for the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) was to put in place in June 2011, an interoperable, online network of marine and coastal data resources. WA has been chosen as a demonstration for a ‘regional node’ of the AODN. This will build upon work already undertaken by IMOS, iVEC, WAMSI (Western Australian Marine Science Institution) and WASTAC (Western Australian Satellite Technology and Applications Consortium) in WA.

Launch of the WA-Australian Ocean Data Network

On the 7th August 2012 we celebrated a major step towards integrated marine data management in Western Australia through the launch of the WA Node of the AODN portal.

Building upon the AODN infrastructure, existing and new hardware / software would be used and installed (in particular the AODN portal and MEST) at iVEC and other locations as necessary. The two main categories for developing infrastructure will be:

• developing a comprehensive index of marine data and projects (metadata) in Western Australia and;
• developing the necessary hardware and software to support the delivery of marine data to users (portal)

Having a comprehensive index of marine projects will create a valuable resource for marine researchers to increase collaboration, reduce duplication and enhance re-use of data. This information is also harvested by ANDS to its Research Data Australia page (http://services.ands.org.au/home/orca/rda/) which creates highly-findable interlinked web pages that ensures the information in the iVEC MEST is searchable by Google and other search engines.

The WAODN will be the ‘enabler’ for the storage, management, discovery and exposure of marine data in Western Australia with the iVEC eResearch program playing a crucial role.

Images courtesy of Dr Steve Blake (WAMSI)

WAMSI is key part of the development of the WA-AODN. Recently an on online catalogue was implemented at iVEC describing the WAMSI research data. The catalogue links to search engines such Google for wider discovery, with the WAMSI data being stored in the iVEC Petascale Data Store as well as at other repositories. Data from these repositories is available through the WA-AODN.

A full case study on this project is available to download from here.