Standardised data collection and exchange – ecology site survey case study

Dr Siddeswara Guru¹, Dr Andrew  Tokmakoff², Mr Kheeran Dharmawardena³, Mr Edmond Chuc¹

¹University Of Queensland, Indooroopilly , Australia
²University of Adelaide, Urrbrae, Australia
³Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment, Canberra, Australia

Typically, site-based ecology monitoring surveys are performed by collecting data and specimen samples on domain features using human and sensor observations. These data are collected by different states/territories, Commonwealth government agencies and individual researchers. Currently, there is no standard way to share and exchange site-based survey data between different jurisdictions. Often, data sharing between agencies is a manual process.

TERN, in collaboration with the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and Energy (DAWE) is working on the development of standard data collection protocols and associated tooling and exchange standards for the Regional Land Care (RLP) program and the Digital Environmental Assessment Program (DEAP). The initiative involves the design and development of data collection infrastructure and defining a standard information model and data exchange protocol for the collected ecological survey data.  The overall project aims to provide standards for site-based ecology monitoring from data collection through to publication, with the benefit of collecting high-quality data and improving data sharing and integration. The use of standard protocols and techniques for data collection and representation will improve the ease of understanding of data leading to a substantial increase in reusability.

During this BoF, we will discuss needs and challenges in standardising data protocols and methods, collection, representation, and exchange. Examples from the ecology domain will be presented to showcase the standardisation process for monitoring protocols and methods, the information model and inter-repository data exchange.

Biography:

Siddeswara Guru is the program lead for the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network

(TERN) Data Services and Analytics Platform. He initiates, coordinates and manages data

e-infrastructure and analytics projects apart from overseeing the data and information

management activities across TERN.