The EnviDat Concept for an Institutional Environmental Data Portal

Authors

  • Ionuț Iosifescu Enescu Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1770-7833
  • Gian-Kasper Plattner Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
  • Lucia Espona Pernas Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL
  • Dominik Haas-Artho Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
  • Sandro Bischof Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
  • Michael Lehning WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF; School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, EPFL
  • Konrad Steffen Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL; School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, EPFL; ETH Zurich

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2018-028

Keywords:

EnviDat, Data Portal, Metadata, Environmental Data, Data Sharing, Research Data Management, Environmental Science

Abstract

EnviDat is the environmental data portal developed by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. The strategic initiative EnviDat highlights the importance WSL lays on Research Data Management (RDM) at the institutional level and demonstrates the commitment to accessible research data in order to advance environmental science.

EnviDat focuses on registering and publishing environmental data sets and provides unified and efficient access to the WSL’s comprehensive reservoir of environmental monitoring and research data. Research data management is organized in a decentralized manner where the responsibility to curate research data remains with the experts and the original data providers.

EnviDat supports data producers and data users in registration, documentation, storage, publication, search and retrieval of a wide range of heterogeneous data sets from the environmental domain. Innovative features include (i) a flexible, three-layer metadata schema, (ii) an additive data discovery model that considers spatial data and (iii) a DataCRediT mechanism designed for specifying data authorship. In addition, the overall user-friendly appearance in EnviDat provides an important opportunity for showcasing WSL research activities and results. The EnviDat portal builds on a conceptual system consisting of a core system, a set of guiding principles and a number of key services. Its development closely follows the conceptual framework, being guided by principles towards the ultimate goal of providing useful services for researchers.

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Published

2018-10-18

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Section

Research Papers

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