REMOTE SITE MANAGEMENT

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COASTAL AND MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL DATABASE
Misgna, G, gmisgna_at_kgs.ukans.edu, Kansas
Geological Survey, University of Kansas 1930
Constant Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047 Bartley, J
D, jbartley_at_kgs.ukans.edu, Kansas Geological
Survey, University of Kansas 1930 Constant
Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047 Buddemeier, R W,
buddrw_at_ku.edu, Kansas Geological Survey,
University of Kansas 1930 Constant Avenue,
Lawrence, KS 66047

• OBJCTIVES
• To provide global coverage of readily accessible,
  consistently presented, relevant data for use by
  a diverse group of users.
• To permit data downloading, data exploration, and
  data transformation
• To link to and format data for the online
  modeling with the LOICZVIEW geospatial clustering
  tool.
• To enable automatic data exchange and transfer
  with distributed online data sources residing in
  heterogeneous platforms.

ABSTRACT Data, Data Everywhere - And Not a Way
to Choose Misgna, G Bartley, J D Buddemeier, R
W The proliferation of electronic data sets has
been a mixed blessing for researchers and others
interested in environmental and biological
information. The information potential in the
expanding data offerings is often obscured or
unrealized by the inability of would-be users to
make effective evaluations and comparisons of
data sets for the purposes of interest to them.
Even within fairly well-defined user communities
and applications, data selection can be a tedious
and uncertain process. In the projects supported
by the joint database of the Land-Ocean
Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) and the
Biogeography of the Hexacorallia projects, the
intention is to make useful, relevant data
broadly available to non-specialist and
multidisciplinary user communities. This requires
standard formats for visualization and
presentation, a convenient means of reviewing the
variables and datasets available, ready access to
both local and primary metadata, and importantly,
means of visualizing both the numerical and the
geographic distributions of the data within a
given set. These needs have been addressed by
adopting a grid system with appropriate scale and
classifications, and by constructing a dynamic
front end' for a web-served relational database.
This design provides rapid access and flexible
development. This presentation describes not only
the underlying structures, but also some of the
tools provided as part of the data selection and
download process. These permit the user to select
geographic or numerical ranges, filter or
transform the data, exclude or modify selected
ranges of values, view single-variable
distributions as histograms or scatter plots, and
construct correlation matrices for multiple
variables. For a relatively modest investment of
development time, these features greatly increase
both the use, and the appropriateness of the use,
of the data.
REMOTE SITE MANAGEMENT
An internet-based tool is built into the system
to enable remote management, data entry, and
editing of all the database contents of the site.
Supported by NSF grants DEB-9521819 and
DEB-9978106 to Daphne G. Fautin (in the program
Partnerships to Enhance Expertise in Taxonomy),
and OCE-0003970 to DGF and R. W. Buddemeier (in
the National Oceanographic Partnership Program)
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DATA SOURCES AND FORMATS
Binary format
Image format
Sources of other formats
Source
Raw data is obtained from various online sources.
It comes in various formats including image,
proprietary, or binary formats.
Raw data is processed in GIS and loaded in to
Oracle RDBMS.
APACHE WEB AND COLDFUSION SERVERS
Content database
Presentation table
Configuration table
Metadata table
124 variables
ORACLE DATABASE SERVER
Content database, presentation information,
metadata, and configuration information are built
in to separate database tables for easy site
management and flexibility.
http//deuteron.kgs.ukans.edu/hexacoral/envirodata
/main.htm
DATA EXPLORATION AND TRANSFORMATION
ONLINE CONTENT PRESENTATION
DATA RETRIEVAL
Data is presented online in an intuitive and user
friendly manner. It permits data downloading,
data exploration, data transformation and is also
linked to and formatted for the LOICZVIEW
geospatial clustering tool.
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DISTRIBUTED DATABASES INTERCOMMUNICATION
CephBase
http//www.cephbase.utmb.edu/biogeo/biogeo.cfm
XML / Delimited text
http//www.kgs.ukans.edu/Hexacoral/
Hexacorallia
XML / Delimited text
http//www.palantir.swarthmore.edu/loicz/
Loiczview
XML / Delimited text
Automatic server-to server or web interaction and
data exchange with other online data sources.
Interoperability is achieved through
XML/GML/Delimited text data transfer protocols.