Turboveg

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Turboveg

• An out-of-the-box, easy to install and easy to
  use Windows program for managing vegetation data.

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• A comprehensive local database management system
  for storing, selecting and exporting vegetation
  plot data.
• Storage Single relevés, vegetation tables
  (manual input), import of Cornell condensed
  files, Excel tables, various XML files.
• Selection Selection on (any combination of)
  databases attributes, including species
  combination.
• Export many export filters are included, like MS
  Access database, Excel files, XML files (!),
  Cornell condensed files, Shape files, Google
  Earth, and more.
• Classification.
• Time series analysis
• And more

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Since 2006 also available for PDA (data entry
only)
Turboveg Compact Edition supports GPS/GIS and has
a seamless data exchange with TurbovegPC
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• Database structure (1)
• Simple
• Extendable
• Three dBase files and corresponding index file
  compose a database
• header data
• species data
• remarks
• Turboveg can handle multiple databases
• Connected to the databases a set of lookup
  tables the species list is one of them.

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• Database structure (2)
• Turboveg has not a XML schema, but something
  called a database dictionary.
• The dictionary describes the structure of all the
  tables used in the system (including the lookup
  tables).
• The dictionary also contains the validation rules
  for the different fields (attributes) used in the
  database.

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• Who are the end-users?
• Basically anybody who is dealing with vegetation
  plot data.
• (PhD) students, ecologist, universities, locale
  and national governments, nature conservation
  organizations, etc.

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• How many users are there currently?
• World wide about 1500. Most of them are
  Europeans.

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• In which countries is Turboveg in use?
• In almost every European country.
• Outside Europe South-Africa, Japan, South-Korea,
  USA, Russia, China, Argentina, Brazil, and some
  more.

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• How many relevés (plots) are stored in Turboveg
  databases.
• For Europe the estimation is 1,5 million (the
  Netherlands with 0,5 million takes the biggest
  portion).
• World wide not so much more.

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• Future goals (1)
• Finalizing the export to ESVeg (VegBank)
  compatible XML file.
• Including an import function for an ESVEG
  compatible (VegBank?) XML file.
• Solving, in some way, the problem with the
  species taxonomy.
• Improving the quality of the data. Validation
  tools required.
• Version control on records.
• And more

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• Future goals (2)
• Storing the Dutch Turboveg data in a national
  (geo) database (PostGIS). Along with the species
  data from NGOs and the usage of geographical
  maps (soil, water regime, geomorphology, etc.)
  creating the possibility to support impact
  studies.

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• Future goals (3)
• Storing the European Turboveg data in a European
  (geo) database (PostGIS), called EURODAT. EURODAT
  operates through an application called SynBioSys
  Europe, which is an information system that
  operates on the level of species, vegetation and
  landscape.

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• Future goals (3)
• Storing the European Turboveg data in a European
  (geo) database (PostGIS), called EURODAT.
  EURODAT operates through an application called
  SynBioSys Europe, which is an information system
  that operates on the level of species, vegetation
  and landscape.

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• Future goals (3)
• Storing the European Turboveg data in a European
  (geo) database (PostGIS), called EURODAT. EURODAT
  operates through an application called SynBioSys
  Europe, which is an information system that
  operates on the level of species, vegetation and
  landscape.

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• Future goals (4)
• Making the (al least the Dutch) Turboveg data
  available through the VegetWeb and VegBank
  portals.

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• So, nothing is wrong with Turboveg, right??

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• Not quite!
• Turboveg does not support The taxon concept. Only
  interpreted names are stored. In the best
  scenario one can add synonyms to the species
  list.
• As a result of its flexibility Turboveg data
  from different users are sometimes difficult to
  combine. There is no common ontology.
• Not necessarily a problem, but Turboveg does not
  distinguish between a Plot and an Observation.

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Thats it for the moment!Thank you listening.
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Export to ESVeg compatible XML

• GUIDs needed to ensure uniqueness of data sets.
• Ontology's (units of measurement) for user
  defined fields.
• Fix lists in the ESVeg schema needs to removed.
• .