Marine Data Harmonization IG

Status: Recognised & Endorsed

The objective of this interest group is to promote the development of a common global framework for the management of marine data. This has become a priority as ocean sciences are being becoming increasingly global in scope and there has been a paradigm shift in marine research from the traditional discipline based approach towards more multidsicplinary, ecosystem level research. This approach is necessary to address a number of phenomena both natural and man-made the impacts of which require researchers from a diverse range of disciplines to work together. A pre-requisite for this type of multidisciplinary research is the availability of large volumes of good quality interoperable data which can be easily located and accessed. Facilitating the re-use of marine data is therefore a priority as the need for datasets increases to support the development of this ecosystem based approach to marine research.