18 November 2008

New CDI V1 discovery and data delivery system launched

The Common Data Index (CDI) metadatabase is based upon the ISO19115 metadata standard and gives users a highly detailed insight in the availability and geographical spreading of marine data across the different data centres and institutes across Europe. In the earlier CDI V0 system all data centres used a common metadata format for describing their data sets, which was available through the CDI V0 user interface. However users were given access to data sets at the data centres via a large variety of interfaces.

Therefore the CDI V1 system has been developed and recently been launched. An important feature of the V1 system is that it now provides transparent access to the distributed data sets via a unique user interface at the portal and the means for downloading data sets in common formats via a shopping basket mechanism. The data requests are forwarded automatically from the portal to the relevant data centres. Users can check the progress of their data requests via a personal online transaction register. 

For the Netherlands a dedicated NODC CDI V1 service is now operational, which includes data from Rijkswaterstaat, KNMI, TNO, NIOZ and NIOO-CEME:

The Netherlands NODC data collections are also included in the pan-European SeaDataNet CDI V1 services. At present all data centres within SeaDataNet are underway in populating the CDI V1 metadatabase and connecting their data systems to the CDI V1 system for providing harmonised access to their data sets. The number of operational data centres is increasing regularly.