New portal on aquatic ecosystem services: Launching the AQUACROSS Information Platform
AQUACROSS Information Platform
This month, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) with AQUACROSS partners launched the AQUACROSS Information platform. The AQUACROSS Information Platform (IP) has been designed as the central access point for project partners and scientists for publishing data on different types of aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity and Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) practices in the context of the AQUACROSS project.
AQUACROSS is a Horizon 2020 project which aims to support EU efforts to protect aquatic biodiversity and ensure the provision of aquatic ecosystem services. As such, AQUACROSS seeks to advance knowledge and application of EBM for aquatic ecosystems to support the timely achievement of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy targets.
In its structure, the AQUACROSS IP follows the INSPIRE directive to facilitate better environmental policy across the European Union which will be achieved by improving the joining up of and access to existing spatial data across Europe at a local, regional, national and international level, facilitating improvements in the sharing of spatial data between public authorities and improving public access to spatial data.
The AQUACROSS IP has been developed entirely based on existing open source software, following the Open Source Software Strategy and the New Interoperability Framework recommendations of the European Commission. A powerful open source data management system, called CKAN, was chosen as framework to develop the AQUACROSS IP, considering all the recommendations from the INSPIRE directive. The platform allows users to publish, manipulate, interrogate and visualize any type of information in digital format including: multimedia materials, reports, publications, etc., related to aquatic ecosystem services.
The data and information mobilized in the framework of AQUACROSS and its different case studies, https://aquacross.eu/casestudies, are gradually made publicly available through the information platform to facilitate the use of AQUACROSS datasets for further analyses by both the AQUACROSS team and external users.
The platform can be accessed online at: http://dataportal.aquacross.eu
How to use it?
All AQUACROSS partners participating in the project are registered at the Information Platform with around 40 scientists from 17 organizations. Each organization has at least one administrator responsible for managing the data and the information published at the IP. The same is true for the Case Studies (Groups).
For more information on how to use the platform, please check the AQUACROSS IP Manual at the following link.
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