THE UK ENVIRONMENTAL-CHANGE NETWORK DATABASE - AN INTEGRATED INFORMATION RESOURCE FOR LONG-TERM MONITORING AND RESEARCH

An integrated approach to information resource development has been ad opted by the Environmental Change Network (ECN) to underpin environmen tal change research and policy requirements within the U.K. This appro ach views the data management process as an integrated system in order to achieve a smooth flow of data from capture through to access withi n the short timescales required, incorporating the necessary quality a ssurance specifications. ECN is the U.K.'s long-term environmental mon itoring programme, established in 1992 to provide comparable, reliable , multi-disciplinary, longterm runs of data on environmental change. T he ECN site network operates a standardized programme of data capture for a range of physical, chemical and biological variables which drive and respond to change. Data quality standards are maintained through quality control, assessment and data validation procedures, and the re sulting information accompanies the data. A central database, meta-dat abase and geographic information system provide an integrated informat ion resource for ECN. The meta-database is an essential component, pro viding ''lower level'' data specifications, dimensions and quality inf ormation, as well as developing ''higher-level'' links to other relate d data sources and monitoring networks. Remote network access systems provide rapid access to ECN data: a direct interface to the ECN summar y database using the World Wide Web enables users to browse text and i mages, and progress to guided data query, retrieval and display in a s ingle system. Increasing demand for timely access to reliable environm ental information puts further pressure on information budgets; it is important that vulnerable areas such as data quality are not compromis ed. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.