The National Vegetation Survey Databank (NVS) and LUCAS

Susan WiserLandcare Research

Lincoln, New ZealandMoRST Data Sharing Workshop 25 March 2009

http://nvs.landcareresearch.co.nz/

>19 000 permanent plots

>77 000 Relevés

Formulation: Evolution of NVS 1960s Standardised methods for inventory and

monitoring of native vegetation developed

Late 1960s

Beginning of electronic data capture

Late 1980s

Process for centrally archiving electronic and hard copy data formalised

1998 Nationally Significant database status accorded by FRST

2001 NVS moved from outdated platform to relational database

2003 Formal assessment of end-user needs

Strand 1: Anticipating and meeting enduser needs

Year2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

No.

of p

lots

add

ed to

NVS

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

Increase in large data requests

Year2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08Av

erag

e nu

mbe

r of d

atas

ets/

requ

est

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

• >10,000 new plot records since June 2005

• 1-2 requests per week

• Support for standardised data collection

• Protocols for data use

Strand 2: State-of-the-art data management

Strand 3: Leadership in synthesis and integration: Integrated with NZ standard

taxonomic names database

Geographic standards allow ready integration with spatial layers to show

species distributions

...and to allow ready integration with spatial layers

Historic relationship between NVS and LUCAS

• Original 1990 baseline based on forest data archived in NVS

• Variance in C estimates at different grid densities guided plot network density

• Plot protocols extended Forest Service 20 x 20 protocol

• 16% of plots in LUCAS natural forests network predated the network; data archived in NVS

• LUCAS holds copy of historic data from pre-existing plots

• Paper and electronic copies of all above-ground data from LUCAS plot network archived in NVS

LUCAS

Why is LUCAS data archived in NVS?

• Provide a conduit for discovery and usage of LUCAS data by a wider range of endusers

• One query against both databases more efficient for endusers

• Continuity for remeasurement of LUCAS plots in pre-existing networks

• Formats compatible with NVS-specific analytical software and other packages

LUCAS Endusers

How this works: archiving data

LUCAS1. Tables/fields

mapped onto NVS tables/fields

2. Validation checks

LUCAS

4. Validation queries

3. Recent corrections added

Endusers

How this works: data requests

Request data

Inform of permission required

LUCAS

Private Landowners

Obtain permission

Provide permissions

Provide data

Where to from here?

• Further work on versioning

• Move towards using an exchange standard and distributed databases

Where to from here: use of an exchange standard

Veg-X exchange standard

http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/Vegetation/WebHome

LUCASW

RITEREAD READWRITE

Endusers Endusers