title: Managing troubled data: coastal data partnerships smooth data integration.
abstract: Understanding the ecology, condition, and changes of coastal areas requires data from many sources. Broad-scale and long-term ecological questions, such as global climate change, biodiversity, and cumulative impacts of human activities, must be addressed with databases that integrate data from several different research and monitoring programs. Various barriers, including widely differing data formats, codes, directories, systems, and metadata used by individual programs, make such integration troublesome. Coastal data partnerships, by helping overcome technical, social, and organizational barriers, can lead to a better understanding of environmental issues, and may enable better management decisions. Characteristics of successful data partnerships include a common need for shared data, strong collaborative leadership, committed partners willing to invest in the partnership, and clear agreements on data standards and data policy. Emerging data and metadata standards that become widely accepted are crucial. New information technology is making it easier to exchange and integrate data. Data partnerships allow us to create broader databases than would be possible for any one organization to create by itself.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI, USA. hale.stephen@epa.gov
authors.forename: Stephen S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Hale
authors.forename: Anne Hale
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Miglarese
authors.forename: M Patricia
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Belton
authors.forename: Larry D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Frame
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Friel
authors.forename: Linda M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Harwell
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: William K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Michener
authors.forename: David T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Nicolson
authors.forename: Bruce G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Peterjohn
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003657:Decision Making; D017753:Ecosystem; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D019451:Information Management; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D014873:Water Pollutants
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants