DRAFT

WORK PLAN FOR THE GODAR TYPE PROJECT

IN THE WESTPAC REGION

Year 2001 - 2005

1. INTRODUCTION

The Global Ocean Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) program has been established by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in 1993 in order to save oceanographic data from a risk of losing by degradation of recording media or disaster etc., and to increase the volume of historical data available to climate change and other researches. The workshops related the program were held in each region to promote the project.

The large volume of data showed as followings, are collected at US-NODC/WDC-A through the program under the cooperation of the IOC member states,

- 2.0 million temperature profiles;

- 120,000 Chlorophyll profiles;

- 600,000 plankton taxa.

These data have been made available internationally without restriction via CD-ROM and on-line as World Ocean Database 1998 by US-NODC/WDC-A.

However, there are many data that were reported at the GODAR II, in Tianjin, Chain, 1994, still in manuscript form in this region.

The importance of promoting the GODAR program in the region was recognized again at the International Conference for the International Data & Information Exchange in the WESTPAC region 1999 (ICIWP'99) held in Langkawi, Malaysia, Nov. 1999. And ICIWP'99 recommended the establishment of a working group chaired by the representative from Malaysia in order to start a GODAR type project in the WESTPAC region. This paper describes a work plan to support the development of the GODAR type project according to the recommendation of ICIWP'99.

2. PURPOSE

The project aims to locate, rescue and make available marine data from the WESTPAC region that is in danger of being lost. Data that is stored on paper or on old media and is not presently available to the WESTPAC scientists will be sort for this project. Work will be undertaken to digitise the data or re-write the data onto modern media in an effort to safeguard it for future use. The data will also be quality controlled and then made available.

3. PROJECT AREA

The project target area is the WESTPAC region; with a specific focus on the Southeast Asian region.

4. PROJECT TERM

5. DATA TYPES

The project will focus on the data types that are exchanged routinely within the IODE system, especially focussing on the following data,

• Hydrographic casts including all chemical and biological observations,
• Salinity/Conductivity Temperature-Depth casts,
• Expendable Bathythemograph casts,
• Mechanical Bathythemograph casts

6. WORKING GROUP

The project will establish a working group to develop a work plan and to evaluate the progress of the project. The working group will consist of the IODE coordinators from in the region, and from agencies participating in the project.

7. PROJECT OFFICE

A Project Office will be located at a National Oceanographic Data Centre from within the region. The Project Office will develop a web site to promote the project, providing information on the projects activities and results.

8. BROCHURE

The Project Office will publish a brochure describing the GODAR activities in the region as a mechanism to promote the project within ocean research institutes of the region. The brochure will also include information on the full range of IODE activities to help promote the IODE program in this region.

9. INFORMATION RELATED TO MARINE RESEARCH INSTITUTES

The Project Office will collect information on the various marine research institutes in the region. Much of this information will be collected using the IODE’s metadata system – MEDI and will be made available on the projects web site.

10. INFORMATION ON DATA LOCATED

The project office will collect information on data that is in need of ‘rescue’ also using the MEDI software. This will assist in the development of priorities for the data rescue process. Details of these data sets will also be made available on the projects web site.

11. CHECK OF DUPLICATION

It is important that duplication of effort be avoided and every effort will be made to ensure that the data identified for rescue has not already been digitised. This will require close cooperation with other IODE centres and the World Data Centres.

12. COLLECTION OF DATA

The project office will identify data from the previously mentioned location processes and will attempt to obtain this data from the researchers or institutes through the IODE coordinator or directly. Information on the data acquired for digitisation will be presented on the web site.

13. DIGITISING OF DATA

It is anticipated that assistance with the digitisation of the paper based data will come from NODC’s and DNA’s within the region. It is anticipated that:

14. DATA POLICY

The data gathered by the project will be made available to users according to the IODE data policy, "Full and Open Sharing".

15. TECHNICAL COOPERATION

It is anticipated that the developed countries in the region will provide technical assistance to the developing countries for this project. The assistance will be based on existing cooperative schemes and training courses and provide a transfer of technology. One area of support that will be investigated is the provision of equipment to countries to assist wit the digitisation of rescues data. Other equipment such as CD-ROM drives to provide access to rescued data sets are also an option.

16. SEMINAR

At the end of the project, a seminar will be held in order to:

• Evaluate the success of the project and establish a follow-up plan.
• Share new knowledge and products from the project among the IODE data centres, coordinators and marine researcher community.

17. ESTIMATED COST AND TIME FRAME