The LOIS CD-ROMs
The LOIS Programme, having assembled such valuable terrestrial, freshwater, marine and atmospheric datasets, recognised that it was clearly important that they were preserved and made available. This was achieved by the production of a series of CD-ROM's containing the data collected by each of the LOIS components.
Rivers CD-ROM
The Rivers CD-ROM will contain all the data collected by the RACS(R) component. There will also be supporting documentation describing where, when, how and by whom the data were collected. The intention is that this information will help future users decide whether the data are suitable for their purpose. Model output data will be assembled on two separate CD-ROMs , again with supporting documentation.
Overview CD-ROM
In addition, LOIS produced an Overview CD-ROM as an example of what it had achieved over 6 years, 1992-98. The purpose of the LOIS CDs was to make data gathered for LOIS available to future scientists and ensure the long-term security of these unique datasets by disseminating them as widely as possible. However, the Overview CD-ROM had a different structure and broader purpose than the Component CDs. It contained an introduction to the LOIS Programme, examples of data, particularly for those determinands that trace the movement of material through the coastal zone, and a Viewer with which to examine the data in context.
An important aim of the Overview CD-ROM was to show that it was technically and logistically possible to bring together, within a single database, all the data acquired by a large multidisciplinary study such as LOIS and hence facilitate the study of problems that cross all the traditional scientific boundaries. However, the assembly of data in this way, although a considerable achievement in its own right, was not the whole answer. For the data to be useful, the datasets emanating from the different Components had to be harmonised. Units, terminologies and, most importantly, methods had to be matched. To achieve this across hundreds of variables of many different disciplines was a challenge. The surface of the problem was barely scratched and the CD-ROM revealed as much about what remained to be done as what had been achieved.
Although the assembly of data was the main and major task of the DATA Component, the development of advanced data management software was also part of its mission. During LOIS, the DATA component worked on prototypes for a new 4-D database, generic data load software, attribute dictionary editors and the user interface for the database. The Overview CD-ROM Viewer was the end product of this work and was the first prototype for the new system. The word ‘Viewer’ was used intentionally. At that stage its objective was purely to allow users to browse and look at data. Later, resources permitting, it was the intention that a whole range of querying and analytical facilities be added. However, it was hoped that it demonstrated, how, in a completely generic way, the spatial and temporal variation of almost any attribute describing any object would be recorded and retrieved. Again, the CD-ROM demonstrated how much there was yet to learn about the construction of multidisciplinary database systems.