Data Delivery Requirements
The Crown Estate require our offshore customers to provide their survey data to us throughout the lifetime of an Agreement. The requirements for delivering this survey data through the Marine Data Exchange are set out here and in the 'Requirements for providing data to The Crown Estate' document.
The requirement for providing survey data to The Crown Estate is set out within the data clause of the Agreement and so each Agreement should be referred to for specific definitions.
The Marine Data Exchange (MDE) is the system used to store, manage and disseminate offshore survey data provided to The Crown Estate. A set of consistent standards and requirements ensure that this system is maintained to a high level with enhanced discoverability of data.
The data provided must be sensibly structured into a hierarchy of 'Series' and associated packages of deliverables. A series can be defined as a group of datasets and reports collected in relation to a survey or data collection campaign, linked by a common research question. A series must be described by a metadata record and must contain all reports and datasets related to that survey or campaign, including report appendices and GIS shapefiles where applicable. A package is defined as a ‘pillar’ of clearly related data, reports and associated information related to a single parameter, instrument or method.
The Crown Estate requires MEDIN Discovery Standard metadata to be delivered for all Series. Metadata is used to return search results. Therefore, to improve discoverability, The Crown Estate require all mandatory elements to be completed, with emphasis upon an accurate title, abstract, temporal and spatial extent, and relevant keywords from the following controlled vocabularies: MEDIN Parameter Discovery Vocabulary and TCE Development Phases.
Where appropriate, The Crown Estate will use the MEDIN data guidelines as a pro forma for quality control of data received. This means that, as a minimum, The Crown Estate expects that data provided contain all of the mandatory details identified by the appropriate MEDIN data guideline.
To access the MDE's Requirements for providing data, please email: mde@thecrownestate.co.uk
