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CDDA data collection 2011

Released on 2010-12-09 by: Marek Staron, EEA

To: Eionet PCPs and NRCs for Nature Protection and Biodiversity

Cc: Eionet National Focal Points

From: Marek Staron, EEA, on behalf of Rania Spyropoulou

 

Dear Colleague,

We are writing to inform you of the detailed plans for the CDDA annual data collection that is, as you know, one of the agreed EIONET Priority Data Flows (http://www.eionet.europa.eu/dataflows). We hope that this letter will be useful as you organise a programme of work with your network in order to validate the existing data published by EEA and to provide any new information available by the deadline for deliveries 15 March 2011.

2011 data collection: what’s new?

During 2010, EEA created a draft envelope (with number 2010 in its name, but otherwise following the naming convention you have used in the previous envelopes) for each country in the national folder under EEA requests in Reportnet Central Data Repository (CDR). Nominated data reporters and national focal points have access to this envelope.
The envelope contains templates prefilled with the data (tabular and spatial) currently published by EEA plus detailed feedback reports prepared by the EEA and ETC BD. In addition, there is a file which displays the reported locations of your sites in Google Earth.

2011 data collection: updating

EEA provides services to help you deliver high quality CDDA data:

  1. The pre-loaded template database provided by EEA should be updated with your new information. Do not use a different or older version because quality checking and aggregation routines will fail.
  2. The technical specification for CDDA has not changed. Definitions are available in the Reportnet Data Dictionary.
  3. It is important that you contact ETC BD to receive site codes for new sites or for sites that have not previously been reported to CDDA. This is the value that must be used for SITE_CODE. It is the key that allows us to join tabular and spatial information for each site.
  4. EEA will calculate the coordinates of sites for which correct site boundaries have been delivered. Countries should indicate in the appropriate database field if they want this to be done (see technical specifications for the CDDA Coordinates code in Reportnet Data Dictionary). These coordinates will satisfy the coordinate requirements criteria for the Eionet progress report. The calculated coordinates will be made available in the sites table of the next version of the European data set.
  5. Data suppliers can run automatic quality checks on database tables at any time during the updating process. There are options available in your country’s pre-loaded template database provided in the draft envelope in CDR.
  6. There is an option to generate an xml file from your completed database. Uploading this file together with your database to CDR will provide an immediate feedback report to you in CDR so that you can correct problems before the delivery deadline.

 

2011 data collection: key issues

You are asked once again to concentrate resources on improving the quality of digital boundary information for your sites. It is vital that the key field SITE_CODE is correctly defined and complete in the spatial data provided for sites. Together with information on the size, the coordinates1 and the IUCN category2. You are also asked to pay attention to points raised in the feedback report on your previous deliveries.

EEA does not correct any errors or problems identified during quality control.

You should verify and update the tables in the database provided. Please make use of the quality checking services. Do not hesitate to ask if you have questions.

1 EEA will calculate coordinates where a country requests this service as explained above.
2 IUCN stands for International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The 2008 guidance document on IUCN categories is available at: http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/PAPS-016.pdf

2011 data collection: delivery

Your quality controlled data should be uploaded, after consultation with the National Focal Point, either to the Central Data Repository (http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu) or to your national EIONET server, depending on the choice of your country for delivering EIONET priority data by the deadline of: 15 March 2011.

You can upload back to the draft envelope created by EEA or if this has been completed you can create a new envelope.

2011 data collection: post delivery

ETC BD will merge the data from all countries to create the new version of the European CDDA dataset. Countries may be invited to redeliver a corrected version by end April if there are outstanding errors or omissions. It is planned to publish the new version in EEA Data Service during September 2011. This version will again be accompanied by a quality report.

The data delivered in 2011 will be used by EEA for on going biodiversity assessments. It will be available for interactive queries through EUNIS - the European Nature Information System, and will be supplied, as usual, to WDPA - the World Database on Protected Areas.

2011 data collection: Eionet progress report evaluation

EEA has reported to EEA Management Board on country responses to the CDDA National data collection since 1999 (see archive of EIONET Progress reports). The purpose of the priority data flows report is to show progress against agreed, stable, well-defined objectives in order to allow countries to focus their resources on putting regular reporting procedures in place.

The evaluation criteria for the 2011 data collection are unchanged. We hope that the additional support for coordinate calculation and quality checking provided by EEA this year will help all countries towards high scores.

2011 Eionet Biodiversity workshop

The Eionet Biodiversity workshop will take place towards the end of Q2 2011. Invitations will be sent in due course. We would like to give you an early warning that the agenda will include CDDA preparations for INSPIRE as the INSPIRE Directive comes into force in 2012 [for Annex I themes including Protected Areas].

Help

If you have technical questions or require any assistance during the 2011 data collection please contact the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC/BD).

In case of any difficulties with accessing documents on CDR or uploading to CDR, please contact the Eionet Helpdesk.

If the people working directly on the CDDA data delivery in your country are not PCPs or NRCs, please copy this letter to them so that they are aware of the wider context of their work at the European level.

Thank you

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and look forward to another successful CDDA annual data flow. In particular we would like to highlight some of the uses of your data in CDDA during 2010 the UN Year of Biodiversity:

 

Marek Staron
EEA Project Officer - Data and indicators group
European Environment Agency