Lessons from a Marine Spatial Planning data management process for Ireland

Figures & data

Figure 1. Phases in the development of the Marine Spatial Planning data process described in this paper.

Table 1. MSP data process roles and responsibilities.

#	MSP Role	Description
1	MSP Users	Stakeholder groups, roles and users of Ireland's Marine Planning Portal. (Marine Institute 2018)
2	Data Owners	The owner of any candidate MSP data liaises with both a Data Management team and also MSP Practitioners to ensure data has been appropriately described, prepared and made available according to MSP reuse recommendations & standards.
3	MSP Practitioners	MSP Practitioners are decision makers with responsibility for: Liaising with data owners to identify data that may be suitable for use with MSP. Reviewing metadata and provenance information on an ongoing and coordinated basis and being able to record the outcome of such reviews. Ensuring user requirements and/or expectations are met and end user feedback is recorded and considered.
4	Data Management Team	Responsible for the storage and management of metadata & provenance information in a central Content Management System. Responsible for the management of underlying data described by metadata depending on source and ownership of the data.
5	Spatial Data Production Team	Responsible for many of the operational areas of data & metadata ingestion, data product production (e.g. map layers).

Table 2. Data storage for an MSP process.

#	Data Storage	Description
1	Internally Stored	Any data owned/curated by an organisation operating the MSP process. Data are stored and managed as part of the MSP process.
2	Internally Stored (Commercial)	As above but includes data attracting a more restrictive classification, e.g. due to commercial sensitives or licensing. These data are stored in a separate cluster of restricted access databases. Access is provided on a case by case basis via a formal request process.
Externally Stored – This represents a more federated approach, data are stored outside of the MSP Process:
3	Externally Stored (Access only)	These data require no modifications or processing and are fully suitable for use within MSP. These data must be available via open, standard communication channels (e.g. WMS or REST) to allow integration with external applications.
4	Externally Stored (Processing Required)	These data are stored outside of the MSP Process but require additional processing for use within MSP. The level of processing required will vary depending on the dataset.

Figure 2. The Marine Spatial Planning data process as applied in Ireland, represented using the Business Process Model and Notation.

Table 3. Marine spatial planning data process checklist.

#	Framework Component	Description
1	Data Management (QMF)	Assuring the quality of the processes and procedures used in the generation of data.
2	MSP Data Governance	Identifying who may access the various categories of data and for what purpose.
3	MSP Data Integration & Reuse	Informs the design and delivery of data products to promote reuse and integration.
4	Data Suitability for MSP	Assessment of data suitability for use within Marine Spatial Planning.
5	MSP Data Provenance	Provides a complete set of metadata which should be captured for all data deemed relevant or of potential relevance for Marine Spatial Planning.
6	MSP Data Catalogue	A central repository of dataset descriptions and is used to store metadata associated with datasets deemed suitable for Marine Spatial Planning.
7	MSP Data Maturity Matrix	An assessment of the soundness, utility documentation, transparency, preservation, integratability, obtainability and usability of a dataset.
8	Data Readiness for MSP	MSP Readiness takes into consideration the file formats being presented for both storage and for serving to end users
9	MSP Data Storage & Management System.	To provide reliable storage and availability of data, with managed access.
10	MSP Data Portals	To provide improved access of marine data to facilitate analysis and decision support capabilities.

Table 4. MSP standards and reuse checklist.

#	Checklist Item	Description
1	Ownership	It is crucial to know who owns the data as it contributes greatly towards access and security restrictions
2	Storage	Data can be stored internally or externally
3	Classification	As per the MI Data Policy data can be classified as Open, Reporting, Intermediate, Confidential, Personal, Sensitive personal, Environmental and Commercial data. Where possible, open, environmental or reporting classifications are recommended to facilitate distribution of the data product to as wide an audience as possible. However, open classifications are not always possible, at least without modification of the dataset.
4	Protection / Access	Protection refers to the different types of access and usage permitted for data and metadata depending on its classification.
5	Distribution Matrix	Data dissemination is the distribution or transmitting of data to end users.
6	Licensing	Where possible, open data licensing classifications e.g. ‘CC-BY’ (“Creative Commons” 2013) are recommended to facilitate distribution to the widest possible audience and also to reduce the security overhead (encryption of data, secure channels etc.) when maintaining the data.
7	Data Channels	External – include online access systems e.g. data.marine.ie, public APIs and
		Internal – where access to data via internal IT systems and applications, access to data publishing and cataloguing application e.g. ERDDAP / MI Data Catalogue, file & database access and remote access granted to internal resources from external sources.
8	Anonymization	In general, anonymised data can be shared with a much wider audience than personal data (assuming the anonymised data doesn’t have any further confidentiality constraints).
9	Retention	Data retention refers to the saving of data as well as the disposal of the data when it is no longer required. A data retention policy highlights how data should be formatted and what storage devices or system to use, as well as the duration these need to be kept.
10	Roles & Responsibilities	Who is responsible for what component of the process and the logical sequence of events?
11	Lineage	Data lineage is an important first step for data governance; a visual representation of data lineage helps to track data from its origin to its destination. MSP users require data of high integrity, uniformity and correctness.

Table 5. Recommended data provenance information.

#	Provenance Item	Description
1	Dataset Name	The name of the dataset
2	Abstract	Must describe the ‘who, what, where, why, how’ of the data, making reference to relevant legislation, programmes, as well as the spatial and temporal parameters of the data
3	Purpose	Summary of intended outcomes conveyed by the data owner for which the resource was developed.
4	Lineage Statement	Information and references for sources and processes that were used to create the dataset and an audit trail for modifications to the original data. (ISO 19115 Standard 2014)
5	EU INSPIRE Spatial Data Infrastructure resource type	Is the data type a Dataset/Series/Service
6	Distribution Format	What is the distributed file format? E.g. Comma Separated Value; Web Map Service; Web Feature Service; Keyhole Markup Language; NetCDF etc.
7	Data Owning Organisation	The Name of the source organisation/s
8	Point of Contact	A named individual or job title within the Data Owning Organisation
9	Data Source URL	A link to the location of the source data *This information must be managed in accordance with IT Security Policies to avoid unnecessary Risks.
10	British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) Parameter Usage Vocabulary	P01 is part of the Natural Environment Research Council Vocabulary Server suite of controlled vocabularies and thesaurus, which form reference lists for the tagging of metadata fields in a consistent, interoperable manner. The Code is the unambiguous reference and is part of the pattern used to create the web address of the entity which is used to identify and to address the entity (Leadbetter, Lowry, and Oliver Clements 2014; Leadbetter and Vodden 2016)
11	BODC Parameter Usage Vocabulary Preferred Label (preflab)	The preferred label is the plain text, human readable label represented by the code. (Leadbetter, Lowry, and Oliver Clements 2014; Leadbetter and Vodden 2016)
12	Parameter Detailed Description	The detailed description doesn’t always exist, but can be used to convey any information that is extra to that carried by the label. In the absence of an identified code/prefleb as much detail as possible is welcomed to describe the parameter detail. This can then be used to map or generate appropriate codes/preflabs
13	Time Period	Temporal Coverage – Start date is essential
14	Digital Object Identifier	A DOI (DOI 2000) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned to identify published content and provide a persistent link to its location on the Internet
15	Data Availability	Is the data immediately downloadable or via a Data Request only – linked to License conditions – online, near-online, offline
16	Last Updated	When the data was last taken from source
17	Spatial reference system	A spatial reference system defines a specific map projection.
18	Licence	When publishing data, it's important to add a license, providing official permission to do, use or own something. Data licenses exist on a spectrum from totally open to very restricted
19	Viewable	Yes/No – can the data be viewable or is just the metadata viewable
20	Downloadable	Yes/No – can the data be downloaded directly
21	GDPR Sensitivities	Yes/No – General Data Protection Regulation. Regulation on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (Data Protection Directive)
22	Classification	As per the MI Data Policy: – ‘Environmental Data’. ‘Personal Data’, ‘Sensitive Personal Data’, ‘Confidential Data’, ‘Open Data’, ‘Reporting Data’, Intermediate Data’
23	Retention	Defined in either a Licence or a Data Retention Policy, specifies which data will be archived, how long it will be kept, what happens to the data at the end of the retention period (archive or destroy) and any other Funder or other stipulations.
24	Dataset Review period	The date inputted here should reflect the frequency at which the Data Owner deems it necessary to provide an update around the dataset and/or licence conditions. This can be forever – i.e. no need to ask the Data Owner again – right through to quarterly/yearly/biannually etc.
The Data Provenance document should be viewed as a precursor to the Data Catalogue; where mandatory metadata entities are missing, input into the Catalogue cannot occur.

Figure 3. MSP Framework – Reference Deployment (Leadbetter et al. 2020).

Figure 4. Sample Map from the NMPF Report page 77.

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