Scottish Marine Protected Areas (MPA): monitoring strategy

11. Data management systems and standards

There remain inherent difficulties in identifying, accessing and using marine data; therefore we need to foster a culture of data sharing and good management, including common protocols for data collection and quality assurance of the data obtained. Developing appropriate data management procedures will ensure that data are easily available on a cross-Scotland perspective for reporting and assessment purposes.

To facilitate multi-partner working and provide transparency in the work it will be essential that all data are captured in appropriate formats and with sufficient supporting information to facilitate easy use and reuse. To this end, we envisage adoption of best practice guidelines generated by UKDMOS (United Kingdom Directory of Marine Observing Systems), MEDIN (Marine Environmental Data & Information Network), the North East Atlantic Marine Biological Analytical Quality Control Scheme (NMBAQC) and the use of appropriate UK Data Archiving Centres (DACs) for the long-term storage and onward dissemination of both raw data and derived products. More detail is available in Annex 6.