Building: Grand Hotel Mediterraneo
Room: America del Nord (Theatre I)
Date: 2013-10-28 02:30 PM – 02:50 PM
Last modified: 2013-10-05
Abstract
The Biodiversity domain is large and encompasses users that cover virtually the whole range of human population - from the full range of the biodiversity sciences (botanists, zoologists, mycologists, geneticists, ecologists) to educators, agriculturalists and farmers to politicians, policy makers, environmental managers and the general public. The data pertaining to biodiversity come in a range of types from nomenclatural and taxonomic, to morphological and descriptive, to occurrence in space and time, to genetic and ecological. The uses to which those data are put is also huge – from pure taxonomy, through niche modelling, monitoring of water and landscape health, developing sustainable food and other resources, to studying the effects of climate change on species, landscape health and food resources, etc.
Data quality is important in all aspects of the data and its uses and it is important that users are aware of the quality and fitness of the data for their purposes. Documentation is an important aspect in all aspects of the data quality process as it is through the documentation that users can assess the data and its fitness for use. This paper will explore several case studies to indicate the range of types and uses of biodiversity data and the importance of data quality and its documentation to users.