Informatics

Countryside Survey has generated a huge amount of diverse time-series data, some dating back to 1978. 

The overall purpose of the Informatics Work Package was to ensure a high standard of data management and analysis, and to develop web-based data access services. This included bringing together data from past and present Surveys in a database that allows consistent validation and analysis and developing tools to enable the hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of analyses required to detect changes across the time-series.

The main objectives of the Informatics Work Package were to:

• Support the field survey teams through software and hardware maintenance and a helpdesk system
• Provide data management support to ensure security, availability and quality assurance of all Survey data
• Provide support for automated analysis and reporting of results across Work Packages
• Develop systems for detailed exploration and analyses of results in line with reporting requirements
• Develop a Countryside Survey data access service to allow provision of data on request from all areas of the Survey database, in accordance with relevant data policies

Summary and indivdual survey square data for 2007 and earlier surveys are now accessible via the Countryside Survey Data Access services  

Countryside Survey data will continue to be maintained after the completion of the 2007 Survey through the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) Environmental Information Data Centre.