The institutions participating in the previous phases of ODINAFRICA have developed national data collections and catalogues that have been availed through various media, including websites, CDs and printed reports. This phase will build on these efforts by expanding the networks at national level and providing training to institutions that cover a wider range of data types relevant to integrated coastal management. This will include: base maps, geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and the human-environment. The services considered would encompass data extraction and conversion to specific formats, online trend generation, and plotting and printing of maps and figures from databases. Data will be mined from a wide range of national, regional and international sources.
The African component of the Marine Environmental Data Inventory (MEDI-Africa), which was developed in the earlier phases, will be updated and expanded using the GEoNetwork opensource. The MEDI version of GeoNetwork has been modified specifically for marine data and applies the Marine Community Profile of the ISO 19115 metadata standard. MEDI provides powerful metadata editing and search functions as well as an embedded interactive web map viewer that can enable access to data and services from a variety of sources. It describes data collection methods, instruments, quality control procedures applied, analyses done, location, e.t.c. The metadata will also be used to describe the datasets that are found in the Marine Atlases, and will supply an OGC compliant catalogue service that can be harvested by the African Oceans Portal.
Initial work on development of an African register of Marine Species commenced in ODINAFRICA-III. Three focused workshops were organised in the last phase to mobilise data on marine molluscs, sponges and decapods. These were included in Marine Species Database for Eastern Africa, which was renamed as the African Register of Marine Species (ARMS) to reflect its expanded geographic scope. The database will be maintained and updated. Taxa that were not covered in ODINAFRICA-III will be included. The institutions will be provided with support to enable them develop national marine species databases. An interface will be developed for ARMS to improve access, and national marine biodiversity nodes will be created or strengthened to provide input to the African Register of Marine Species.
