Data management for optimum GIS mapping outputs

Jacques Populus, Ifremer

Proper data handling is a crucial issue in environmental research or management, particularly in a project such as Gambas that claims to be interdisciplinary. The vectors of interdisciplinary are of course close relationships between the actors but also the sharing of common data sets. This is particularly true in the Gambas project, where one of the very tasks of the project is to perform statistical analysis between basically four types of data: a) hydrobiological, b) ecological (soil and vegetation), c) socio-ecomical, d) zootechnical. It is clear that although highly original results may be acquired within each of these disciplines, only cross-analysis will answer its essential question: how to explain the spatial distribution of success and failure in Mekong delta shrimp culture?

In this view, common guidelines for high level data production and data storing should be edicted. Data should be properly released by their owners, as soon as certified. There should be full trust of one another’s data.