Metadatabases in environmental information systems: the Locator and Communication Service (VKS-Umwelt)

• Published in: Environmental modelling & software : with environment data news Vol. 16; no. 5; pp. 447 - 452
• Main Authors: Röttgers, Jan, Riekert, Wolf-Fritz, Günther, Oliver, Spiliopoulou, Myra, Faulstich, Lukas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-07-2001
• Subjects: Environmental information systems; Intranet; Metadata; Metadata; Intranet; Environmental information systems
• ISSN: 1364-8152; 1873-6726
• DOI: 10.1016/S1364-8152(01)00015-9

Existing environmental information is frequently known only to insiders. Environmental offices have many “hidden treasures” that must be described in a metainformation system. Metainformation can be helpful in finding and understanding distributed environmental information. A Web-based facility, also referred to as the Locator and Communication Service Environment (German acronym: VKS-Umwelt), was designed for this purpose. VKS-Umwelt allows users in the German Federal Environment Agency to search for and directly access environmental information resources in the intranet of the agency. The main purpose of VKS-Umwelt is to simplify the utilization of the Web technology for the information transfer between suppliers and users of environmental information. One result of the VKS-Umwelt project is the catalogue of criteria for VKS-Umwelt. The user requirements have been identified and documented in several interviews and workshops with members of various departments in the UBA.