Ocean Data Standards, Vol.4: Technology for SeaDataNet Controlled Vocabularies for describing Marine and Oceanographic Datasets - A joint Proposal by SeaDataNet and ODIP projects.

Abstract

SeaDataNet has set up and populates common vocabularies for describing marine and oceanographic datasets (https://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Common-Vocabularies). The vocabulary services are technically managed and hosted by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) by means of the NERC Vocabulary Server (NVS2.0). The vocabularies are made available as web services for machines and by means of client interfaces for end-users. The client interfaces provide end-users options for searching, browsing and CSV-format export of selected entries. The machine interfaces are provided via a SOAP Application Programming Interface (API) for exchanging structured information across computer networks as the result of calls. It relies upon XML (eXstensible Markup Language) documents for passing messages. Moreover there is an operational SPARQL endpoint for machine interaction. This document describes the technology of NERC Vocabulary Server version 2.0. It has been published at the IOC Manual and Guides No. 54 Volume 4 and is recommended by the IOC/IODE (http://www.oceandatastandards.org/recommended-standards-mainmenu-44) as a standard for describing marine and oceanographic datasets.