European Directory of Marine Environmental Data (EDMED)

On behalf of the SeaDataNet community the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) announce the release of a new display interface for the European Directory of Marine Environmental Data (EDMED) version 1.0. EDMED is searchable via either the SeaDataNet or BODC web sites.

Common seals on Scottish shores ©

What is EDMED?

EDMED is a comprehensive reference to the marine datasets and collections held within European research laboratories. It provides marine scientists, engineers and policy makers with a simple mechanism for data discovery.

Its origins date back to 1991 and it has undergone various revisions under the SEA-SEARCH and SeaDataNet initiatives. It has established itself as a European standard for indexing and searching datasets relating to the marine environment.

It covers a wide range of disciplines, for example

• marine meteorology and atmospheric chemistry
• physical, chemical and biological oceanography
• human impact on the environment
• fisheries and aquaculture
• coastal and estuarine studies
• marine geology and geophysics

EDMED catalogues datasets, irrespective of their format. Entries describe

• digital databases or files
• analogue records — paper charts, hard-copy tabulations
• photographs and videos
• geological samples
• biological specimens

Directory entries are prepared by institutes and collated nationally. These national directories are combined to provide a single centralised system managed by BODC.