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Establishing an EML-based Data Management System for Automating Analysis of Field Sensor Data

  • Date of declaration:2012-05-10
Chau-Chin Lin, John H. Porter, Chi-Wen Hsiao, Sheng-Shan Lu, Meei-Ru Jeng
Year
2008
Abstract

    Most traditional methods used by ecologists to collect field data are time and manpower intensive. The development of sensor networks, however, allows sensors to gather data in the field and deliver them to the laboratory automatically. But the shift toward this data collection paradigm in turn has created new challenges for indexing, navigating, documenting, and analyzing the data. Furthermore, standard mechanisms for analysis and quality assurance checking of sensor-collected data are lacking. Therefore, an automated data quality checking and analyzing system based on metadata would have tremendous advantages for ecologists when they use sensor-collected data. To address the management and quality assurance problems of sensor data, we have developed a tool based on the Ecological Metadata Language (EML). This tool allows researchers to access EML, upload data, check data quality, and then run R code on the server. Researchers can use it for data manipulation, calculation, and graphical display online without the need to install any statistical software.