Seminar with Alessandra Lanzoni, Andrea Corbo, Sebastian Plehan and Elena Partescano
The seminar explores the end-to-end data management workflow adopted by OGS to transform marine observations into reliable, accessible and reusable scientific resources. It follows the entire data lifecycle—from acquisition at sea and automated processing to publication and long-term distribution—showing how the FAIR principles are applied in practice.
On behalf of the Civil Protection Agency, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and ARPA, OGS manages a network that monitors marine and weather conditions in the Gulf of Trieste. Because these observations support both operational activities and scientific research, data quality and near-real-time availability are essential.
Collaboration with European infrastructures, including SeaDataNet, EMODnet and European Research Infrastructures, has supported the adoption of common standards, protocols and tools. Datasets follow SeaDataNet and OceanSITES standards, are accompanied by comprehensive metadata and use controlled vocabularies to reduce semantic ambiguity and enable machine-actionable interpretation.
Once acquired by in situ monitoring stations, the data are automatically processed and stored in a PostgreSQL database. They are then published in near real time through ERDDAP™, an open-source platform offering data visualisation, multiple download formats and RESTful web services. Its interoperability with environments such as R and Python also facilitates automated workflows for data discovery, analysis and reuse.
The OGS approach illustrates how shared European standards and open-source technologies can support the delivery of high-quality, FAIR-compliant marine data for operational services and scientific applications.