Challenges and Experiences of Building Multidisciplinary Datasets across Cultures
Abstract
Efficient data sharing and management are key challenges to multidisciplinary scientific research. These challenges are further complicated by adding a multicultural component. We address the construction of a complex database for social-ecological analysis in Mongolia. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human (CNH) Systems, the Mongolian Rangelands and Resilience (MOR2) project focuses on the vulnerability of Mongolian pastoral systems to climate change and adaptive capacity. The MOR2 study spans over three years of fieldwork in 36 paired districts (Soum) from 18 provinces (Aimag) of Mongolia that covers steppe, mountain forest steppe, desert steppe and eastern steppe ecological zones. Our project team is composed of hydrologists, social scientists, geographers, and ecologists. The MOR2 database includes multiple ecological, social, meteorological, geospatial and hydrological datasets, as well as archives of original data and survey in multiple formats. Managing this complex database requires significant organizational skills, attention to detail and ability to communicate within collective team members from diverse disciplines and across multiple institutions in the US and Mongolia. We describe the database's rich content, organization, structure and complexity. We discuss lessons learned, best practices and recommendations for complex database management, sharing, and archiving in creating a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary database.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMIN43F..08J
- Keywords:
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- 1904 Community standards;
- INFORMATICS;
- 1912 Data management;
- preservation;
- rescue;
- INFORMATICS;
- 1978 Software re-use;
- INFORMATICS;
- 6610 Funding;
- PUBLIC ISSUES