DESERTLINKSDESERTLINKSProjectProject

(2001 – 2005)(2001 – 2005)

LADA MEETING, Rome, 29 November 2006

CLAUDIO ZUCCA,VERONICA COLOMBO AND GIUSEPPE ENNE

NRD UNIVERSITY OF SASSARI

Partners: 11 organisations from England, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, The Netherland and Germany

Target areas:

Funded by: European Union

OBJECTIVE: indicator system for European Mediterranean desertification

The two main products:

---The DIS4ME SYSTEM(www.kcl.ac.uk/desertlinks)

---The DIS4ME DATABASE(www.nrd.uniss.it/dis4me/)

Both available on the web…..

(off-line demonstration follows of DIS4ME SYSTEM …..)

The DESERTLINKS Indicators Database

Purpose

A DataBase application providing the following functionalities:

1 Represent indicators and related knowledge in a relational database following the DESERTLINKS Framework;

Conceptual Referencebase

Rome, 2000

Criteria Classes and relative codes

OperationalObjective

prevention monitoring mitigation

P Mo Mi Position in the DPSIRframework

drivingforce

pressure state impact response

D P S I RScale space punctual local sub-region region European

Mediterr.region

P L Sr R Mtime daily or

moremonthly orseasonal

annual less than annual

singlemeasure

g m a b sComponent ofthe systemunderconsideration

soil waterresources

vegetation climate socio-economic

aspects

S W V C SENature of data data banks direct

gatheringremotesensing

B F RS

Classification framework for

DESERTLINKSINDICATORS

2 share the database among users, allowing them to access (VIA WEB) an always up-to-date version of the database:

• provide user-level security;• divide data into public and private sections;• store indicator descriptions provided by authors:

allow users to propose new indicators; allow the administrator to validate proposals and make persistent database edits;

• store user comments and feedback on indicators;

3 Mantain the database:

provide editing capabilities; perform queries; provide text/XML import/export;

4 Publish the database on the Web:

make the public section available via web pages in read-only mode;

provide a mechanism for working ONLINE/OFFLINE and update local data via the web.

Interactivity and discussion: Comments

Proposed by a user in relation to an indicator.They contain relevant informations on indicators, their use and interpretation.

The comments should not only form a knowledge base, but lead authors to eventually modify indicator's specifications.

Users

Each organization involved in the project may be granted a login to the database as accounted user. Accounted users can perform limiter edits on the database, and can access in read-only or limited edit mode to its private section.

The NRD user has special administrator privileges which allow him to make any kind of edit.

Public audience (guest user) will be granted read-only access to the public section of the database, directly or via web pages.

Type of edit OperationsInserting a newindicator orgroup

A user inserts a record in the DB, providing it does not violateintegrity and consistency checks. The record is marked as proposed.The insertion DATE and the OWNER are added automatically, and theuser who inserted the record becomes the owner of the indicator.Later on, the administrator will validate the record and switch it tothe approved state.

Modifying anexisting indicatoror group

Only the owner can modify an indicator. The old indicator is markedas proposed for deletion, and the new version is marked as proposed.Posting a change log comment is required.Upon DB administrator action, the new version will pass to theApproved status, and all the records previously referred to the oldversion of the indicator (i.e. comments, relations with groups and soforth) will be transferred to the new one.

Deleting anindicator orgroup

The owner cannot permanently delete a record from the database.The record will be marked as proposed for deletion. Theadministrator can eventually mark the record as deleted, or evenremove bad records upon request.

Editingorganizations

Only the administrator can delete a record from ORGANIZ table orgrant it an access to the database. Accounted users can edit datafrom their own records or insert new (proposed) Organizations. Onceapproved, organization records can be edited only by theadministrator or the owner.

Editing biblio Users can post new BIBLIO records, which are marked as proposed.Owners can edit and delete the biblio records, providing they arelinked only to indicators owned by themselves.

Editing

(off-line demonstration follows of DIS4ME DATABASE …..)

Web application architecture

UsersAccess web interface with an internet connection.

AdministratorAccesses the web interface throughthe intranet.May remotelyadminister the DB.

Public audienceReads up-to-date information.Performs dynamic queries.

WebApplication

DataBase

RDBMSApplication

Publicdynamic

querypages

Adminedit & queryprivatepages

UserEdit & query pages

NRD serverInternet Internet

Client ControlPanel

Direct Access

DataBase operations

Publication

•Web pages•XML export

Limited editingProposals

Persistent editsValidation

UsersShare data.Propose new indicators.Comment existing data.

AdministratorUser activity.Databasemaintenance.Full control on Db data and structure.

QueryDiscussion

Public audienceReads the resultsImports data.

DataBaseApplication

Data

Database structure -- Logical and conceptual model(example, not corresponding to the present final structure)