The European Marine Energy Centre improves Data Management and GIS Capability
As global energy consumption increases and climate change makes headlines across the world, developing new technologies to harness energy from our oceans to generate electricity is now more important than ever.
The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), established in 2003 and based in Orkney, Scotland, is the first and only centre of its kind in the world to provide developers of both wave and tidal energy converters with purpose-built, accredited open-sea testing facilities.
EMEC, who are at the forefront of tidal and wave technology development, take data very seriously and realise the operational benefits that come from getting the best out of their investment in Geographic Information System (GIS) and employing a whole business approach to data management.
EMEC recently embarked on a project to further improve their GIS and data management capability and commissioned OceanWise to assist them in the is process. The project included training in data management and QGIS, and converted EMEC’s existing diverse and primarily CAD based datasets to be compatible with GIS. The project also linked QGIS to existing data systems and implemented metadata management across the business. OceanWise also assisted EMEC to update their data policy and strategy to include data management as part of their existing business management framework.
David Darbinyan, senior metocean engineer at EMEC explained: “OceanWise provided EMEC with valuable support in managing our diverse datasets. OceanWise not only provided a high-level overview of best data management practices, but also supplied very concrete and hands-on steps to improve our existing approach. The feedback provided was tailored specifically for EMEC and allowed us to take full advantage of our existing Integrated Management System tools and processes.”
For more information, useful tips, free publications and available training courses please visit the OceanWise website. Also see our page our page on Data as Infrastructure for more details on why data management is important. You can also download for free our latest white papers on Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) and Data Management for Ports and Harbours.