The course provides students with both background reading assignments and practical exercises that explore specific technical methodologies. Topics covered include data sharing, data pathways, metadata standards, legal aspects of data and data policy, marine data format types (including biological, spreadsheet, vector, raster and grid, relational and archive), data communication (press releases, posters, digital archives and special collections), global relief, scalar and vector data, gridded data, coastlines and landmasks, the World Data System, the World Ocean Database and Atlas, file-naming conventions, and ancillary topics on the mechanics of data structure. In Part 1, special attention is focused on the historical context of biological data management, and on the available spectrum of biological datasets (locations, species, accompanying environmental data, observations, etc.) Aims and Objectives: • Provide a brief introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their main uses • Provide an introduction to the management of oceanographic data, with a focus on selecting and obtaining data from an "area of interest" • Demonstrate the use of a the Ocean Data View software package for the analysis and visualization of ocean station data • Show how to make the connection between ocean data collections and GIS systems, through the data gridding process • Demonstrate how to make vector plots in GIS After taking this course, the student can: • Make a map in Saga GIS of any world countries • Select a world region for intensive study, using geocoordinates • Make empty grid templates in Saga for any selected region of the world • Extract bathymetry contour shapes from the GEBCO 2003 global dataset • Procur socio-political boundaries and other geographic features from global archives, for use in Saga • Identify and download regional data from the World Ocean Database (WOD) • Create a data collection in Ocean Data View (ODV), using the WOD data • Create station, scatter, section and surface plots in ODV • Make time-line history graphics for ocean data collections in Saga • Export desired data subsets or interpolations from ODV • Import data tables into Saga GIS and create points shapes • Grid points shapes in Saga • Assign appropriate color palettes to grids in Saga • Make a suite of "standard" grid products in Saga for publication or display • Resampling a global grid down to the desired Area of Interest with a dummy grid • Make wind and current vector maps in Saga for standard GIS or Google Earth • Assemble sample images of all the above processes into a coherent PowerPoint presentation Target audience: • Marine and coastal scientists • Environmental scientists with knowledge of major marine parameters Pre-requisites: • Students should be graduate students or recent graduates in the marine sciences • Students should be highly proficient in the use of personal computers with Windows XP or W7 • Students should have a good command of English Lecturers: • Tim Deprez (Part 1) • Murray Brown (Part 2)