Digital strategy & informatics
Automated boundary detection from satellite images. Image - Heather North
Goal: Landcare Research's science knowledge, databases and collections, analyses and modelling are readily available and can be used efficiently and effectively
Informatics is the design and development of information systems that can gather and manage data (often from distributed sources) and deliver information as and when needed, often through web portals. Key underlying principles for web portals are that publicly-funded data are open (discoverable) and conform to international data standards, in forms that are usable by both people and computers. We are leading work on interoperability standards – ensuring our computer-based information systems work seamlessly alongside those of our national and international stakeholders. These developments are enabled by high network speeds, such as the ultra-fast broadband roll-out, KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research & Education Network) and the High Performance Computing facilities operated under the National e-Science Infrastructure (NeSI) investment.
We are leaders in knowledge stewardship – maximising new uses for existing data, acquiring new data when and where they are needed, making use of software and datasharing synergies, enhancing data integrity, and growing the use of our data by others. We develop software applications to enhance knowledge transfer and increase national and international access to, and interoperability of data from, our Core-funded Nationally Significant Databases and Collections. Policy, regulatory and private sector agencies increasingly depend on e-science and robust integrative modelling across local, catchment, regional, national and even global scales.