Die  Kuste,  81  (2014),  29-43

40

3.2  Web  services
Preparation,  maintenance  and  use  of  metadata  in  die  MDI-DE  are  described  in  a  Metadata ­
  Guide  by  WOSNIOK  and  RAder  (2013).  The  INSPIRE  directive  provides  for  metadata
of  both  geo-data  sets  and  Web  services  related  to  tiiese  data.  The  target  system  GDI-DE
(GeodateninfrastrukTUR  DeuTSCFILAND  2008)  has  designed  appropriate  conventions ­
  for  metadata  for  this  purpose.  GDI-DE  also  makes  available  a  test  suite  in  order  to
assure  compliance  of  all  metadata  within  its  network  including  MDI-DE  with  the  technical ­
  form  and  content  required  by  INSPIRE.
Efficient  search  clients  implemented  in  Web  portals  rely  on  consistent  metadata
for  geo-data  and  services.  An  index  is  used  in  the  portals  of  GDI-DE  and  MDI-DE  to
first  register  all  existing  metadata  records  within  the  network  and  then  associate  data  and
services  in  a  second  step.  This  mechanism  allows  result  lists  on  die  portals  to  display  the
found  records  together  witii  related  services  for  dieir  visualization  and  download.
4  The  MDI-DE  Web  portal
According  to  die  concept  of  die  new  Web  portal  for  marine  and  coastal  data,  die
MDI-DE  Web  portal  serves  as  die  central  access  point  for  data  and  information  from
the  German  coastal  zone  and  the  adjacent  marine  waters.  It  provides  die  following
functionality:
•  Simple  and  expert  search  using  a  metadata  catalogue,  a  thesaurus  for  controlled  vocabulary ­
  and  a  coastal  gazetteer  for  geographic  names  in  the  marine  environment,
•  Intersectorally  consistent  data  structures  for  interdisciplinary  views  on  marine  data,
•  Web  services  and  download  services  for  visualization  and  data  access,
•  Implementation  of  prototype  services  for  data  analysis  and  automatic  report  generation ­
  with  respect  to  the  requirements  put  forward  in  EU  framework  directives.
The  MDI-DE  portal  relies  on  a  network  for  marine  data,  connecting  local  nodes  at  the
major  data  sources  of  Federal  and  State  agencies,  which  provide  a  wide  range  of  data
types.  The  experience  gained  in  the  research  and  development  project  will  be  used  for
further  implementations  in  the  coastal  States  of  Germany.
The  future  Web  services  provided  by  the  new  Marine  Data  Infrastructure  will  support
system  analysis  applications  related  to  coastal  engineering,  spatial  planning,  nature  conservation, ­
  science  and  ecology.