Methodological Basis for Information Management – The DIAMONT Database for Indikators, Data and Instruments as a Contribution to the Alpine Convention

Abstract

In the year 1991, seven Alpine states and the EU signed the Alpine Convention, an international agreement dedicated to ensure sustainable development in one of the ecologically most sensitive regions of Europe. The Alpine Convention aims to safeguard natural and cultural diversity as well as the life quality of citizen and strives within the EU context for a balanced competitiveness of regions. For almost 10 years the Signatory States of the Alpine Convention struggled for the development of appropriate indicators and instruments to monitor and assess the main processes of regional development as well as Alpine-specific problems. The INTERREG IIIB project “DIAMONT” (Data Infrastructure of the Alps. Mountain Orientated Network Technology) supports the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention in the development of “SOIA” (System for Observation of and Information on the Alps). The database has been developed in different modules addressing indicators, data and instruments of regional development. Details on both indicators and instruments are given in accordance with data and meta data requirements as regulated by ISO19115; they are stored in the xml data base. This technology enables to maintain consistent relations between indicators, instruments and data for entering and maintaining in the database. Besides data storage, the database is also used within the project as communication platform between eight partners from six countries. For that reason, the database is equipped with a sophisticated comment field, allowing authorised users to comment and discuss each entry. Given this structure the database might also contribute to the INSPIRE-initiative which aims to compile geographical information from local to EU level in an inter-operable way (http://www.ec-gis.org/inspire/).