ArcticData. ACCESSIBILITY TO ARCTIC COUNCIL DATA.

Abstract

"The CAFF and PAME Secretariats have been discussing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Working Groups within the Arctic Council as a result of recent assessments that have created extensive datasets e.g. the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment and the Oil & Gas Assessment. Information once collected and incorporated within Working Group assessments and reports have faced a number of challenges: 1. It remains difficult to find - while each Working Group has a website and archive these are independent of each other and there is no one site where data collected by Working Groups (not just contact details or activities) can be accessed in an organized and integrated manner. 2. It is difficult to access - while huge efforts go into collecting and amassing data for Working Groups projects it remains difficult to access in a format and manner which allows data to be easily useable and transferable. Data is tied into PDF reports and the hard data behind graphs, maps etc is not easily accessible, in particular those that are not protected by copyright. Thus data from the Arctic Council remains under-used and the ability to allow the public, scientific community and the academia to access and benefit from this wealth of data is currently limited." /.../