- Baseline Study to record basic data of natural and cultural sciences for a coastal data bank in Lower Saxony -

The aim of the project is to work out a comprehensive overall picture of natural and cultural sciences of the Jade Bay and its environment covering the period from the end of the last glacial period until modern times.

This interdisciplinary research project deals with and correlates geosphere, biosphere and anthroposphere. In collaboration with the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (NIhK), Senckenberg Marine Science, and the Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defence and Nature Conservation Agency (NLWKN), the ICBM Terramare will work the next three years to achieve this aim.

First, the data existing in the sub-disciplines will be transferred into a central geo-referenced project data bank, which is an essential part of the interdisciplinary Geographic Information System (GIS). In further steps, the visible and existing data gaps will be closed by specific scientific studies and surveys.

In selected parts of the Jade area, we will continue to develop those basics and methods that are not yet available for certain disciplines. We plan to compile a sedimentological, geochemical and biostratigraphical feature catalogue, allowing us to record and interpret the sediment layers on an area-wide scale in the entire Jade area. For that purpose, onshore examinations with geophysical methods and drillings are also required (structures and extent of selnering, land-sea transition zones).

After working out the features, we will compare them to seismic data collected by ship in the Jade Bay in order to prove the effects and extent of the anthropogenic influence on the development of the Jade area. The same applies to the special examinations dealing with the documentation and development of natural silting zones under the influence of a rising sea level and storm tide level.

Furthermore, we will check whether we can use the high-resolution culture-historical, geological and geophysical parameters to reconstruct the earlier morphological development of the Jade Bay with similar accuracy as (already modelled) with historical maps. Additionally, we will investigate the current spatial distribution of the macrofauna communities.

After transforming the results in the interdisciplinary GIS, we plan to intersect them with hydrodynamically modelled scenarios of sedimentary structures in order to get an idea about the food supply in previously defined periods. Within the research project, the GIS data management ensures the processing and provision of data as well as an appropriate visualisation of information.

Innovative data management is essential for interdisciplinary scientific work and for the analysis of complex system interactions. Geo-referencing of all data sets as well as their temporal classification play an important and integral part. The management and suppliers of the data control the quality and consistence of data and provide interfaces for analysing and displaying them, e.g. as maps. In this context, the technically different formats and data contents as well as their spatial and temporal diversity need special consideration.

Our key product is the interdisciplinary GIS data bank. All spatially referenced data are kept here. Furthermore, the data management provides interfaces for free software and for intersection, analysis and visualisation of the data available in the GIS which will be entered by all sub-projects. We will edit/update our own meta data and look for interfaces with related data banks such as PANGAEA, COASTDAT, NOKIS, and use the corresponding standards, e.g. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or Uniform Resource Name (URN).