Development of a metadatabase to support a multi- organisational, multi-disciplinary river ecosystem research and management initiative – Experiences from the Kruger National Park Rivers Research Programme

This paper describes the products and processes developed by the Information Systems Development and Management Subprogramme (ISDM) of the Kruger National Park Rivers Research Programme (KNPRRP) Phase II. The goals of the KNPRRP are to: • inform researchers, system managers and stakeholders about the water quality and quantity requirements to sustain the natural environment of rivers which flow through the Kruger National Park;and • develop, test and refine methods for predicting the response of the natural environments of rivers flowing through the Kruger National Park and in Southern Africa to changing water quality and patterns of supply. A primary task in a programme of this nature is to gather and organise the metadata of interest. In the case of the multi-organisational, multi-disciplinary KNPRRP this was a task so large that it required the devotion of a separate subprogramme within the programme structure. The purpose of the ISDM subprogramme was to provide an information management system which enables the efficient capture, storage, retrieval and dissemination of the information to serve the metadata needs of researchers, decision makers and stakeholders. The choice of personalities and processes employed to gather the information was central to the success of the project. In addition to providing a “hard facts” description of the methodology and achievements of ISDM, this paper explores some of the philosophical, psychological and business issues embodied in the choice of personalities and processes required for such a task. The metadata catalogue is available through the world-wide web via the KNPRRP home page (http://www.ccwr.ac.za/knprrp). The information is presented in four broad categories, namely: • documents (both conventional publications and “grey” literature) • digital data (including GIS and time-dependent climatic data) • simulation models • collections (including museum collections, videos, and photographs). Within the KNPRRP the ISDM both served and derived inspiration and information from the KNPRRP’s other three subprogrammes namely, the Decision Support System Development and Management Subprogramme (DSSDM), the Research Development and Management Subprogramme (RDM) and the Training and Information Technology Transfer Subprogramme (TITT).