Summary

The Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC) plays a key role in managing and providing access to scientific data collected under the auspices of the Australian Antarctic program. Through its membership of the Joint Committee of Antarctic Data Management (JCADM), the AADC is populating the Antarctic Master Directory (AMD) to provide information on, and access to, data collected in the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT). Australia has currently contributed the largest number of records to this metadata repository. However, this is only one of a number of initiatives currently being pursued by the AADC to promote re-use of data derived from Australian research and expeditions and to leverage the investment made by other nations in their Antarctic programs. This Poster describes some of these other activities and forms Australia’s national, annual report to JCADM. The demand for maps of Antarctica and its surrounding oceans and sub-antarctic islands, at all scales continues to grow. This is because of the fundamental role maps play in supporting research and environmental management coupled with significant recent improvements in remote data capture techniques. But despite this demand, access to more data than we have ever had before and contemporary advances in GIS and web mapping technologies, the collaborative development of electronic maps is still stymied by issues of nomenclature and ontology. Our capacity to share and integrate data across national jurisdictions in Antarctica requires consensus on the definition of “mappable” features, agreement on names for specific locations or features and development of rules concerning how to symbolise features and cartographically style maps. The AADC has taken the lead in the Antarctic community to develop on-line Feature and Symbology Catalogues and is driving the population of the SCAR Composite Gazetteer as well as playing an important role in the resolution of nomenclature issues between Antarctic Treaty nations. The Poster summarises progress made to date on each of these activities and provides an overview of the technologies harnessed in each.