A GeoNetwork-based Catalogue for Marine Data Management

A GeoNetwork-based Catalogue for Marine Data Management | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A GeoNetwork-based Catalogue for Marine Data Management Lucía Sanz-Pinilla, Gonzalo González-Nuevo, Elena Tel, Manuel Ruiz-Villarreal This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7261114/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 08 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Earth Science Informatics → Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract With the growing complexity and frequency of oceanic sampling, more efficient systems are needed to manage the information. Developing robust infrastructures that facilitate the search and access to oceanographic data becomes essential to ensure effective use of information, as well as to promote collaboration and interoperability among organizations. In this context, the concept of geoportals as human-machine interfaces emerges as one of the key solutions for accessing and disseminating spatial data. The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), as part of the National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC) network, has adopted open-source solutions such as GeoNetwork to develop a standardized metadata repository that adheres to FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). This approach has enabled IEO to organize and present an extensive catalogue of multidisciplinary oceanographic data, supporting data discovery, integration, and global exchange. The implementation of proper hierarchization mechanisms has improved search capabilities, allowing users (individuals or data hubs) to efficiently access marine datasets for research and applications. Furthermore, the cataloguing of ocean data at IEO plays a crucial role in supporting the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), demonstrating the impact of structured data management on environmental policies and ocean governance. Oceanography Data Management FAIR principles GeoNetwork Data catalogue Marine science data Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Introduction Ocean observations are acquired from a great variety of platforms at different spatial and temporal scales. Additionally, a great number of physical, chemical, geological and biological variables need to be measured to characterise and understand ocean dynamics and the ocean ecosystem. Developing robust infrastructures that facilitate the search and access to diverse oceanographic data becomes essential for producing information, services and products to support the great diversity of marine stakeholders. Collaboration and interoperability among different organizations are essential to ensure effective usage. Typically, information is stored in numerous repositories, and the significant challenge lies in organising this vast amount of data in an efficient, reliable, and intuitive manner (Innerebner et al., 2016). In this context, the concept of geoportals, being human-to-machine interfaces, have emerged as one of the key solutions for spatial data accessing and sharing (Jiang et al., 2019 ). The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) was founded in 1914 and focuses its activity on oceanography, marine research and scientific advice to the government in order to support the implementation of marine related policies. IEO studies ecosystems, coordinates research programs and conducts surveys with oceanographic vessels to collect information about marine resources. This information is subsequently used to advise authorities, companies, and citizens on ocean conservation and sustainability (Tel et al., 2016 ). The IEO is part of the National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC) network, created in 1968 and driven by the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO). The IODE programme, established in 1961, coordinates a global network of more than 100 centres. The aim of IODE is to enhance marine research by facilitating the exchange of oceanographic information among participating member states and by meeting the needs of users for data and products 1 . Currently, this integration commits the country to adhering to various quality management standards for uniformity in the collection and storage of marine data, using common criteria. NODC data must comply with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable), introduced by Wilkinson et al. in 2016 to promote the development of open science. This implies that metadata must be clearly published, with an associated identifier, and must follow the classification of common standards (Leadbetter, Meaney, et al., 2020). Additionally, the IEO, as part of its responsibilities as NODC, safeguards and manages data and metadata originated by other national institutions when required. This role involves not only the preservation and dissemination of marine environmental data but also the adoption of the best available technologies to ensure its effective use. To achieve this, the institute is committed to continually enhancing its technical and human resources, aiming to provide outstanding service to the research community. Moreover, it extends its support to other sectors of society, such as academia, energy and tourism, by offering reliable and accessible data which is crucial for informed decision-making and sustainable progress. The management of marine data at the IEO contributes to three pan-European infrastructures: SeaDataNet (SDN) 2 , European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) 3 , and Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) 4 ; which provide frameworks for uploading and organising the information. In relation to the FAIR policies, these systems use common vocabularies 5 managed by SDN and the MarineXML Vocabulary Content Governance Group (SeaVoX). Furthermore, they are moderated by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) 6 , which plays a fundamental role in maintaining the accuracy, relevance, and coherence of the terms used across the marine data community (Lowry et al., 2005 ). As the main research of the IEO is focused at sea and organised in oceanographic cruises since the beginning of its activities, the Cruise Summary Reports (CSRs) are a fundamental part of the IEO's data management structure, documenting basic information about each survey. These reports (formerly known as ROSCOP) have been expanded in recent years to include links to the data acquired during these surveys, providing direct access to valuable oceanographic resources. Stored as XML files, they allow for automated processing of the contained information, necessary updates and well web dissemination. Due to the large amount of data collected by the IEO, with more than 5700 surveys conducted and over 65800 datasets gathered, there is an obvious need to organize, standardize and relate the different databases with a data catalogue. Over the years, the IEO has developed various initiatives for data publication, initially in paper bulletins and later in various digital formats. They were disseminated to the scientific community through the means available at each time. In 1997, the first web initiative emerged to organize the IEO spatial information in a Geographical Information System (GIS) and, in 2010, this GIS was consolidated as IEO institutional GIS (Tello el al., 2018) for dissemination of data products and sea-related information. Since 2006, the IEO has been a partner of the Pan-European Infrastructure for Ocean and Marine Data Management platform, SDN, originated in the framework of the EU 6th Framework Programme. Evolving along the years, data, metadata and related information as institutions, projects, etc., are published according to latest technological advancements and standards. This requires the IEO to make a constant effort for updating its local structures and knowledge. Simultaneously, the institute has undertaken various initiatives to meet the specific demands of users for marine data at the local level. These initiatives include the creation of several portals and websites, although most of them are now inactive. In 2016, the first IEO web catalogue using GeoNetwork technology was launched (Otero, et al., 2016 ). The portal prototype emerged from this initial catalogue, but its development remained at an early stage due to the lack of automation processes. Additionally, under the Interreg Atlantic Area project iFADO 7 project, focused on monitoring of offshore ocean in European Atlantic waters, a GeoNetwork portal (accessible through centolo.co.ieo 8 ) was implemented to support data discovery and access to display information related to regional activities and oceanographic surveys in offshore waters from the different project partners. The new IEO web catalogue (nodc.ieo.es 9 ) has been developed within the framework of the PTI Oceans + with the aim of upgrading the existing institutional data portal to more advanced technology and centralising all NODC information in one place, enhancing its visibility and facilitating user accessions. All the IEO’s catalogues advocate for responsibility in content management, ensuring that the information is accurate and in line with the FAIR principles. They also promote a user-friendly approach to data accessibility and the adoption of robust technological standards, which include the vocabularies previously mentioned. Methodology The implementation of the web catalogue has been carried out on a server that hosts the required applications and the marine metadata. The open-source tool GeoNetwork has been used, providing a user-friendly interface for searching and accessing geospatial data (Ticheler, et al., 2007). This software was chosen for its ability to read entries directly through templates, removing the need for a dedicated database. Additionally, it’s sufficiently customizable to meet the needs of the IEO, ensuring compliance with the FAIR principles. GeoNetwork supports the storage and management of raw data, metadata, Web Map Service (WMS), and more, making it an ideal solution for the NODC’s diverse data requirements. The specifications for GeoNetwork version 4.2.1 require the installation of Java 8 and Tomcat 9.0.75. Moreover, this version uses Elasticsearch 7.4.2 as the search engine for the portal. GeoNetwork offers extensive customization capabilities for the main view and search filters through its User Interface (UI), allowing to configure the catalogue to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of users. The web interface enables easy management of classification systems directly and schedules metadata harvesting from many sources. One of the key features of this interface is its ability to collect and directly integrate data from other web portals, which promotes collaboration between different organizations and contributes to the development of oceanographic research. By using this tool, the IEO has successfully connected the information from its existing catalogues to the new one, nodc.ieo.es. With these improvements, the IEO web catalogue not only centralizes the available information but also makes it more accessible and usable for the scientific community and the general public. The machine-to-machine connections facilitated by GeoNetwork exemplify the implementation of technology that allows the automatic updating of information across all portals, ensuring that users always have access to the most current data. GeoNetwork facilitates identifying and addressing the metadata by creating a unique resource identifier and offering the possibility to link to a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). A metadata catalogue should be able to guide the user (human or machine) to the location where the data is uploaded. In the case of the IEO, the entries are accessible through the SDN infrastructure, and these are the links included in the metadata repository. For example, the thermosalinograph and climatology data from two IEO’s research vessels, have metadata associated with a DOI, and additionally, these datasets have a map service on a THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services) server, which simplifies the data download process. This ensures that users can easily find and access the data they need. To enhance the web catalog, the IEO has used GeoServer to provide geospatial representations of specific entries. This software allows the visualization of the spatial distribution of different variables, vessel trajectories, and sampling points, among others. GeoServer is an open-source software platform designed for the publication and exchange of geospatial data. GeoServer is widely used in geographic information systems (GIS) for showing maps and scalable geospatial services because it supports a wide range of data formats, including shapefiles, PostGIS, GeoPackage, and others. It offers advanced capabilities for the visualization, editing, and dissemination of geographic data through standard formats, such as WMS and Web Feature Service (WFS). WMS services render geospatial data as maps that can be overlaid and customized to meet user-specific needs. In contrast, WFS services grant direct access to vector data, allowing users to query geometries and attributes. Both formats are accepted by the map tab of GeoNetwork. XML structure Once the web portal is launched, entries from the CSRs and the other types of information from the IEO can be loaded manually, through harvesting or Python-based automation methods, which allows importing from the same server or other catalogues. GeoNetwork is able to work with the International Standards for Geographic information developed by the Technical Committee ISO/TC 211 (Ostensen and Danko, 2005 ). There are two essential standards on geoportals, ISO 19115 and ISO 19139. The first one, provides an abstract and logical model for geospatial metadata, recording information about identification, location, quality, owner, and other aspects. In contrast, ISO 19139 defines the XML encoding of the ISO metadata standards (NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center, 2012 ). This is another reason why GeoNetwork was chosen as the infrastructure to develop the catalogue, because it offers predefined metadata schema templates fulfilling ISO 19115 and ISO 19139 (Innerebner et al., 2016). Although CSRs are an extension of these standards 10 , they have to be modified so that all the information they contain can be correctly stored in the GeoNetwork. To perform this task an XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) transformation file is applied to transform the CSRs and ensure they comply with the specific formats of GeoNetwork. This file defines the mapping parameters, the templates applied to each part, makes adjustments to meet common standards and finally presents the metadata in an XML format compatible with GeoNetwork. Given that the XML follows these standards, the structure of all entries is uniform. Each entry is initially identified by a name, creation date, and a unique number serving as a local identifier. For entries generated at the IEO, the file reference adheres to a specific format such as 29VVYYYYMMDD. Here, “29VV” denotes the country and vessel code according to the SDN C17 vocabulary (ICES platform codes) 11 , while “YYYYMMDD” indicates the survey’s start date. The XML also includes information about the data responsible party (organization and email), followed by a brief summary of the survey and the data collected. Once the resource is identified, metadata tags mentioned earlier are included, such as theme, location, platform, parameter, instrument, resource type, among others. Additionally, each entry is geographically located on a map, and access and usage restrictions are specified. Where available, links are provided for data search or download from various repositories, such as SDN, SEANOE, THREDDS, etc. The CSRs entries include a direct link to the Common Data Index (CDIs) in SeaDataNet, facilitating access to the related datasets. A schematic representation of some of these tags is shown in Fig. 1 . Each XML file can include all the necessary tags for the owner, as long as it uses a suitable vocabulary to ensure accurate classification. In the case of the IEO, specific tags have been designed; for example, to categorize data according to the monitoring program like RADIALES 12 . Within the framework of the national transposition of European regulation known as “Marine Strategy Framework Directive” (MSFD) 13 , a classification system was developed based on parameters linked to various descriptors and other on geographic location associated with different marine regions. Currently, the IEO is working on integrating a similar classification into other GeoNetwork-based catalogues to address these needs and facilitate efficient access to information. All the vocabularies, elements and namespaces used on the XML are defined in the ISO 10115: Metadata Workbook of NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center ( 2012 ). This structure ensures accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of oceanographic data, promoting transparency and collaboration in marine research in line with the FAIR principles. Results Web Catalogue The implementation of a data catalogue at the IEO aims to enhance data discoverability, improve user accessibility and promote the use of robust infrastructures for managing, storing and sharing data effectively. The IEO conducts multidisciplinary sampling initiatives, both systematic and monitoring, as part of various research projects. Different types of data are collected depending on the aim of the research and the data acquisition techniques used (Tel et al., 2018). Consequently, the geoportal has been organized to facilitate access to all the information stored in the NODC. Given that shipborne surveys are a crucial component of the IEO’s oceanographic research, a fundamental part of the developed catalogue relies on the CSRs. In addition, specific tabs have been dedicated to sampling and monitoring activities independent of oceanographic surveys. These include the tide gauge network, ocean-meteorological buoys, moorings, and ship continuous monitoring. Finally, due to the IEO's commitment to the MSFD and its aim to facilitate access to research findings, some GIS layers generated at the IEO have been incorporated to meet the directive’s objectives. The data catalogue offers different search options, including free text search, localization and predefined filters. Upon accessing the web catalogue, three main pages are available from the top: the main homepage, the search tab and the map. Homepage On the homepage, the metadata is organized into blocks, enabling quick and easy access to various files. Although GeoNetwork provides the ability to customize the catalogue to facilitate metadata searches and achieve appropriate classification for the IEO, it has also been necessary to modify the XML entries. The IEO database contains various types of data, ranging from bathymetry and seafloor information to meteorology, as well as biology and chemistry. Therefore, the metadata and the catalogue must be perfectly structured and organized to provide the best possible information access service. Resource Type: This separation categorizes metadata based on its origins, starting with national and foreign surveys (conducted in Spanish waters by vessels from other countries). These international surveys, in Spain, are overseen by the IEO in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation (MAEC). This block also includes bathymetric data and products, the tide gauge network and ship continuous monitoring data, among others. Programs: This section displays the various monitoring projects developed by the IEO, allowing quick access to all metadata associated with a specific program. Platforms: Entries are categorized by the type of structure from which data was collected, such as ships, buoys, moorings, coastal structures, etc. Organizations: This feature enables direct access to all data managed by a specific institution. As introduced earlier, the NODC can safeguard data from other centres, ensuring clear attribution to their original sources. Parameters: While users can quickly filter data by parameters on the search tab, this section retrieves all files containing data for a specific parameter at once. Common parameters listed in the catalogue include temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and water column fluorescence. Search tab The search tab allows more specific filtering based on metadata information, which can also be adjusted on a temporal and spatial scale, as the catalogue includes an interactive map for spatial filtering. The filters use the different tags contained in the IEO metadata XML, including topics, dates, places, organizations, programs, platforms, ships, parameters, and instruments. Therefore, it is crucial that the metadata is correctly hierarchized to maximize the functionalities of GeoNetwork and ElasticSearch. To guarantee the correct operation of all these tags, the metadata must follow the European Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets (EDMED) 14 and adhere to the ISO 19115/19139 standards 15 (Craglia & Annoni, 2007 ). By conforming to these standards, the metadata remains interoperable, facilitating efficient data discovery and utilization. Map tab GeoNetwork provides functionality for integrating and visualising WMS and WFS, enabling direct visualization and querying of spatial data from the catalogue. These representations are easily accessible from the catalogue map tab. These services can be configured to let users view and combine geographic layers from diverse sources within the catalogue's integrated map, providing a centralized environment for spatial data representation. Additionally, GeoNetwork facilitates the identification of map elements and querying of attribute data, allowing the accessibility and usability of geospatial information. This capability enhances access to geospatial data stored on remote servers like GeoServer, promoting collaboration and geospatial data sharing among users, governments, and research institutions. For example, Fig. 2 displays the map of the trajectory followed in the GeoNetwork entry for “Meteorology Angeles Alvarino, 2022” 16 , which has been uploaded to GeoServer and shared as WMS. To enable this visualization, the track or desired spatial distribution must be uploaded to GeoServer and then linked to the corresponding GeoNetwork entry as an online service (WMS, WFS, etc.). Once this link is created, the content hosted on GeoServer 17 is displayed directly within the GeoNetwork interface (inside the specific metadata entry and through the catalogue's main map tab, via “Add layers”). In Fig. 2 the top graphic shows the WMS in the map tab, while the bottom one displays it within the metadata entry. GeoNetwork Server GeoNetwork, since version 3, uses Elasticsearch as a search and data analysis engine. It is accessible via a distributed REST API and is based on Lucene. As a data warehouse it is easily scalable and allows querying large datasets in a very efficient way, with great capacity to perform refined queries. The exploitation of GeoNetwork information through this search engine makes the server very efficient even with the number of entries managed by a National Data Centre such as the Spanish one. Although there are more than 50,000 records, with a considerable abundance of metadata, this engine is prepared for volumes of several orders of magnitude greater (2000 million) per node. Along with the installation of GeoNetwork and the ElasticSearch search engine, it is also necessary to implement the Kibana graphics service. GeoNetwork uses this data visualisation panel for some of its outputs. This combination of technologies makes it very easy to create dashboards and automatic report templates based on the information that is recorded in GeoNetwork with very little coding. This type of approach means that a significant part of the time spent by data centres on reporting statistics, aggregating information from official requirements, etc. can be reduced, making all these tasks more efficient. As an example, Fig. 3 shows a Kibana dashboard created to show statistics about the organization responsible, the parameters measured, the instruments used and the research vessel conducting the survey. The representation is interactive and the user can filter the stored information using the different graphic panels. In the case of the vessel pie chart, the biggest section is for “Unknown (ZZ99)” due to the presence of numerous historic research and fishing vessels not included in the BODC vocabularies, and therefore classified as unknown in the CSR. On the other hand, the vessel with the second-highest number of campaigns is “Lura (29LU)” as it conducts daily surveys. The map capabilities associated with the implementation of the GeoNetwork catalogue can be used to summarize the geographical coverage of ocean observations in Spain. Figure 4 presents a density map, also created with Kibana, illustrating the points where there are observations stored at the IEO GeoNetwork. The area with the highest number of surveys is the northwest of Spain, followed by the western Mediterranean Sea. However, campaigns extend on a global scale, from the Southern Ocean to the Greenland Sea. Areas like Flemish Cap (East from North America) and Porcupine Bank (Southwest of the British Isles) are fisheries ground sites where there is monitoring of fish stocks with ocean observations. The temporal evolution of ocean observations available at the Spanish NODC GeoNetwork are shown in Fig. 5 . Surveys started at the beginning of the 20th century and grew from the 1970s with the increase of research vessels. There are several years with a significantly lower number of entries that suggest the existence of unreported measurements. Since the observation effort is primarily affected by funding constraints, other factors may also contribute to the gaps in the dataset. For instance, in 2019 there was a marked decrease in the number of surveys, largely due to reduced activity of the research vessel Lura (29LU), which limited the data collection efforts. All the images presented are screenshots of interactive Kibana dashboards, which allow users to explore and visualize the data contained in GeoNetwork in an interactive and graphical manner. These dashboards provide deeper insights into ocean observations by enabling users to filter and analyze the data across various parameters, spatial dimensions, temporal trends, and other characteristics (Figs. 3 , 4 and 5 ). Optimization processes The number of staff and time required for both, the inclusion of new entries and the maintenance of existing records, make systematic management difficult and slow. To optimize these tasks, GeoNetwork offers two different implementations. One is the Catalogue Service for the Web standard (CSW), which has a transactional component (CSW-t) and allows modifying the records of a catalogue if the appropriate credentials are available. This approach has the clear advantage of being part of the CSW standard, which allows for developments that would not only be useful for catalogue management in GeoNetwork, but could also be used in any kind of implementation of the CSW-t standard. Although CSW-t allows most of the basic catalogue management operations to be carried out, it has limitations and is not fully developed, especially in the fine management part. Additionally, GeoNetwork offers a REST API for interaction with the server that allows a larger catalogue of interactions with the records and facilitates the automation of the processes of inclusion, maintenance, and revision of the data records. This allows and facilitates keeping records up to date, making massive corrections, assigning tags for structuring information with specific objectives, and performing recovery and backup tasks. Both using the CSW standard and the API, machines can consult the information that is available within the metadata repository. The fact that the CSW catalogue service standard is used and that the records are made following the CSR and XML standards allows generic developments to be made for any other server, making it possible to generalize the implementation of automatic system communication with this type of catalogue. The GeoNetwork is prepared so that a person can reach the data or the final service with just a few clicks, in a user-friendly way and following a semantic logic. In the same way, the way the catalogue is implemented means that machines can also do it without having to carry out specific developments for each metadata catalogue. A person looking for information on the variables collected by this observation system can reach it in a few clicks. As the data source is implemented following Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards for both mapping (WMS) and data downloading (WFS), the GeoNetwork itself would allow queries and previews with its own tools. If this is not enough for the user, they would have the necessary information to exploit the data from their own GIS tool or using the programming platforms they normally use. In this case, the example of the surface water monitoring system dataset is shown. This same dataset could be discovered by an automatic system that searches for information related to the observing system in the area. The server, through CSW or the API, would provide all the necessary information so that the data generated by the OS can be visualized or downloaded with all the necessary information to process and exploit it according to the specific needs of each moment. Discussion The IEO is committed to promoting access and exchange of oceanographic data through its integration into the NODC network of UNESCO-IOC-IODE and adherence to FAIR principles. This ensures that collected and stored data meet international quality standards and are accessible to the scientific community and the general public. Due to the large amount of data collected by the Spanish NODC there is an obvious need to organize and relate the different databases with a catalogue to solve the challenges caused by large volumes of data, ensuring its quality and providing easy access. The development and maintenance of a metadata repository using the GeoNetwork open-source tool, have enabled IEO to address this task and present a catalogue of oceanographic data. This geoportal provides a uniform structure for all entries based on the ISO 19115 and 19139 standards, guaranteeing accessibility, interoperability, and reuse of information. The effort made by the NODC to generate the CSRs for each oceanographic campaign, including a huge amount of metadata in each of them, is taken advantage of in this case thanks to the fact that all this information has been harmonised for years trying to use the standards developed by the community. In this way, with very little effort, the information from the CSRs can be made available through different OGC services offered by the GeoNetwork. Proper hierarchization ensures that users can navigate the IEO catalogue effectively, taking advantage of the search capabilities to access the precise data for their research and applications. By organising the web catalogue based on different criteria such as resource type, programs, platforms, and parameters, the IEO facilitates navigation and data recovery for users from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, the inclusion of an interactive map and links to other repositories enhances the catalogue's ability to integrate data from multiple sources and promote collaboration in oceanographic research. These efforts benefit the scientific community and also contribute to ocean conservation and sustainability, aligning with IEO's mission to promote knowledge and protection of marine resources. The options that currently exist for implementing a catalogue service that complies with the CSW standard are limited. A generic catalogue option is pyCSW, a Python implementation that allows all tasks related to the creation, maintenance, and consultation of this type of service to be carried out. There are also add-ons for the main geographic information nodes, GeoServer and MapServer. In this case, these allow users to serve the metadata of the information they store following the CSW standard, but do not allow adding entries of datasets that are not in the node. In this sense, the great advantage of GeoNetwork is the duality in how it interacts with the catalog. On the one hand, its graphical interface—mature, configurable, and well-developed—allows users to manually add entries, perform maintenance, and query the catalog. On the other hand, the CSW service (and CSW-t) along with the REST API allows the same tasks to be performed automatically and can be programmed in the developer’s language of choice. Looking forward, there are plans to expand the range of entries to meet the needs of organizations across different disciplines, offering a more comprehensive and accessible information service. However, there is still room for improvement in the catalogue and its entries. Tests are being conducted with CDIs to enable direct data display within the IEO catalogue. On the other hand, the automation of tasks related to updating and maintaining entries, as well as incorporating new ones into the geoportal, is a significant challenge. The more these processes can be automated and optimized, the easier it will be to ensure that the GeoNetwork catalogue remains useful over the long term. The CSW catalogue service standard along with the CSR-19134 and ISO 19115 metadata standards were developed to manage metadata and serve georeferenced datasets. In this sense, although the standards allow a deep level of description, they do not go into the detailed description of the internal organization of each dataset. As a result, while it is possible to obtain detailed information about a dataset’s contents, measurement methods, instruments used, responsible entities, etc., the information required for the exploitation or visualisation of the final data does not fit within these standards. In this sense, if the data source is not prepared to provide this information with standard services or metadata, it will make the task of exploiting the information difficult for a person and will make it practically impossible for a machine to exploit it without a programmer having to carry out specific developments for each data source. If the final services are OGC, this problem could be solved if they are correctly metadata tagged and configured. In all other cases, the problem is difficult to solve in a generic way. In order for this last step to be generalised independently of the datasets, it would be necessary to work on the implementation of data model standards such as Open Metadata Standards (OMS). Such standards are designed to model any dataset and all the important parts of the data collection processes can be characterised and metadata labeled, both from observing systems and even in model outputs. There are other softwares, such as MapStore, which enables the creation of advanced interactive maps, and PostgreSQL/PostGIS, which provides a robust solution for data storage. Both could significantly complement GeoNetwork's capabilities by offering advanced functionalities, such as the representation of time series and the automatic updating of both the IEO database and the existing entries in the metadata repository. The integration of these tools would not only enhance the system's functionality and interoperability but also optimize data management and accessibility for users. These integrations will be assessed in future project developments. Needs and scope In order for such catalogues to be properly organized and ultimately functional and useful, it is important that there has been a correct and thorough process of metadata creation for the datasets, as well as a process of continuous revision of the datasets. If proper protocols are established to perform these tasks, the organization of the new datasets and their corresponding catalogue entries would not be very costly in terms of both personnel and time commitment. On the other hand, the reorganization and standardization of the metadata of existing datasets is a difficult problem to tackle. Using CSR as a basis simplifies the problem, as most of the historical datasets managed by the national centers come from surveys and have much of the information in a standard format. Despite this, it is necessary to apply constant review and update processes to keep the metadata up to date. Even so, it is not only necessary for the institutions to have the information, but also to enable the necessary protocols to elaborate the automatic or semi-automatic tasks to load all this information into the catalogues. Conclusions In this contribution, recent developments in the creation of standard catalogues using open-source tools like GeoNetwork have been presented, demonstrating how this approach has enabled IEO to organize and present a vast catalogue of oceanographic data and data services that disseminate marine data sets following FAIR principles. Proper hierarchization has ensured effective navigation of the IEO catalogue, allowing users (individuals or data hubs) to take advantage of search capabilities to access data for research and applications. Various examples of access to multidisciplinary data sets obtained with different ocean observing platforms have been provided. For instance, the catalogue includes data from fixed points such as the MARETO buoy 18 , which contributes to long-term sea-level and meteorological monitoring, as well as from mobile platforms such as the drifting buoys deployed under the DEMON project 19 . Furthermore, the infrastructure enables the organization of entries according to national monitoring programmes (RADIALES, PELACUS, among others, and continuous shipboard monitoring), allowing users to filter and explore datasets by thematic or operational criteria. Additionally, the cataloguing of ocean data stored at IEO has been shown to support the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Institutions should aim to adopt FAIR policies to ensure that both, individuals and machines, can access the information. This initiative will significantly enhance the scientific community's ability to conduct interdisciplinary research and drive innovation. Furthermore, the integration of advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence in data management processes will improve the efficiency and accuracy of research and also contribute to the development of more robust predictive models and analytical tools. The continuous evolution of these systems, along with the commitment to FAIR principles, will play a crucial role in advancing our understanding of complex oceanographic and environmental processes. Abbreviations API Application Programming Interface BODC British Oceanographic Data Centre CDI Common Data Index CMEMS Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service CSIC Spanish National Research Council CSR Cruise Summary Report CSW Catalogue Service for the Web CSW t-Catalogue Service for the Web-transactional profile DOI Digital Object Identifier EDMED European Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets EMODnet European Marine Observation and Data Network FAIR Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable GIS Geographic Information System IEO Spanish Institute of Oceanography IODE International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange IOC Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission ISO International Organization for Standardization MAEC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation (Spain) MITECO Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Spain) MSFD Marine Strategy Framework Directive NODC National Oceanographic Data Centre OGC Open Geospatial Consortium OMS Open Metadata Standards REST Representational State Transfer SDN SeaDataNet SEANOE SEA scieNtific Open data Edition THREDDS Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services UI User Interface UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization WFS Web Feature Service WMS Web Map Service XML eXtensible Markup Language XSLT eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations Declarations The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or non-financial, related to the content of this manuscript. Funding This work has been supported by the PRTR NextGenerationEU funds as part of the PTI Oceans + project, in the framework of the agreement between the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to promote research and generate scientific knowledge in the field of marine sustainability. Additional support for the development of the GeoNetwork catalogue has been obtained from project DEMON (Dissipation of Energy in Ocean Models and Connectivity) funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF; the European Union Interreg Atlantic Area project iFADO (EAPA165_2016); and the DATACAT project (CSIC, ref 202530E067), which supports cataloguing and data access through the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC/CEDO). Furthermore, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet: Ingestion and Safe-keeping of Marine Data) has facilitated the publication of this article through funds from the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA/EMFAF/2021/3.4.10/02/SI2.868290). Author Contribution All authors contributed equally to the conceptualization, development, writing, and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. Acknowledgement This work has been supported by the PRTR NextGenerationEU funds as part of the PTI Oceans+ project, in the framework of the agreement between the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to promote research and generate scientific knowledge in the field of marine sustainability. Additional support for the development of the GeoNetwork catalogue has been obtained from project DEMON (Dissipation of Energy in Ocean Models and Connectivity) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF; the European Union Interreg Atlantic Area project iFADO (EAPA165_2016); and the DATACAT project (CSIC, ref 202530E067), which supports cataloguing and data access through the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC/CEDO). Furthermore, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet: Ingestion and Safe-keeping of Marine Data) has facilitated the publication of this article through funds from the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA/EMFAF/2021/3.4.10/02/SI2.868290). References Craglia M, Annoni A (2007) INSPIRE: an innovative approach to the development of spatial data infrastructures in Europe. Research and Theory in Advancing Spatial Data Infrastructure Concepts, 93–105 European Parliament (2003) Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public Access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC. Retrieved 7th January 2020 from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32003L0004 GeoNetwork GeoNetwork opensource. https://www.GeoNetwork-opensource.org/ Innerebner M, Costa A, Chuprikova E, Monsorno R, Ventura B (2017) Organizing earth observation data inside a spatial data infrastructure. Earth Sci Inf 10. 10.1007/s12145-016-0276-0 Jiang H, van Genderen J, Mazzetti P, Koo, Hyeongmo, Chen, Min (2019) Current status and future directions of geoportals. Int J Digit Earth 13:1–22. 10.1080/17538947.2019.1603331 Leadbetter, Adam & Carr, Ramona & Flynn Mechan, Sarah & Meaney, Will & Moran, Siobhan & Bogan, Yvonne & Brophy, Laura & Lyons, Kieran & Stokes, David & Thomas, Rob. (2020). Implementation of a Data Management Quality Management Framework at the Marine Institute, Ireland. Earth Science Informatics. 13. 10.1007/s12145-019-00432-w. Leadbetter, Adam & Meaney, Will & Tray, Elizabeth & Conway, Andrew & Flynn Mechan, Sarah & Keena, Tara & Kelly, Caoimhín & Thomas, Rob. (2020). A modular approach to cataloguing marine science data. Earth Science Informatics. 13. 10.1007/s12145-020-00445-w. Lowry R, Rickards L, Brown J (2005) Adding value to oceanographic data at the British Oceanographic Data Centre. PV 2005 Conference Proceedings. UKOLN. https://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/pv-2005/pv-2005-final-papers/027.pdf NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center (2012) ISO 19115 Geographic information — Metadata Workbook: Guide to Implementing ISO 19115:2003(E), the North American Profile (NAP), and ISO 19110 Feature Catalogue. NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center. http://dx.doi.org/10.25607/OBP-770 Ostensen O, Danko D (2005) Global Spatial Metadata Activities in the ISO/TC211 Geographic Information Domain. 10.1016/B978-008043949-5/50010-3 Otero P, Tel E, González-Nuevo G (2016) Facilitating marine data discovery, representation and retrieval through metadata interoperability. Poster presented at the International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems (IMDIS 2016), Gdansk, Poland Tel E, Balbin R, Cabanas J-M, Garcia M-J, Garcia-Martinez MC, Gonzalez-Pola C, Lavin A, Lopez-Jurado J-L, Rodriguez C, Ruiz-Villarreal M, Sánchez-Leal RF, Vargas-Yáñez M, Vélez-Belchí P (2016) IEOOS: the Spanish Institute of Oceanography Observing System. Ocean Sci 12:345–353. https://doi.org/10.5194/os-12-345-2016 Tello, O. & Agudo, L & Bermejo, Ignacio & González-Gil, Sonsoles & Garrido, J & Group,EMODNET HRSM. (2018). SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE SPANISH INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY & EMODNET-HRSM. 10.13140/RG.2.2.11731.66083. Ticheler J, Hielkema JU (2007) GeoNetwork opensource. Internationally Standardized Distributed Spatial Information Management. OSGeo J, 2 Wilkinson MD, Dumontier M, Aalbersberg IJ, Appleton G, Axton M, Baak A, Blomberg N et al (2016) The FAIR guiding principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data 3 Footnotes https://iode.org/about/ https://www.seadatanet.org/ https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en https://marine.copernicus.eu/ https://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Common-Vocabularies https://www.bodc.ac.uk/ https://www.ifado.eu/ https://centolo.co.ieo.es/geonetwork https://nodc.ieo.es/geonetwork https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Metadata-formats/CSR&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1747210546396684&usg=AOvVaw3zmcwAuFw5AY6tJdQ9_ymR https://vocab.seadatanet.org/v_bodc_vocab_v2/search.asp?lib=C17 https://www.seriestemporales-ieo.net/ https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/environment/oceans-and-seas/eu-marine-strategy-framework-directive_en https://www.seadatanet.org/Metadata/EDMED-Datasets https://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Metadata-formats https://nodc.ieo.es/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/6263800b-45b0-4e07-9fcc-93744c0579f4 https://nodc.ieo.es/geoserver/ne/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetMap https://nodc.ieo.es/geonetwork/srv/spa/catalog.search#/metadata/15ce70a8-aa08-468e-9c80-905fce46bcb7 https://centolo.co.ieo.es/geonetwork/srv/spa/catalog.search#/metadata/2687dcb8-541b-4e5c-867c-7a613518bdc8 Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 08 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Earth Science Informatics → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 26 Sep, 2025 Reviews received at journal 26 Sep, 2025 Reviews received at journal 16 Sep, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Sep, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Aug, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 27 Aug, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 27 Aug, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 06 Aug, 2025 First submitted to journal 31 Jul, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7261114","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":509535899,"identity":"4a369fff-8040-43ae-9b94-062686eb0d7c","order_by":0,"name":"Lucía Sanz-Pinilla","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), CSIC","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lucía","middleName":"","lastName":"Sanz-Pinilla","suffix":""},{"id":509535900,"identity":"ceca3826-eb61-4733-8582-e6fc387b572c","order_by":1,"name":"Gonzalo González-Nuevo","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"A Coruna Oceanographic Centre (COAC-IEO), CSIC","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gonzalo","middleName":"","lastName":"González-Nuevo","suffix":""},{"id":509535901,"identity":"397f7e5e-979c-4bef-8ad2-6661cabdcff7","order_by":2,"name":"Elena Tel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), CSIC","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Elena","middleName":"","lastName":"Tel","suffix":""},{"id":509535902,"identity":"f31ed1d7-0e13-46ae-9d95-f74e68a75905","order_by":3,"name":"Manuel Ruiz-Villarreal","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"A Coruna Oceanographic Centre (COAC-IEO), CSIC","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Manuel","middleName":"","lastName":"Ruiz-Villarreal","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-31 10:23:36","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7261114/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7261114/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-025-02065-8","type":"published","date":"2026-01-08T15:59:31+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":90620753,"identity":"225c3735-cd76-4c3b-8f61-5cf81f462e4b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-04 20:15:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":286737,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSchema of the data model used in the data catalogue. The class structure is shown in the Unified Modelling Language\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7261114/v1/0d19ab43483e8b7d07607495.jpeg"},{"id":90621141,"identity":"9dc29562-e8d3-4adb-8afd-69c8e3a3526c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-04 20:23:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":915206,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eMap visualization from OpenStreetMap within GeoNetwork showing the trajectory of the research vessel Ángeles Alvariño in 2022, and the corresponding entry for the same survey.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7261114/v1/55062b4a90a9b9a8d842c34b.jpeg"},{"id":90620756,"identity":"0e6feedd-a6d0-40d6-8660-aec4ba57e832","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-04 20:15:46","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":240105,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eKibana dashboard based on IEO data in GeoNetwork. The top left pie chart represents data distribution by the responsible organization, the top right shows the tag cloud of measured parameters, the bottom left the same for instruments used, and the bottom right pie chart categorizes data by the research vessel conducting the campaign.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7261114/v1/aba4957a835fc26e26e900ca.png"},{"id":90621140,"identity":"c5014911-9ca9-4b41-9776-a54ba0530da9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-04 20:23:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":700279,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDensity map of oceanographic campaigns conducted by the IEO, visualized in Kibana. The grid represents data distribution across different oceanic regions, with darker shades indicating higher concentrations of campaigns.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage4.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7261114/v1/28a34b3f8d79a654719f79a8.jpeg"},{"id":90620766,"identity":"a509e985-a046-49f3-8cd2-2abd880b4072","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-04 20:15:46","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":69396,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eNumber of IEO ocean data entries in GeoNetwork since 1914 by research vessel, created with Kibana.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7261114/v1/0abcdca3d01d90a485febd2e.png"},{"id":100069491,"identity":"929d23b2-489e-4206-994f-abdaa5982042","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-12 16:14:37","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2605821,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7261114/v1/194f251f-32c2-4fac-88d1-4920d61100b2.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A GeoNetwork-based Catalogue for Marine Data Management","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eOcean observations are acquired from a great variety of platforms at different spatial and temporal scales. Additionally, a great number of physical, chemical, geological and biological variables need to be measured to characterise and understand ocean dynamics and the ocean ecosystem. Developing robust infrastructures that facilitate the search and access to diverse oceanographic data becomes essential for producing information, services and products to support the great diversity of marine stakeholders. Collaboration and interoperability among different organizations are essential to ensure effective usage. Typically, information is stored in numerous repositories, and the significant challenge lies in organising this vast amount of data in an efficient, reliable, and intuitive manner (Innerebner et al., 2016). In this context, the concept of geoportals, being human-to-machine interfaces, have emerged as one of the key solutions for spatial data accessing and sharing (Jiang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) was founded in 1914 and focuses its activity on oceanography, marine research and scientific advice to the government in order to support the implementation of marine related policies. IEO studies ecosystems, coordinates research programs and conducts surveys with oceanographic vessels to collect information about marine resources. This information is subsequently used to advise authorities, companies, and citizens on ocean conservation and sustainability (Tel et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe IEO is part of the National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC) network, created in 1968 and driven by the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO). The IODE programme, established in 1961, coordinates a global network of more than 100 centres. The aim of IODE is to enhance marine research by facilitating the exchange of oceanographic information among participating member states and by meeting the needs of users for data and products\u003csup\u003e1\u003c/sup\u003e. Currently, this integration commits the country to adhering to various quality management standards for uniformity in the collection and storage of marine data, using common criteria. NODC data must comply with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable), introduced by Wilkinson et al. in 2016 to promote the development of open science. This implies that metadata must be clearly published, with an associated identifier, and must follow the classification of common standards (Leadbetter, Meaney, et al., 2020). Additionally, the IEO, as part of its responsibilities as NODC, safeguards and manages data and metadata originated by other national institutions when required. This role involves not only the preservation and dissemination of marine environmental data but also the adoption of the best available technologies to ensure its effective use. To achieve this, the institute is committed to continually enhancing its technical and human resources, aiming to provide outstanding service to the research community. Moreover, it extends its support to other sectors of society, such as academia, energy and tourism, by offering reliable and accessible data which is crucial for informed decision-making and sustainable progress.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe management of marine data at the IEO contributes to three pan-European infrastructures: SeaDataNet (SDN)\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e, European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)\u003csup\u003e3\u003c/sup\u003e, and Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS)\u003csup\u003e4\u003c/sup\u003e; which provide frameworks for uploading and organising the information. In relation to the FAIR policies, these systems use common vocabularies\u003csup\u003e5\u003c/sup\u003e managed by SDN and the MarineXML Vocabulary Content Governance Group (SeaVoX). Furthermore, they are moderated by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC)\u003csup\u003e6\u003c/sup\u003e, which plays a fundamental role in maintaining the accuracy, relevance, and coherence of the terms used across the marine data community (Lowry et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the main research of the IEO is focused at sea and organised in oceanographic cruises since the beginning of its activities, the Cruise Summary Reports (CSRs) are a fundamental part of the IEO's data management structure, documenting basic information about each survey. These reports (formerly known as ROSCOP) have been expanded in recent years to include links to the data acquired during these surveys, providing direct access to valuable oceanographic resources. Stored as XML files, they allow for automated processing of the contained information, necessary updates and well web dissemination. Due to the large amount of data collected by the IEO, with more than 5700 surveys conducted and over 65800 datasets gathered, there is an obvious need to organize, standardize and relate the different databases with a data catalogue.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the IEO has developed various initiatives for data publication, initially in paper bulletins and later in various digital formats. They were disseminated to the scientific community through the means available at each time. In 1997, the first web initiative emerged to organize the IEO spatial information in a Geographical Information System (GIS) and, in 2010, this GIS was consolidated as IEO institutional GIS (Tello el al., 2018) for dissemination of data products and sea-related information. Since 2006, the IEO has been a partner of the Pan-European Infrastructure for Ocean and Marine Data Management platform, SDN, originated in the framework of the EU 6th Framework Programme. Evolving along the years, data, metadata and related information as institutions, projects, etc., are published according to latest technological advancements and standards. This requires the IEO to make a constant effort for updating its local structures and knowledge. Simultaneously, the institute has undertaken various initiatives to meet the specific demands of users for marine data at the local level. These initiatives include the creation of several portals and websites, although most of them are now inactive. In 2016, the first IEO web catalogue using GeoNetwork technology was launched (Otero, et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). The portal prototype emerged from this initial catalogue, but its development remained at an early stage due to the lack of automation processes. Additionally, under the Interreg Atlantic Area project iFADO\u003csup\u003e7\u003c/sup\u003e project, focused on monitoring of offshore ocean in European Atlantic waters, a GeoNetwork portal (accessible through centolo.co.ieo\u003csup\u003e8\u003c/sup\u003e) was implemented to support data discovery and access to display information related to regional activities and oceanographic surveys in offshore waters from the different project partners. The new IEO web catalogue (nodc.ieo.es\u003csup\u003e9\u003c/sup\u003e) has been developed within the framework of the PTI Oceans\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;with the aim of upgrading the existing institutional data portal to more advanced technology and centralising all NODC information in one place, enhancing its visibility and facilitating user accessions. All the IEO\u0026rsquo;s catalogues advocate for responsibility in content management, ensuring that the information is accurate and in line with the FAIR principles. They also promote a user-friendly approach to data accessibility and the adoption of robust technological standards, which include the vocabularies previously mentioned.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe implementation of the web catalogue has been carried out on a server that hosts the required applications and the marine metadata. The open-source tool GeoNetwork has been used, providing a user-friendly interface for searching and accessing geospatial data (Ticheler, et al., 2007). This software was chosen for its ability to read entries directly through templates, removing the need for a dedicated database. Additionally, it\u0026rsquo;s sufficiently customizable to meet the needs of the IEO, ensuring compliance with the FAIR principles. GeoNetwork supports the storage and management of raw data, metadata, Web Map Service (WMS), and more, making it an ideal solution for the NODC\u0026rsquo;s diverse data requirements.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe specifications for GeoNetwork version 4.2.1 require the installation of Java 8 and Tomcat 9.0.75. Moreover, this version uses Elasticsearch 7.4.2 as the search engine for the portal.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeoNetwork offers extensive customization capabilities for the main view and search filters through its User Interface (UI), allowing to configure the catalogue to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of users. The web interface enables easy management of classification systems directly and schedules metadata harvesting from many sources. One of the key features of this interface is its ability to collect and directly integrate data from other web portals, which promotes collaboration between different organizations and contributes to the development of oceanographic research. By using this tool, the IEO has successfully connected the information from its existing catalogues to the new one, nodc.ieo.es. With these improvements, the IEO web catalogue not only centralizes the available information but also makes it more accessible and usable for the scientific community and the general public. The machine-to-machine connections facilitated by GeoNetwork exemplify the implementation of technology that allows the automatic updating of information across all portals, ensuring that users always have access to the most current data.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeoNetwork facilitates identifying and addressing the metadata by creating a unique resource identifier and offering the possibility to link to a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). A metadata catalogue should be able to guide the user (human or machine) to the location where the data is uploaded. In the case of the IEO, the entries are accessible through the SDN infrastructure, and these are the links included in the metadata repository. For example, the thermosalinograph and climatology data from two IEO\u0026rsquo;s research vessels, have metadata associated with a DOI, and additionally, these datasets have a map service on a THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services) server, which simplifies the data download process. This ensures that users can easily find and access the data they need.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo enhance the web catalog, the IEO has used GeoServer to provide geospatial representations of specific entries. This software allows the visualization of the spatial distribution of different variables, vessel trajectories, and sampling points, among others. GeoServer is an open-source software platform designed for the publication and exchange of geospatial data. GeoServer is widely used in geographic information systems (GIS) for showing maps and scalable geospatial services because it supports a wide range of data formats, including shapefiles, PostGIS, GeoPackage, and others. It offers advanced capabilities for the visualization, editing, and dissemination of geographic data through standard formats, such as WMS and Web Feature Service (WFS). WMS services render geospatial data as maps that can be overlaid and customized to meet user-specific needs. In contrast, WFS services grant direct access to vector data, allowing users to query geometries and attributes. Both formats are accepted by the map tab of GeoNetwork.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eXML structure\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOnce the web portal is launched, entries from the CSRs and the other types of information from the IEO can be loaded manually, through harvesting or Python-based automation methods, which allows importing from the same server or other catalogues.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeoNetwork is able to work with the International Standards for Geographic information developed by the Technical Committee ISO/TC 211 (Ostensen and Danko, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e). There are two essential standards on geoportals, ISO 19115 and ISO 19139. The first one, provides an abstract and logical model for geospatial metadata, recording information about identification, location, quality, owner, and other aspects. In contrast, ISO 19139 defines the XML encoding of the ISO metadata standards (NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). This is another reason why GeoNetwork was chosen as the infrastructure to develop the catalogue, because it offers predefined metadata schema templates fulfilling ISO 19115 and ISO 19139 (Innerebner et al., 2016).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough CSRs are an extension of these standards\u003csup\u003e10\u003c/sup\u003e, they have to be modified so that all the information they contain can be correctly stored in the GeoNetwork. To perform this task an XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) transformation file is applied to transform the CSRs and ensure they comply with the specific formats of GeoNetwork. This file defines the mapping parameters, the templates applied to each part, makes adjustments to meet common standards and finally presents the metadata in an XML format compatible with GeoNetwork.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGiven that the XML follows these standards, the structure of all entries is uniform. Each entry is initially identified by a name, creation date, and a unique number serving as a local identifier. For entries generated at the IEO, the file reference adheres to a specific format such as 29VVYYYYMMDD. Here, \u0026ldquo;29VV\u0026rdquo; denotes the country and vessel code according to the SDN C17 vocabulary (ICES platform codes)\u003csup\u003e11\u003c/sup\u003e, while \u0026ldquo;YYYYMMDD\u0026rdquo; indicates the survey\u0026rsquo;s start date.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe XML also includes information about the data responsible party (organization and email), followed by a brief summary of the survey and the data collected. Once the resource is identified, metadata tags mentioned earlier are included, such as theme, location, platform, parameter, instrument, resource type, among others. Additionally, each entry is geographically located on a map, and access and usage restrictions are specified. Where available, links are provided for data search or download from various repositories, such as SDN, SEANOE, THREDDS, etc. The CSRs entries include a direct link to the Common Data Index (CDIs) in SeaDataNet, facilitating access to the related datasets. A schematic representation of some of these tags is shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEach XML file can include all the necessary tags for the owner, as long as it uses a suitable vocabulary to ensure accurate classification. In the case of the IEO, specific tags have been designed; for example, to categorize data according to the monitoring program like RADIALES\u003csup\u003e12\u003c/sup\u003e. Within the framework of the national transposition of European regulation known as \u0026ldquo;Marine Strategy Framework Directive\u0026rdquo; (MSFD)\u003csup\u003e13\u003c/sup\u003e, a classification system was developed based on parameters linked to various descriptors and other on geographic location associated with different marine regions. Currently, the IEO is working on integrating a similar classification into other GeoNetwork-based catalogues to address these needs and facilitate efficient access to information.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll the vocabularies, elements and namespaces used on the XML are defined in the ISO 10115: Metadata Workbook of NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). This structure ensures accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of oceanographic data, promoting transparency and collaboration in marine research in line with the FAIR principles.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeb Catalogue\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe implementation of a data catalogue at the IEO aims to enhance data discoverability, improve user accessibility and promote the use of robust infrastructures for managing, storing and sharing data effectively. The IEO conducts multidisciplinary sampling initiatives, both systematic and monitoring, as part of various research projects. Different types of data are collected depending on the aim of the research and the data acquisition techniques used (Tel et al., 2018). Consequently, the geoportal has been organized to facilitate access to all the information stored in the NODC.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGiven that shipborne surveys are a crucial component of the IEO\u0026rsquo;s oceanographic research, a fundamental part of the developed catalogue relies on the CSRs. In addition, specific tabs have been dedicated to sampling and monitoring activities independent of oceanographic surveys. These include the tide gauge network, ocean-meteorological buoys, moorings, and ship continuous monitoring. Finally, due to the IEO's commitment to the MSFD and its aim to facilitate access to research findings, some GIS layers generated at the IEO have been incorporated to meet the directive\u0026rsquo;s objectives.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe data catalogue offers different search options, including free text search, localization and predefined filters. Upon accessing the web catalogue, three main pages are available from the top: the main homepage, the search tab and the map.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHomepage\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the homepage, the metadata is organized into blocks, enabling quick and easy access to various files. Although GeoNetwork provides the ability to customize the catalogue to facilitate metadata searches and achieve appropriate classification for the IEO, it has also been necessary to modify the XML entries. The IEO database contains various types of data, ranging from bathymetry and seafloor information to meteorology, as well as biology and chemistry. Therefore, the metadata and the catalogue must be perfectly structured and organized to provide the best possible information access service.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eResource Type: This separation categorizes metadata based on its origins, starting with national and foreign surveys (conducted in Spanish waters by vessels from other countries). These international surveys, in Spain, are overseen by the IEO in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation (MAEC). This block also includes bathymetric data and products, the tide gauge network and ship continuous monitoring data, among others.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrograms: This section displays the various monitoring projects developed by the IEO, allowing quick access to all metadata associated with a specific program.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlatforms: Entries are categorized by the type of structure from which data was collected, such as ships, buoys, moorings, coastal structures, etc.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eOrganizations: This feature enables direct access to all data managed by a specific institution. As introduced earlier, the NODC can safeguard data from other centres, ensuring clear attribution to their original sources.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eParameters: While users can quickly filter data by parameters on the search tab, this section retrieves all files containing data for a specific parameter at once. Common parameters listed in the catalogue include temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and water column fluorescence.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSearch tab\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe search tab allows more specific filtering based on metadata information, which can also be adjusted on a temporal and spatial scale, as the catalogue includes an interactive map for spatial filtering. The filters use the different tags contained in the IEO metadata XML, including topics, dates, places, organizations, programs, platforms, ships, parameters, and instruments. Therefore, it is crucial that the metadata is correctly hierarchized to maximize the functionalities of GeoNetwork and ElasticSearch. To guarantee the correct operation of all these tags, the metadata must follow the European Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets (EDMED)\u003csup\u003e14\u003c/sup\u003e and adhere to the ISO 19115/19139 standards\u003csup\u003e15\u003c/sup\u003e (Craglia \u0026amp; Annoni, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e). By conforming to these standards, the metadata remains interoperable, facilitating efficient data discovery and utilization.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMap tab\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeoNetwork provides functionality for integrating and visualising WMS and WFS, enabling direct visualization and querying of spatial data from the catalogue. These representations are easily accessible from the catalogue map tab. These services can be configured to let users view and combine geographic layers from diverse sources within the catalogue's integrated map, providing a centralized environment for spatial data representation. Additionally, GeoNetwork facilitates the identification of map elements and querying of attribute data, allowing the accessibility and usability of geospatial information. This capability enhances access to geospatial data stored on remote servers like GeoServer, promoting collaboration and geospatial data sharing among users, governments, and research institutions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor example, Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e displays the map of the trajectory followed in the GeoNetwork entry for \u0026ldquo;Meteorology Angeles Alvarino, 2022\u0026rdquo;\u003csup\u003e16\u003c/sup\u003e, which has been uploaded to GeoServer and shared as WMS. To enable this visualization, the track or desired spatial distribution must be uploaded to GeoServer and then linked to the corresponding GeoNetwork entry as an online service (WMS, WFS, etc.). Once this link is created, the content hosted on GeoServer\u003csup\u003e17\u003c/sup\u003e is displayed directly within the GeoNetwork interface (inside the specific metadata entry and through the catalogue's main map tab, via \u0026ldquo;Add layers\u0026rdquo;). In Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e the top graphic shows the WMS in the map tab, while the bottom one displays it within the metadata entry.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeoNetwork Server\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeoNetwork, since version 3, uses Elasticsearch as a search and data analysis engine. It is accessible via a distributed REST API and is based on Lucene. As a data warehouse it is easily scalable and allows querying large datasets in a very efficient way, with great capacity to perform refined queries. The exploitation of GeoNetwork information through this search engine makes the server very efficient even with the number of entries managed by a National Data Centre such as the Spanish one. Although there are more than 50,000 records, with a considerable abundance of metadata, this engine is prepared for volumes of several orders of magnitude greater (2000\u0026nbsp;million) per node.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlong with the installation of GeoNetwork and the ElasticSearch search engine, it is also necessary to implement the Kibana graphics service. GeoNetwork uses this data visualisation panel for some of its outputs. This combination of technologies makes it very easy to create dashboards and automatic report templates based on the information that is recorded in GeoNetwork with very little coding. This type of approach means that a significant part of the time spent by data centres on reporting statistics, aggregating information from official requirements, etc. can be reduced, making all these tasks more efficient.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs an example, Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e shows a Kibana dashboard created to show statistics about the organization responsible, the parameters measured, the instruments used and the research vessel conducting the survey. The representation is interactive and the user can filter the stored information using the different graphic panels. In the case of the vessel pie chart, the biggest section is for \u0026ldquo;Unknown (ZZ99)\u0026rdquo; due to the presence of numerous historic research and fishing vessels not included in the BODC vocabularies, and therefore classified as unknown in the CSR. On the other hand, the vessel with the second-highest number of campaigns is \u0026ldquo;Lura (29LU)\u0026rdquo; as it conducts daily surveys.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe map capabilities associated with the implementation of the GeoNetwork catalogue can be used to summarize the geographical coverage of ocean observations in Spain. Figure\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e presents a density map, also created with Kibana, illustrating the points where there are observations stored at the IEO GeoNetwork. The area with the highest number of surveys is the northwest of Spain, followed by the western Mediterranean Sea. However, campaigns extend on a global scale, from the Southern Ocean to the Greenland Sea. Areas like Flemish Cap (East from North America) and Porcupine Bank (Southwest of the British Isles) are fisheries ground sites where there is monitoring of fish stocks with ocean observations.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe temporal evolution of ocean observations available at the Spanish NODC GeoNetwork are shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e. Surveys started at the beginning of the 20th century and grew from the 1970s with the increase of research vessels. There are several years with a significantly lower number of entries that suggest the existence of unreported measurements. Since the observation effort is primarily affected by funding constraints, other factors may also contribute to the gaps in the dataset. For instance, in 2019 there was a marked decrease in the number of surveys, largely due to reduced activity of the research vessel Lura (29LU), which limited the data collection efforts.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll the images presented are screenshots of interactive Kibana dashboards, which allow users to explore and visualize the data contained in GeoNetwork in an interactive and graphical manner. These dashboards provide deeper insights into ocean observations by enabling users to filter and analyze the data across various parameters, spatial dimensions, temporal trends, and other characteristics (Figs.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOptimization processes\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe number of staff and time required for both, the inclusion of new entries and the maintenance of existing records, make systematic management difficult and slow. To optimize these tasks, GeoNetwork offers two different implementations. One is the Catalogue Service for the Web standard (CSW), which has a transactional component (CSW-t) and allows modifying the records of a catalogue if the appropriate credentials are available. This approach has the clear advantage of being part of the CSW standard, which allows for developments that would not only be useful for catalogue management in GeoNetwork, but could also be used in any kind of implementation of the CSW-t standard. Although CSW-t allows most of the basic catalogue management operations to be carried out, it has limitations and is not fully developed, especially in the fine management part.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdditionally, GeoNetwork offers a REST API for interaction with the server that allows a larger catalogue of interactions with the records and facilitates the automation of the processes of inclusion, maintenance, and revision of the data records. This allows and facilitates keeping records up to date, making massive corrections, assigning tags for structuring information with specific objectives, and performing recovery and backup tasks.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth using the CSW standard and the API, machines can consult the information that is available within the metadata repository. The fact that the CSW catalogue service standard is used and that the records are made following the CSR and XML standards allows generic developments to be made for any other server, making it possible to generalize the implementation of automatic system communication with this type of catalogue.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe GeoNetwork is prepared so that a person can reach the data or the final service with just a few clicks, in a user-friendly way and following a semantic logic. In the same way, the way the catalogue is implemented means that machines can also do it without having to carry out specific developments for each metadata catalogue.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA person looking for information on the variables collected by this observation system can reach it in a few clicks. As the data source is implemented following Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards for both mapping (WMS) and data downloading (WFS), the GeoNetwork itself would allow queries and previews with its own tools. If this is not enough for the user, they would have the necessary information to exploit the data from their own GIS tool or using the programming platforms they normally use. In this case, the example of the surface water monitoring system dataset is shown.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis same dataset could be discovered by an automatic system that searches for information related to the observing system in the area. The server, through CSW or the API, would provide all the necessary information so that the data generated by the OS can be visualized or downloaded with all the necessary information to process and exploit it according to the specific needs of each moment.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe IEO is committed to promoting access and exchange of oceanographic data through its integration into the NODC network of UNESCO-IOC-IODE and adherence to FAIR principles. This ensures that collected and stored data meet international quality standards and are accessible to the scientific community and the general public. Due to the large amount of data collected by the Spanish NODC there is an obvious need to organize and relate the different databases with a catalogue to solve the challenges caused by large volumes of data, ensuring its quality and providing easy access. The development and maintenance of a metadata repository using the GeoNetwork open-source tool, have enabled IEO to address this task and present a catalogue of oceanographic data. This geoportal provides a uniform structure for all entries based on the ISO 19115 and 19139 standards, guaranteeing accessibility, interoperability, and reuse of information. The effort made by the NODC to generate the CSRs for each oceanographic campaign, including a huge amount of metadata in each of them, is taken advantage of in this case thanks to the fact that all this information has been harmonised for years trying to use the standards developed by the community. In this way, with very little effort, the information from the CSRs can be made available through different OGC services offered by the GeoNetwork. Proper hierarchization ensures that users can navigate the IEO catalogue effectively, taking advantage of the search capabilities to access the precise data for their research and applications.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy organising the web catalogue based on different criteria such as resource type, programs, platforms, and parameters, the IEO facilitates navigation and data recovery for users from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, the inclusion of an interactive map and links to other repositories enhances the catalogue's ability to integrate data from multiple sources and promote collaboration in oceanographic research. These efforts benefit the scientific community and also contribute to ocean conservation and sustainability, aligning with IEO's mission to promote knowledge and protection of marine resources.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe options that currently exist for implementing a catalogue service that complies with the CSW standard are limited. A generic catalogue option is pyCSW, a Python implementation that allows all tasks related to the creation, maintenance, and consultation of this type of service to be carried out. There are also add-ons for the main geographic information nodes, GeoServer and MapServer. In this case, these allow users to serve the metadata of the information they store following the CSW standard, but do not allow adding entries of datasets that are not in the node.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this sense, the great advantage of GeoNetwork is the duality in how it interacts with the catalog. On the one hand, its graphical interface\u0026mdash;mature, configurable, and well-developed\u0026mdash;allows users to manually add entries, perform maintenance, and query the catalog. On the other hand, the CSW service (and CSW-t) along with the REST API allows the same tasks to be performed automatically and can be programmed in the developer\u0026rsquo;s language of choice.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLooking forward, there are plans to expand the range of entries to meet the needs of organizations across different disciplines, offering a more comprehensive and accessible information service. However, there is still room for improvement in the catalogue and its entries. Tests are being conducted with CDIs to enable direct data display within the IEO catalogue. On the other hand, the automation of tasks related to updating and maintaining entries, as well as incorporating new ones into the geoportal, is a significant challenge. The more these processes can be automated and optimized, the easier it will be to ensure that the GeoNetwork catalogue remains useful over the long term.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe CSW catalogue service standard along with the CSR-19134 and ISO 19115 metadata standards were developed to manage metadata and serve georeferenced datasets. In this sense, although the standards allow a deep level of description, they do not go into the detailed description of the internal organization of each dataset. As a result, while it is possible to obtain detailed information about a dataset\u0026rsquo;s contents, measurement methods, instruments used, responsible entities, etc., the information required for the exploitation or visualisation of the final data does not fit within these standards.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this sense, if the data source is not prepared to provide this information with standard services or metadata, it will make the task of exploiting the information difficult for a person and will make it practically impossible for a machine to exploit it without a programmer having to carry out specific developments for each data source.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf the final services are OGC, this problem could be solved if they are correctly metadata tagged and configured. In all other cases, the problem is difficult to solve in a generic way. In order for this last step to be generalised independently of the datasets, it would be necessary to work on the implementation of data model standards such as Open Metadata Standards (OMS). Such standards are designed to model any dataset and all the important parts of the data collection processes can be characterised and metadata labeled, both from observing systems and even in model outputs.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are other softwares, such as MapStore, which enables the creation of advanced interactive maps, and PostgreSQL/PostGIS, which provides a robust solution for data storage. Both could significantly complement GeoNetwork's capabilities by offering advanced functionalities, such as the representation of time series and the automatic updating of both the IEO database and the existing entries in the metadata repository. The integration of these tools would not only enhance the system's functionality and interoperability but also optimize data management and accessibility for users. These integrations will be assessed in future project developments.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNeeds and scope\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn order for such catalogues to be properly organized and ultimately functional and useful, it is important that there has been a correct and thorough process of metadata creation for the datasets, as well as a process of continuous revision of the datasets. If proper protocols are established to perform these tasks, the organization of the new datasets and their corresponding catalogue entries would not be very costly in terms of both personnel and time commitment.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, the reorganization and standardization of the metadata of existing datasets is a difficult problem to tackle. Using CSR as a basis simplifies the problem, as most of the historical datasets managed by the national centers come from surveys and have much of the information in a standard format. Despite this, it is necessary to apply constant review and update processes to keep the metadata up to date.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven so, it is not only necessary for the institutions to have the information, but also to enable the necessary protocols to elaborate the automatic or semi-automatic tasks to load all this information into the catalogues.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusions","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn this contribution, recent developments in the creation of standard catalogues using open-source tools like GeoNetwork have been presented, demonstrating how this approach has enabled IEO to organize and present a vast catalogue of oceanographic data and data services that disseminate marine data sets following FAIR principles. Proper hierarchization has ensured effective navigation of the IEO catalogue, allowing users (individuals or data hubs) to take advantage of search capabilities to access data for research and applications. Various examples of access to multidisciplinary data sets obtained with different ocean observing platforms have been provided. For instance, the catalogue includes data from fixed points such as the MARETO buoy\u003csup\u003e18\u003c/sup\u003e, which contributes to long-term sea-level and meteorological monitoring, as well as from mobile platforms such as the drifting buoys deployed under the DEMON project\u003csup\u003e19\u003c/sup\u003e. Furthermore, the infrastructure enables the organization of entries according to national monitoring programmes (RADIALES, PELACUS, among others, and continuous shipboard monitoring), allowing users to filter and explore datasets by thematic or operational criteria. Additionally, the cataloguing of ocean data stored at IEO has been shown to support the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInstitutions should aim to adopt FAIR policies to ensure that both, individuals and machines, can access the information. This initiative will significantly enhance the scientific community's ability to conduct interdisciplinary research and drive innovation. Furthermore, the integration of advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence in data management processes will improve the efficiency and accuracy of research and also contribute to the development of more robust predictive models and analytical tools. The continuous evolution of these systems, along with the commitment to FAIR principles, will play a crucial role in advancing our understanding of complex oceanographic and environmental processes.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Abbreviations","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionList\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eAPI\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eApplication Programming Interface\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eBODC\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBritish Oceanographic Data Centre\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eCDI\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCommon Data Index\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eCMEMS\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCopernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eCSIC\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpanish National Research Council\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eCSR\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCruise Summary Report\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eCSW\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCatalogue Service for the Web\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eCSW\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003et-Catalogue Service for the Web-transactional profile\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eDOI\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eDigital Object Identifier\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eEDMED\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEuropean Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eEMODnet\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEuropean Marine Observation and Data Network\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eFAIR\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFindable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eGIS\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeographic Information System\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eIEO\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpanish Institute of Oceanography\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eIODE\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eInternational Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eIOC\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntergovernmental Oceanographic Commission\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eISO\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eInternational Organization for Standardization\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eMAEC\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinistry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation (Spain)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eMITECO\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinistry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Spain)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eMSFD\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMarine Strategy Framework Directive\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eNODC\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNational Oceanographic Data Centre\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eOGC\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpen Geospatial Consortium\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eOMS\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpen Metadata Standards\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eREST\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRepresentational State Transfer\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eSDN\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeaDataNet\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eSEANOE\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSEA scieNtific Open data Edition\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eTHREDDS\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eUI\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eUser Interface\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eUNESCO\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eWFS\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWeb Feature Service\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eWMS\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWeb Map Service\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eXML\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eeXtensible Markup Language\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eXSLT\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eeXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or non-financial, related to the content of this manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFunding\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis work has been supported by the PRTR NextGenerationEU funds as part of the PTI Oceans\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;project, in the framework of the agreement between the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to promote research and generate scientific knowledge in the field of marine sustainability.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdditional support for the development of the GeoNetwork catalogue has been obtained from project DEMON (Dissipation of Energy in Ocean Models and Connectivity) funded by MCIN/AEI/\u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003e10.13039/501100011033\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.13039/501100011033\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e and by ERDF; the European Union Interreg Atlantic Area project iFADO (EAPA165_2016); and the DATACAT project (CSIC, ref 202530E067), which supports cataloguing and data access through the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC/CEDO).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFurthermore, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet: Ingestion and Safe-keeping of Marine Data) has facilitated the publication of this article through funds from the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA/EMFAF/2021/3.4.10/02/SI2.868290).\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll authors contributed equally to the conceptualization, development, writing, and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAcknowledgement\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis work has been supported by the PRTR NextGenerationEU funds as part of the PTI Oceans+ project, in the framework of the agreement between the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to promote research and generate scientific knowledge in the field of marine sustainability. Additional support for the development of the GeoNetwork catalogue has been obtained from project DEMON (Dissipation of Energy in Ocean Models and Connectivity) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF; the European Union Interreg Atlantic Area project iFADO (EAPA165_2016); and the DATACAT project (CSIC, ref 202530E067), which supports cataloguing and data access through the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC/CEDO). Furthermore, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet: Ingestion and Safe-keeping of Marine Data) has facilitated the publication of this article through funds from the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA/EMFAF/2021/3.4.10/02/SI2.868290).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraglia M, Annoni A (2007) INSPIRE: an innovative approach to the development of spatial data infrastructures in Europe. Research and Theory in Advancing Spatial Data Infrastructure Concepts, 93\u0026ndash;105\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEuropean Parliament (2003) Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public Access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC. 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(2018). SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE SPANISH INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY \u0026amp; EMODNET-HRSM. 10.13140/RG.2.2.11731.66083.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTicheler J, Hielkema JU (2007) GeoNetwork opensource. Internationally Standardized Distributed Spatial Information Management. OSGeo J, 2\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWilkinson MD, Dumontier M, Aalbersberg IJ, Appleton G, Axton M, Baak A, Blomberg N et al (2016) The FAIR guiding principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data 3\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"},{"header":"Footnotes","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://iode.org/about/\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://iode.org/about/\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.seadatanet.org/\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.seadatanet.org/\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://marine.copernicus.eu/\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://marine.copernicus.eu/\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Common-Vocabularies\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Common-Vocabularies\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.bodc.ac.uk/\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.bodc.ac.uk/\" targettype=\"URL\" 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class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Metadata-formats/CSR\u0026amp;sa=D\u0026amp;source=docs\u0026amp;ust=1747210546396684\u0026amp;usg=AOvVaw3zmcwAuFw5AY6tJdQ9_ymR\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.seadatanet.org/Standards/Metadata-formats/CSR\u0026amp;sa=D\u0026amp;source=docs\u0026amp;ust=1747210546396684\u0026amp;usg=AOvVaw3zmcwAuFw5AY6tJdQ9_ymR\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://vocab.seadatanet.org/v_bodc_vocab_v2/search.asp?lib=C17\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan 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Informatics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Oceanography, Data Management, FAIR principles, GeoNetwork, Data catalogue, Marine science data","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7261114/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7261114/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWith the growing complexity and frequency of oceanic sampling, more efficient systems are needed to manage the information. Developing robust infrastructures that facilitate the search and access to oceanographic data becomes essential to ensure effective use of information, as well as to promote collaboration and interoperability among organizations. In this context, the concept of geoportals as human-machine interfaces emerges as one of the key solutions for accessing and disseminating spatial data. The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), as part of the National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC) network, has adopted open-source solutions such as GeoNetwork to develop a standardized metadata repository that adheres to FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). This approach has enabled IEO to organize and present an extensive catalogue of multidisciplinary oceanographic data, supporting data discovery, integration, and global exchange. The implementation of proper hierarchization mechanisms has improved search capabilities, allowing users (individuals or data hubs) to efficiently access marine datasets for research and applications. Furthermore, the cataloguing of ocean data at IEO plays a crucial role in supporting the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), demonstrating the impact of structured data management on environmental policies and ocean governance.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"A GeoNetwork-based Catalogue for Marine Data Management","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-09-04 20:15:41","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7261114/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-09-27T01:48:52+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-09-26T20:48:06+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-09-16T08:48:59+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"268192633356690418757253190276201987313","date":"2025-09-03T08:13:07+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"286614305615236062521824959486358677131","date":"2025-08-28T07:39:32+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"161215827131568946848311191984689788443","date":"2025-08-28T06:15:55+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"308695553597860845990434160161279562306","date":"2025-08-28T05:57:33+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-08-27T23:40:24+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-08-27T23:39:09+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-08-06T08:10:09+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Earth Science Informatics","date":"2025-07-31T10:11:42+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"earth-science-informatics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"esin","sideBox":"Learn more about [Earth Science Informatics](http://link.springer.com/journal/12145)","snPcode":"12145","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/12145/3","title":"Earth Science Informatics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"dde35d54-7896-4d84-8caf-46a592a1f112","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 4th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-01-12T16:07:00+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-7261114","link":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-025-02065-8","journal":{"identity":"earth-science-informatics","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Earth Science Informatics"},"publishedOn":"2026-01-08 15:59:31","publishedOnDateReadable":"January 8th, 2026"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-04 20:15:41","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1007/s12145-025-02065-8","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-025-02065-8","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7261114","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7261114","identity":"rs-7261114","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}