The Database needs to handle efficiently large amounts of data relating to each site, and provide for the wide range of spatial and temporal queries and analyses needed for environmental change research. Digital maps describing the spatial variability of measurements within and between ECN sites can be integrated with the database and meta-information for spatial analysis and modelling. Automatic data recorders often allow some control over the format used to report the data they collect. Manual data recorded either in the field or in the lab, on paper forms for keying-in later.
Some sites have access to field computers for direct data entry.
Recording forms need to be designed both to be easily managed in the field and to provide a suitable structure for data entry and subsequent installation within the ECN Database. Digital maps of each site showing land use, field boundaries, the location of instruments, plots and transects, are being prepared by the ECN CCU from information provided by site managers. Some of the protocols, for example bat monitoring and the common bird census, use maps as their principal means of data recording. The Database will be continually growing as data are sent in from ECN Sites at agreed time intervals. The quantity and variety of data being sent to the CCU mean that standardisation in data transfer will be necessary to make input to the Database manageable within the resources available.