Metadatabases in environmental information systems: the Locator and Communication Service (VKS-Umwelt)

Existing environmental information is frequently known only to insiders. Environmental offices have many “hidden treasures” that must be described in a metainformation system. Metainformation can be helpful in finding and understanding distributed environmental information. A Web-based facility, also referred to as the Locator and Communication Service Environment (German acronym: VKS-Umwelt), was designed for this purpose. VKS-Umwelt allows users in the German Federal Environment Agency to search for and directly access environmental information resources in the intranet of the agency. The main purpose of VKSUmwelt is to simplify the utilization of the Web technology for the information transfer between suppliers and users of environmental information. One result of the VKS-Umwelt project is the catalogue of criteria for VKS-Umwelt. The user requirements have been identified and documented in several interviews and workshops with members of various departments in the UBA.