Introducing the WISERD Geoportal WISERD DATA TEAM Dr Robert Berry & Dr Richard Fry, of Dr Scott Orford, University WISERD What is WISERD? Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods • Major investment in research infrastructure in Economic and Social Sciences across Wales (£4.8 million over 3 years) • 28 posts at 5 higher education institutions in Wales • Strategy for generating research grant bids and sustainability • Major innovations in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods • Links with WAG, ONS, LAs and other institutions/partners across Wales • Establish integrated sets of socio‐economic metadata & data relating to Wales WISERD –Main Themes

• ‘Knowing’ localities – Cardiff City Centre – Heads of Valleys – Ceredigion – A55 corridor • Policy analysis and evaluation • Training and capacity building • Data integration (discovery, re‐use, sharing)

Bringing together expertise in criminology, economics and finance, geography and GIS, public health, urban studies, political science, sociology and social policy The WISERD Geoportal (WGP) Why? • Enhance a researcher’s ability to discover quantitative and qualitative socio‐economic research data for Wales • Enable geographic as well as thematic and temporal searching • Encourage re‐use of existing data and more collaborative research

What? • Online map and text‐based application for accessing META‐database: – Quantitative Survey Data (e.g. Living in Wales, Welsh Health Survey) – Qualitative Data (e.g. WISERD research interviews) – Administrative data (e.g. PLASC, Benefits, health records) – ‘Grey’ data (e.g. academic publications) – Public data and linked data (e.g. data.gov.uk, DBPedia) • Disparate data ‘integrated’ into spatial framework using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology Example Queries • Textual: Show me all the surveys conducted in Wales that are related to health or contain questions on health. • Spatial: I need to find out what socio‐economic exists that relates to Cardiff. • Spatial: Show me all the data you have for this area (user‐defined) • Textual/Spatial: I’m conducting a project on schools in –I want a printed report of all the datasets related to education within the Merthyr UA. The WISERD Meta-Database (30/08/2011)

• Surveys: Stats: – Census (1991, 2001) – Labour Force Survey 2010 •63 surveys – Living in Wales (2004‐2008) •30 with responses mapped – National Survey for Wales (2010) – Shelter Cymru HAC •5122 tables – Skills Surveys (1997‐2006) – Wales Rural Obs. Rural Business (2004‐ •6700 questions 2010)

– Wales Rural Obs. Household Survey (2004‐ 2010)

– Welsh Health Survey (2003‐2011) – Working in Britain (1999‐2002) – Workplace Employment Relations (2004) WISERD Meta-Database: Current Status (30/08/2011)

• Administrative Data: selected PLASC stats (2003‐10) mapped

at UA level. School‐level stats mapping planned.

• Qualitative Data: Dozens of WISERD stakeholder interview

transcripts

• Grey MDB: 20+ academic journal articles and PhD theses

• Public: No data added yet (future development) Architecture

Standards compliant metadata Metadata Tables (*)

Survey Data Qualitative Data * Survey * Keywords * Questions * Geo‐tags * Responses

* Dublin Core (Metadata about the metadata) * GEMINI 2.1 (Spatial metadata –INSPIRE compliant)

Grey Data Admin Data Public Data * Keywords * As supplied * Geo‐tags Free and Open Source Technology

OR

Spatial Search Tools

• Find by Location • Find by Point and Click • Find by drag rectangle • Find by user defined area…..

Issues!

• Huge amounts of data for Web delivery. Working on simplifying and adding topology to boundary data for more accurate representation/faster loading. • Map labelling • Speed (database, mapping). Investment required (database server), although CLOUD‐BASED Geoportal may be explored.

• Valuable and original technological research as well innovative tool for social sciences. Further Developments (‐Dec 2011)

• Expand meta‐database ‐ inc. new metadata types: – Public (NOMIS; ONS Neighbourhood Stats) – Environmental – Linked data/RDF (e.g. DB Pedia, data.gov) • Improve data analysis and charting • Refine user interface and cartography • Spatial statistics • Fully‐featured help and video tutorials • Print and save metadata and metadata reports to PDF • Multi‐browser support Future Developments ‐ pending additional funding (2012>) • Enhance hardware infrastructure (Database server, storage) • Integrate metadata entry tools into WGP for end‐ user metadata generation • Potential secure download of source data • Metadata download in GIS formats • ‘Community’ features (forums, sharing etc.) • Publish linked data on other sites (e.g. Data.gov) • Expansion into a ‘Wales Geoportal’ ???

Schedule

• Release ‘Alpha’ version 1.00 for user‐testing October 2011. • Incorporate user feedback and develop release version October‐December 2011 • First release version of WISERD Geoportal end of December 2011. • 2012>....???? http://wiserd.comp.glam.ac.uk/home/

@glam.ac.uk