A First Prototype for Indexing, Visualizing and Mining Heterogeneous Data in Mediterranean Ecology: Within the IndexMed Consortium Interdisciplinary Framework

Abstract

Although biodiversity has been extensively studied over the last centuries, recent evidences suggest that links between collected data are still be missing. In order to fill this knowledge gap and at the initiative of the CNRS Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE), IndexMed, a unique and multidisciplinary consortium consisting of ecologists, sociologists, economists, mathematicians, IT specialists and astronomers was created. Through exploratory projects, IndexMed develops new methods for analyzing data on Mediterranean biodiversity and implements solutions based on interoperability technologies already deployed in other disciplines. In particular, IndexMed aims to build a prototype of such data graphs and "data cubes". This paper will first explore the ability of tools and methods by means of graphs to connect biodiversity objects with non-centralized data. It will then introduce the use of algorithms and graphs to analyze environmental and societal responses and presents a prototype under development.