A geographical correlated data base system

During the early summer of 1977, the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research at the University of South Carolina received a National Science Foundation grant to conduct research into the tidal fluxes of coastal estuaries. Designed to measure the transfer of nutrient and chemical material between the sea and coastal waters, the project will last for three years and will involve the collection and analysis of on-site data at the Institute's estuary near Georgetown, South Carolina. In conjunction with this research, it was also decided to conduct a feasibility study into the practicality of constructing a data base system which could contain all estuary-related biological data, as well as that data for this project. Initial requirements of such a system were set forth as follows: i. The data should be retrievable on an unqualified basis as well as on a specific basis. Interest ranged, for instance, in having the capability to retrieve all information on a specific type of chemical element contained in the data base as well as retrieving particular information on that element at a specific time, or at a specific location, or both. 2. As much as possible, all types of biologically related data should be accounted and planned for. The structure's overall design, however, must be capable of expansion as new types of information are collected. 3. The structure for logical storage must provide for a minimum of wasted space. This requirement is important when considering the fact that no one type of analysis results in the collection of all types of biological data. In fact, only a small fraction of these total types are collected at any one time. 4. The overall design of the data base should account for interaction and rates of exchange of energy between biological specimens, the forcing functions of an evironment, and chemical and nutrient quantities. This requirement, the ability to quantify and store dynamic changes of an estuarian environment, was of particular importance for the current NSF grant. 5. The method of storage should be relatively simple to understand in order that the inexperiienced user could also receive maximum benefit from the data base system and to make expansion a less tedious process. The basic design problem of the system was how to correlate all types of biological information into a useful relationship, as the manner in which data is managed in a computer system determines the degree to which user needs can be satisfied and also governs the efficiency of any information system. It was readily apparent that a single, large record structure affording storage for all biological data promised upwards of 80% wasted space per entry and should be avoided. This premise is supported by the constraints mentioned previously. The qualification of when and where data were collected eventually proved to be the best approach as, not only would it continue over time, but it readily correlated all types of diverse information. With this decision, it was also determined that a hierarchical relationship between location of collection and time of collection should be established to provide for large scale unqalified, as well as precisely qualified, one element retrievals. The following hierarchical relationship was summarily designed to define the collection point of any data: