Developing Data Audit Trails For The Csiro Sustainable Yields Projects

As data capture technology improves and computer platforms continue to increase in storage capacity, data management becomes increasingly important. A data management system helps ensure that data has appropriate security, is logically structured, and properly archived with demonstrable integrity. Over the past 2 years CSIRO has taken on some high-profile projects with a high expectation for auditing of final results by various interested parties. A key to the success of these projects has been the implementation of a data management system.In early 2007, the National Water Commission (NWC) comissioned CSIRO to develop a whole of basin assessment of water availability for the Murray-Darling Basin. This became known as the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields (MDBSY) project. Following the successful completion of the MDBSY project, CSIRO was contracted to conduct three additional Sustainable Yields (SY) projects across Northern Australia, Tasmania, and south-west Western Australia. The system established for the MDBSY project formed a 'blueprint' for use in these projects.The MDBSY and subsequent SY projects have involved large volumes of data across various disciplinary project teams. The high public profile and associated level of scrutiny of the results, presented in the final reports, required the establishment of a data audit trail for all project results, so that all values could be traced to their origins. In order to achieve this, a high degree of discipline was required when managing project data. The data management framework developed to support these projects was built on a set of protocols, processes, and standards.The SY projects have been structured with four disciplinary teams as well as a team focused on data management. The data management team was comprised of a data team leader, a project data manager, and a data coordinator from each of the disciplinary teams. The data team leader and data manager were responsible for developing the protocols and procedures, and for organising the development/acquisition of tools required for organising and managing all of the project data. The key responsibility for the data coordinators was to ensure that their team's data were migrated into the project archive and catalogued appropriately with metadata descriptions.This paper will outline the development of the data management protocols, with emphasis on the establishment of a data audit trail, and associated tools. It will also highlight how the developments within the SY projects have provided a framework for propagating such a system across all future projects, and how the 'seeds' of a data management culture have begun to 'grow' within CSIRO. Finally it will share some of the learnings from this activity.