Cathie Associates have been appointed by the Marine Environmental Data & Information Network (MEDIN) to create a guideline for offshore geotechnical site investigations.
The guideline will form part of the MEDIN framework of specifications that govern best practice in collecting metadata for re-use of UK marine information.
Cathie Associates said the new guideline will fully encompass the needs of the diverse range of geotechnical surveys and address the inconsistencies in data collection and recording prevalent in the offshore industry.
The MEDIN framework already covers a wide range of marine environmental data gathering activities. Benefits of adopting this framework include instilling good practice amongst users and ensuring consistency between contractors and contracting organisations – there is a standard template of required information that both sides can use, which makes managing expectations and delivery much simpler, Cathie Associates explained.
Adhering to the MEDIN framework also provides the opportunity to store data and metadata in the MEDIN Data Archive Centres, which reduces infrastructure costs for contractors and ensures long-term security for the collected data.