Within WASCAL a large number of heterogeneous data are collected. These data are mainly coming from the activities of the WASCAL Competence Center in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso, the different initiated research activities within WASCAL (Core Research Program, Graduate School Program) and the hydrological-meteorological, remote sensing, biodiversity and socio economic observation networks within WASCAL.
The WASCAL Data Management Infrastructure (WADI) was implemented and setup to manage, store, publish of and provide online-access to data directly connected to WASCAL, like the data from the individual observation data networks, basic data sets and research results. The main components of WADI are (see Figure 1):
Data exchange is accomplished by OGC compliant Web services, which supply standards and interfaces to search in and to access to spatial (and non-spatial) data. Consequent usage of these standards guarantees an interoperable access and allows in addition the integration of data from other data holders without bigger expenditure. In this way WADI will provide an exchange platform for scientists and decision makers for reliable and well accessible data and data products.