EcoBank: A Flexible Data Platform for Sharing Ecological Data

Environmental crisis challenges human race harder than ever before. Ecologists have produced a massive amount of data to cope with the crisis. Accordingly, so many ecological data platforms have been developed worldwide to manage and analyze these datasets. However, in Korea, ecological datasets produced by different research institutes for different purposes have not been integrated or serviced due to the lack of a well-designed information infrastructure. To address this obstacle, we present EcoBank (www.nie-ecobank.kr), an open, web-based ecological data platform designed to play an important role in ecological informatics in Korea. The architecture of EcoBank comprises core technologies of WebGIS, Application Programming Interface (API), responsive web, and open-source software (OSS). EcoBank has three conceptual modules: data management, analysis, and service. Diverse stakeholders of EcoBank can be classified into three groups: researchers, policymakers, and public users. EcoBank aims to expand its horizons through mutual communication between these stakeholders. As a part of the progress, EcoBank began to broaden its network by linking to other data platforms and repositories over the globe to find possible solutions to ecological issues in Korea.