Data upload templates and guidance now available for sharing data via the NBN Atlas platforms.
The NBN Atlas and country portals hold their data in Darwin Core format. Darwin Core is an internationally recognised standard for biodiversity data, and we are proud to be following standards such as this that will increase the accessibility to, and sharing of, our nation’s biodiversity data across the globe.
Sending data to the NBN Atlas
Ideally, data would be sent through to the NBN Atlas as a Darwin Core Archive*, with metadata being supplied in EML (Ecological Metadata Language). However, we are aware that not all of our data partners will have the technical capacity to create these file types. Therefore we have created CSV templates with Darwin Core terms and XML tags (headings that are compliant with EML). We can then convert those into the correct formats on ingestion into the system. These CSV files each come with guidance documents to help you complete the templates.
*a Darwin Core Archive is a single dataset (zip) that contains all of the information for species occurrence records. It is a collection of CSV/text files (that adhere to Darwin Core Terms), with a metadata XML to describe the files in the Archive.
Guidance documents
The templates and guidance documents can be found on the ‘Share species occurrence records with the NBN Atlas‘ page, under the ‘Help’ menu on the NBN Atlas. Once you have completed your template, please save as a CSV and send to data@nbnatlas.org
You can, of course, submit your data to us in the Darwin Core Archives format if you have the technical capacity.
We will also still accept data in the NBN Data Exchange Format from partners who used to supply data to the NBN Gateway. However, we will be phasing out the use of the old NBN Data Exchange Format and will be working with data partners who use it to ensure an easy transition to using the Darwin Core or Darwin Core Archive formats.
Dataset upload
We will try and upload new datasets as quickly as possible, but please bear with us if there are any delays with this.