- What is the Marine Data Exchange?
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The Marine Data Exchange (MDE) is a system that The Crown Estate
has developed to store, manage and disseminate offshore survey data
provided by our offshore renewable and marine aggregates
customers.
Once the survey data is no longer commercially valuable, we work
with our customers to make the data accessible via this
website.
You can also find the outputs of a number of collaborative
research projects, such as the COWRIE (Collaborative Offshore Wind
Research Into the Environment) database, which this system
replaces.

- Why does The Crown Estate collect these data?
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Each offshore renewable Agreement granted by The Crown Estate
contains a Data Clause requiring our customers to provide us
with their offshore survey data collected throughout the
lifetime of a project. This is for a number of reasons,
including:
- to safeguard the retention of data and information for industry
and future research;
- to ensure that the best available evidence is available for
sustainable decision making;
- to provide developers with access to data and information that
enhances development opportunities;
- to work with developers to promote best practice data
management;
- to provide information to aid The Crown Estate, industry and
public understanding of the marine estate;
- to facilitate collaboration and research for the benefit of the
industries concerned;
- to provide support for development programmes in the event of
future development opportunities;




- Do I need to register?
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You do not need to register to use the Marine Data Exchange. The
site has been designed to be open to all. However, registering for
the site will allow access to some additional functions, including
saving searches for future visits, posting on the Exchange Board,
and providing comments on the resources you have viewed.
- Is there a cost to download from the Marine Data Exchange?
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There is no cost. Downloading datasets and reports from the MDE
is free.
- What do I do if I don't receive an email containing my requested data?
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Once you have been through the order process, the system will
automatically package up your data and send you an email containing
links from which you can download the data and/or reports.
The time that it takes for you to receive the email is dependent
upon how much data you have ordered and how big it is. However, you
should receive the email within a few hours. If you do not receive
an email, please get in touch with us at
mde@thecrownestate.co.uk.
If the data that you have ordered is larger than 100MB, we will
send you an XML extension metalink file. This can be used in a
download manager tool. There are a range of tools that use this
protocol. We use JDownloader. Prior to this process, we stored all
'big data' offline (i.e. anything too large to download over the
internet). Therefore, the addition of a metalink file means that
you can now get access to all data, regardless of size,
instantly.
If you have any questions, uncertainties or would like help in
finding additional data, please get in touch.
- What is a Series?
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A Series is analogous to a MEDIN Series which can be
defined as a collection of datasets and reports collected in
relation to a survey or data collection campaign, linked by a
common research question.
We would strongly recommend that when downloading any data you
download the associated Series. The easiest way to do this is to
filter by
Series in the search view. When adding a Series to your basket,
the system will send you all publically available reports and
datasets associated with that survey campaign; there is no need to
also add the reports and datasets to your basket separately. Often,
the supporting information required to interpret the datasets
correctly, is held within the reports.

- What is a Dataset?
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A dataset is a 'pillar' of data and information related to a
single parameter (something measured), instrument (technology used
to measure) or method (way of measuring something).
We would strongly recommend that when downloading any data you
download the associated Series. The easiest way to do this is to
filter by
Series in the search view. When adding a Series to your
basket, the system will send you all publically available reports
and datasets associated with that survey campaign; there is no need
to also add the reports and datasets to your basket separately.
Often, the supporting information required to interpret the
datasets correctly, is held within the reports.
- What is a Report?
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A Report is a set of documents relating to part, or the whole of
a survey or data collection campaign.
- Can I use advanced search queries?
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Yes. You can use wildcards, logical operators and quotation
marks.
To use wildcards, simply include a "*" before or after your
desired search term
Examples:
Bathy*
Note: you cannot use wildcards within quotation marks.
To use logical operators, simply use them in capital
letters.
Examples:
birds AND mammals
birds OR mammals
Include quotation marks around your search terms whenever
they're formed by more than a word.
Examples:
"marine mammals"
birds AND "marine mammals"
- How do I reference the information from this site?
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Where information is re-published, appropriate acknowledgement
of the copyright owner is required. We also ask that you
acknolwedge the Marine Data Exchange where possible.
For more details, please se our Terms
of Use for full details and if you have any further enquiries
please get in touch with mde@thecrownestate.co.uk.