Abstract
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.