The Helmholtz Earth & Environment Sensor Management System in hydrological sciences - A case study

To say that high quality observatory datasets play an important role in hydrological research would be an understatement. Their accessibility is a crucial aspect in the scientific practice. When we talk about access of these datasets, we often hear one famous buzzword: FAIR - making data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

But fulfilling the FAIR-principles requires the enrichment of our observatory datasets with comprehensive and consistent metadata. In particular, we need metadata about spatial and temporal context as well as environmental conditions, logger settings, sensor accuracy and resolution, as these parameters directly impact the usability of the data. Furthermore, the integration, management and export of all these information should be as user-friendly and consistent as possible so that researchers and instrument operators do not have to cope with complex metadata standards, terminologies and semantics.

In the DataHub initiative of the Helmholtz Centers of the Research Field Earth & Environment, we have hence developed the so-called Sensor Management System (SMS) as user-friendly one-stop-platform for collecting, managing and providing all senor-related metata in a homogenized and standardized way. Our system further supports the registration of devices and the generation of PIDs via B2INST, the documentation of changes on measurement setups, the linkage with data infrastructures as well as an API for machine-to-machine interaction, e.g., within data science applications.

The SMS has now reached a level of maturity that allows the full-fledged management of comprehensive sensor and measurement infrastructures, like the ones operated by the Hydrology-Section of the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences. In this contribution, we therefore want to present the current state of our Sensor Management System, how it can simplify the management and ensure a sustainable and transparent operation of hydrological sensor systems and, finally, help hydrologists and instrument maintainers to make their research data FAIR.