Interoperable CSV for Environmental Data Archival and Exchange– iCSV

Environmental research relies on seamless data exchange between institutions globally, but inade-
quate documentation and complex formats hinder collaboration. We introduce iCSV, a self-describing,
human-readable format that combines the simplicity of CSV with the metadata richness of NetCD-
F/CF. iCSV ensures long-term interpretability, interoperability and user accessibility, addressing
key challenges in environmental data stewardship. By embedding structured metadata directly in a
human-readable text file, iCSV enables automated validation, supports FAIR principles and lowers
the barrier to data sharing and reuse while ensuring data remains interpretable for future users and
maintaining broad compatibility with existing software. This work motivates the need for a simple,
self-describing tabular format for environmental time series, presents the iCSV specification, positions
it within existing binary and human-readable format ecosystems through comparative analysis, and
discusses current limitations with directions for future improvements.