Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Data Repository

SBMA has recently commissioned its Seabed Minerals Data Repository (CSD), which includes a public area (CSD Public). The CSD stores data collected through SBM activities. We are making all environmental data publicly available. You can access CSD Public on our website or here.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Rift Pty Ltd. in Australia collaborated to design and build the CSD, which hosts the aforementioned data and information. The repository will be in beta phase until the end of Quarter 1 2024, and this initial period of public access and use of it will aid in testing the system's functions and user friendliness.

A repository is not a database; a repository stores data per a structured filing system (basically, it is a library), while a database integrates the data together by type (more like a compiled report of all the information in a library). As the data collected on the Cooks Islands seabed spans some 50 years and was collected by different people using different methods, a repository provides better “data integrity.”.

Exploration activities licenced in 2022 cover ~220,000 sq km of ocean space within our exclusive economic zone. Large volumes of data—geological, biological, chemical, environmental, etc.—are being delivered. It is SBMA’s responsibility to manage, store, and, in many cases, share this information.

Historical reports and data from past expeditions (1960s–2000s) have been loaded to the CSD Public, as well as the data collected through the SBMA’s own research permit (rpSEP below). Environmental data collected during exploration operations will also be uploaded to this platform.

Source by: Seabed Minerals Authority