The PLUS project was aimed at modernization of the HELCOM waterborne pollution load compilation (PLC) database, and development of a web application to access the data. This would provide a more efficient data handling system including both reporting and retrieving data on water born pollution discharges into the Baltic Sea, and introduce an automatic quality assurance system ensuring more comparable, consistent and validated data. Furthermore, this development would facilitate the elaboration of HELCOM evaluations and assessments, support the decision-making process, and ease an access to the data for research purposes. As a consequence, also the reporting would be more time-efficient and the workload on the PLC Data Manager would be reduced due to automation of the quality assurance procedures. Ultimately, the collected data will be openly available to the public, according to the current European standards and directives. The modernization would improve and streamline the whole process - from inputting the data to their visualization and subsequent analysis.
The system has been developed with following objectives
- Provides a more complete, consistent and comparable datasets, including access to historical data (e.g. data from previous years used for analysis and other assessments);
- Increases and standardizes quality of the data on waterborne inputs through introduction of automated quality-control system;
- Enables more cost-effective data reporting for Contracting Parties;
- Identifies a quality status of the data indicating potential uncertainties;
- Provides easy and up-to-date on-line access to the data including, spatial visualization and graphs, on waterborne inputs for HELCOM, the Contracting Parties, research institutes and the general public.
The system can be accessed using the link http://apps.nest.su.se/helcom_plus
