PhD Thesis Emmanuel Obeng Bekoe - Cranfield University

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up facilities/practices/routines. For example, flow data collected for the period
2001/2002 at two new gauging stations within the basin at Ashalaja and Pakro
“New” were destroyed in a fire that engulfed the offices of the collecting
agencies. The lack of any secure back-up system meant that this data was lost
forever.
7.7 Recommendations
From the conclusions identified above, recommendations are made to address
the three main problem areas which were observed in this hydrological
modelling using the ACRU model, namely:
1. problems with data quality,
2. generation of some model parameters, and;
3. shortcomings in the ACRU processes
7.7.1 Data Quality Recommendations
The problem with data quality could be addressed with the following
recommendations:
7.7.1.1 Making Historical Data Available To The Wider Hydrological
Community
Historical data on paper records and those already put into digital format but not
in any standardized form should be encouraged to be converted into an agreed
digital format e.g. Metadata standards. Metadata is structured information that
describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or
manage an information resource. It is called “data about data” (NISO 2004,
Gililand-Swetland, 2000; ANZLIC, 1996; Kildow, 1996). What metadata does is
to facilitate discovery of relevant information. In addition NISO (2004) reckons
that it can help organize electronic resources through links to resources based
on audience and type such as static web pages with the names and locations of
the resources “hardcoded”; facilitate interoperability (the ability of multiple
systems with different hardware and software platforms, data structures, and
interfaces to exchange data with minimal loss of content and functionality) by
using defined metadata schemes, shared transfer protocols and crosswalks
Emmanuel Obeng Bekoe Phd Thesis Chapter 7 Conclusions & Recommendations