World Climate Data and Monitoring Programme (WCDMP)

Data Rescue (DARE) Project

The Data Rescue (DARE) project is aimed at assisting countries in the management, preservation and use of climatic data over their own territories. DARE commits to microfilm and microfiche, and eventually to digital media through CLICOM and other means, the original written manuscript records which may date back more than 100 years and in many cases are in danger of deteriorating and of being lost. The DARE project in Africa, funded primarily by Belgium, dates back to 1979 and the Belgium-supported phase was terminated in mid 1997. It has resulted in more than five million documents from more than 30 countries being saved on microfilm. In 1995 a DARE project began in the Caribbean with funding support from Canada.

New DARE strategy

In the mid-1990´s, technological advancements made it possible to optically scan climate data as a new method of creating digital climate archives. This technology permits the data not only to be preserved, but also to be in a form for exchange via computer media. However, it is now recognized that these data must be moved into digital databases for use in analyses and climate change studies. Optically scanning images certainly preserves the data and is a major improvement over hard copy media, but placing the data in full digital usable form will make it accessible to many more.

An International Data Rescue meeting (September 2001, Geneva)
re-defined Data Rescue as :

An ongoing process of preserving all data at risk of being lost due to
deterioration of the medium, and the digitization of current and
past data into computer compatible form for easy access.

This definition implies that:

1. Data should be stored as image files onto media that can be regularly renewed to prevent the deterioration of the medium (cartridges, CDs, DVDs etc.)
2. Data should be key-entered in a form that can be used for analyses.

New data rescue projects are being implemented in many countries (Vietnam, Rwanda, Jamaica, Honduras et..)

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