Dutch National Database Flora and Fauna
The Dutch National Database Flora and Fauna (NDFF) is the data warehouse construction that contains the distribution data of plants and animals in the Netherlands. Its main components are: data entry portal(s), a central archive, validation service and data export portal(s).
In the Netherlands vast amounts of data on the whereabouts of species over the last century have been gathered and stored. However it is scattered among different organizations, in different formats and not always digitally available. The National Database Flora and Fauna (NDFF) has been built to make distribution data of (flora and fauna) species available through one National Data Warehouse.
Validated data
All data entering the NDFF are validated using a quality filter on input. Data that are approved will flow through to the central archive and the export portals. At the moment the NDFF contains over 200 million records that are supplemented on a daily basis by over 20.000 volunteers, including record centers such as Sovon (Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology), De Vlinderstichting (Dutch Butterfly Conservation), RAVON (Reptile, Amphibian & Fish Conservation) and other voluntary and professional observers.
Protocols
NDFF aims to improve and standardize how natural data is obtained by implementing established protocols: standardized counting methods. This ensures that observations are collected in a unified manner. By working with standardized counting, data can be compared, both within a year and from year to year. This results in a clear picture based on the observations.
Access
Data from the NDFF is available for everyone: Members can access the data through the data export portal and retrieve validated data at any given time. Members include researchers and a large and growing group of governmental users including several Dutch Municipalities and Provinces, the Dutch Directorate General of Public Works and Water Management and the nature conservationists from the Dutch National Forestry Service.
Non-members can go to www.ndff.nl, and make a single request for data sets. They will receive a standard pdf-file with the requested data made available by the Serviceteam of the NDFF.
