Created: 17 November 2020 Updated: 02 March 2021This article is a long introduction to linked data. Alternative ways of finding out more about linked data will be published in the coming months, including podcasts, webinars, and bitesize articles.<h3 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-Whatisit">What is it</h3>Linked data is… data you can link to. That’s because it’s built on all the mechanisms of the web, so each thing you want to describe gets a URL that is used both as an identifier for that thing and as an address you can look up to find information about it. Effectively every item in your dataset gets its own web page.The data formats and protocols of linked data are all W3C standards, offering the possibility for different organisations to make their data available in compatible ways.You can of course link to a whole Excel file or CSV file or Shapefile, without needing linked data, but in that case you are pointing to a whole bucket of data, and you need some other mechanism to be more specific ('open this link then go to row 125, column H'). That's much less standardised and much harder to use in an automated context.Linked data uses the data-modeling specification RDF ('Resource Description Framework') as the underlying way to represent the data. That is a very flexible approach that allows (even requires) you to be very precise about your data and is great for machine processing and data integration. It's not necessarily the easiest thing for most users to work with, but because it is precise, and easy to process in software then it's straightforward to create all kinds of other outputs from it according to what the data is and what users want - web pages, CSV, JSON, Shapefiles, etc.<h3 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-Whyyoudoit">Why you do it</h3>For most organisations the reason for making data available is to help people find, understand and use it.There are many ways to achieve those goals and an overall data strategy will combine a number of approaches, but linked data has an important contribution to make to those three pillars of making data useful.The World Wide Web Consortium has put together the <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Data on the Web Best Practices</a> and the <a href="http://w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Spatial Data on the Web Best Practices</a>, giving guidance and recommendations on how to make use of the web to disseminate data. Effective use of linked data is well suited to implementation of those best practices.It is also a good match to the recently released UK <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-data-strategy" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">National Data Strategy</a>.Linked data directly addresses the 'Data Foundations' element of this strategy, which states:“The true value of data can only be fully realised when it is fit for purpose, recorded in standardised formats on modern, future-proof systems and held in a condition that means it is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. By improving the quality of the data, we can use it more effectively and drive better insights and outcomes from its use.”It also addresses the third priority ‘mission’ in the government’s strategy:“[...] the government (will drive) major improvements in the way information is efficiently managed, used and shared across government. To succeed, we need a whole-government approach that ensures alignment around the best practice and standards needed to drive value and insights from data; and the creation of an appropriately safeguarded, joined-up and interoperable data infrastructure to support this”<h4 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-Findingdata">Finding data</h4>People usually find data by following a link to it or by searching for it, whether through a web search engine or a more site specific search.Linked data allows assigning URLs not just to datasets, but to specific bits of data within that dataset, making it easy to share pointers to data. It is easier to back up reports or charts by citing the data that supports it.Because everything has a URL, assuming it is publicly accessible on the web, then web search engines like Google, Bing etc are able to index the data and direct users to it. In addition to their mainstream approach of indexing the text on web pages, they are increasingly making use of metadata embedded in web pages to influence search ranking and to enrich how search results are presented. This embedded metadata takes the form of linked data using the <a href="http://schema.org/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">schema.org</a> vocabulary.So, in site-specific searches, it is possible to supplement text based indexes with a more structured search using metadata. Linked data is well suited to linking datasets to standards-based machine readable metadata, helping people find the data they want.<h4 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-Understandingdata">Understanding data</h4>Once people find data that might meet their purpose, they need to know where it came from and how it was processed, to help them know if it is applicable to their problem; to understand the level of quality and trustworthiness, and to apply it to their own problem.As well as helping with data discovery, metadata is also important for helping people understand data once they find it. The web based nature of linked data makes it easy to connect data at a fine grained level to definitions, explanations and contextual information.Use of standards is an important element of consistency and predictability in how data is presented, as well as making data more likely to be supported by good software tools.What makes data easy for someone to understand depends greatly on their background and their purpose. Well-structured, documented, machine-readable linked data is a sound starting point for presenting data in many different ways: for example as a CSV download, or a map-based visualisation, or through a web-based explorer. Linked data makes it possible to offer many different views on an authoritative underlying collection of data.The various Environment Agency linked-data-powered apps and explorers are good examples of the ways that data can be made more understandable for users.Linked data is an enabling mechanism for these various views: directly using 'raw' linked data is generally only for specialists carrying out analysis or building more 'friendly' views for broader groups of users.<h4 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-Usingdata">Using data</h4>People generally want to use data to help them investigate an issue or to inform a decision. In most cases this involves using data from many different sources and the challenge of combining data from different 'data silos' is well known.Several aspects of linked data help with this problem:<ul><li>it makes data accessible through the web</li><li>Its approach to naming conventions make the data easier to join up. Each statistic has its own, globally unique identifier (name). This means that separate datasets can re-use the same identifier when they are talking about the same thing</li><li>data is machine readable and queryable, which helps with automated filtering and processing of large amounts of data</li><li>in linked data, the data model or 'schema' is described in the data itself, making it possible to enrich data by adding in lookups and connections</li></ul>The linked data representation of information is a very precise one - it enables you, and sometimes requires you, to be explicit about aspects of the data that other approaches might leave implicit or open to interpretation. This makes it excellent for automated processing but requires some extra effort. The process of cleaning and transforming the data often helps expose mistakes or inconsistencies that might otherwise go unnoticed, and so helps improve data quality as a side effect of the data publishing process.<h3 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-ConcreteExamples">Concrete Examples</h3>When publishers make linked data available (whether directly or via downloads and APIs) it enables other organisations to make use of it. There are many good examples from the Environment Agency's linked data, but also from other linked data publishers. Here are a few current examples:<ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBpedia#cite_note-Berners-LeeTalis-4" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">DBPedia</a>, “allows users to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Query" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">semantically query</a> relationships and properties of Wikipedia resources, including links to other related <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dataset" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">datasets</a>.” What this means in practice is that all of the information boxes that you can see on wikipedia are queryable. So it is possible to write queries that look for relationships between things that have pages on wikipedia. An example of this is to query all of the rivers on wikipedia, and count up which body of water has the most watercourses discharging into it. Here's the query that does that: <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/queries/examples#Body_of_water_with_the_most_watercourses_ending_in_it" data-card-appearance="inline" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/queries/examples#Body_of_water_with_the_most_watercourses_ending_in_it</a> </li><li>The EA's Public Registers are used by the group <a href="https://dsposal.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Dsposal</a>, who have developed an online platform to connect waste producers with licensed waste companies.</li><li>The BBC use data from the flood warnings API on their website, used by a huge audience in times of flooding.</li><li>FloodRe uses the flood warnings and river monitoring APIs to assess and predict their insurance liabilities</li><li>The 'Scottish Tech Army' (a group of furloughed IT professionals offering their skills for public benefit projects) created a <a href="https://covid19.scottishtecharmy.org/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">dashboard</a> of the Scottish Government’s linked data publishing of Covid statistics.</li></ul><img class="confluence-embedded-image image-center" alt="mceclip0.png" loading="lazy" src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275876969/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751508077&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-image-src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275876969/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751508077&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-height="780" data-width="1600" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-id="275877028" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-default-alias="mceclip0.png" data-base-url="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-linked-resource-container-id="275876969" data-linked-resource-container-version="6" data-media-id="353d191e-dc6f-46af-b4a2-c3f3bb248a79" data-media-type="file"><h3 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-Whatitlooksliketechnically">What it looks like technically</h3>Rather than being stored in a database as a collection of connected tables, rows and columns, linked data is stored in a graph database. A graph database is a much simpler way of storing data, which can be thought of as one big table, consisting of three columns, and as many rows as are needed (often hundreds of millions).Each piece of information is stored as a triple - a statement that consists of an identifier (the subject), a property (the predicate), and a value (the object). As an analogy, it works a bit like grammar: The cat (subject) sat on (predicate) the mat (object), but it's easier to show as a real world example.If we take catchment data explorer as an example, we have a lot of data about water bodies. One of these data items is the overall 2019 classification. In the graph database, this looks like this for one water body:<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="43b45c71-6572-4f0d-94d5-a9ffbb6d00de"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
</pre>
</div></div>For two water bodies, it looks like:<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="3bbf0375-0c3d-4c70-bfdb-d7cf4bbaebf3"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
Decoy Broad 2019classification Poor
</pre>
</div></div>This principle can be extended, so more water bodies just means more rows (or triples). If a new water body is discovered, or created in the real world, then it's simply a case of adding more triples.As well as creating more water bodies, this way of storing data makes the data model flexible. To add 2020 classification data to the database, we would simple add more triples - no requirement to change the structure of tables.<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="89f2edaa-fafe-4cd4-b65b-f6c148b7e40d"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
Captain's Pond 2020classification Good
</pre>
</div></div>We have a lot more information about these water bodies, and these can all be represented by more triples:<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="f0661d67-6310-4b23-a304-3bd6245968d3"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
Captain's Pond meanDepth 1m
Captain's Pond altitude 26m
Captain's Pond waterBodyType Lake
Captain's Pond parentOpCatchment Bure
...
</pre>
</div></div>With thousands of water bodies in England, it's easy to see how the number of triples can get into the millions.From these examples so far, the 'linked' part of linked data hasn't surfaced. Looking at the examples above, we have the subject water body - Captain's Pond. With thousands of water bodies, there's a good chance that two water bodies could have the same name, which as well as being confusing, would cause problems with this data model. To help with this, instead of using the name of the water body as the subject, we use an identifier (a URI). These identifiers are unique within the database, and are consistent - ie wherever we want to attach some data to Captain's Pond, we can use its identifier, which is <code>GB30535397</code>.<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="97144d33-68d2-489d-afcd-b53df246f8b3"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

GB30535397 label Captain's Pond
GB30535397 2019classification Moderate
GB30535397 meanDepth 1m
GB30535397 altitude 26m
GB30535397 waterBodyType Lake
GB30535397 parentOpCatchment Bure
...
</pre>
</div></div>But this still isn't linked. Because actually, we don't just use the identifier on its own - we use a URL as the identifier. In the case of Captain's Pond on Catchment Explorer, this is <code>https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/WaterBody/GB30535397</code>. This has several benefits:<ul><li>the identifier is globally unique - we know exactly what it is that we are talking about when use that identifier.</li><li>we can create a page on the internet that holds the information that we know about this water body (you can click the link to see this in practice).</li><li>other people and applications can link to this water body. This could be from a report produced within the Environment Agency, it could be an article about the water body on a local news website, or it could be referenced from a separate dataset in another service, such as Flood Plan Explorer</li></ul>Wherever possible, data points within the dataset use URLs as their identifiers - in the example above - the classification, the water body type and the operational catchment that the water body is within would all be stored as URLs, each with their own page where you can find out more information, such as what 'Moderate' actually means, the definition of a 'Lake', or which other water bodies are in the same Operational Catchment area. This web of data has the potential to be extremely powerful, allowing people to explore, discover and use all the information in the dataset.<h3 id="AnIntroductiontoLinkedData-Conclusion">Conclusion</h3>Hopefully this introduction to Linked Data has been simple enough to understand, but detailed enough to be useful. We are building a resource library with more articles, tutorials, and podcasts, and will be making these available on the forum.To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

An Introduction to Linked Data

Created: 21 January 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021<h2 id="Bitesize:concreteexamplesofLinkedData-ConcreteExamples">Concrete Examples</h2>When publishers make linked data available (whether directly or via downloads and APIs) it enables other organisations to make use of it. There are many good examples from the Environment Agency's linked data, but also from other linked data publishers. Here are a few current examples:<ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBpedia#cite_note-Berners-LeeTalis-4" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">DBPedia</a>, “allows users to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Query" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">semantically query</a> relationships and properties of Wikipedia resources, including links to other related <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dataset" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">datasets</a>.” What this means in practice is that all of the information boxes that you can see on wikipedia are queryable. So it is possible to write queries that look for relationships between things that have pages on wikipedia. An example of this is to query all of the rivers on wikipedia, and count up which body of water has the most watercourses discharging into it. Here's the query that does that: <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/queries/examples#Body_of_water_with_the_most_watercourses_ending_in_it" data-card-appearance="inline" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/queries/examples#Body_of_water_with_the_most_watercourses_ending_in_it</a> </li><li>The EA's Public Registers are used by the group <a href="https://dsposal.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Dsposal</a>, who have developed an online platform to connect waste producers with licensed waste companies.</li><li>The BBC use data from the flood warnings API on their website, used by a huge audience in times of flooding.</li><li>FloodRe users the flood warnings and river monitoring APIs to assess and predict their insurance liabilities</li><li>Geographical area definitions and lookups from the ONS at <a href="http://statistics.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">http://statistics.data.gov.uk</a> can be used to connect environmental data about a place with a range of other government statistical data.</li><li>The 'Scottish Tech Army' (a group of furloughed IT professionals offering their skills for public benefit projects) created a <a href="https://covid19.scottishtecharmy.org/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">dashboard</a> of the Scottish Government’s linked data publishing of Covid statistics</li></ul><img class="confluence-embedded-image image-center" alt="mceclip0.png" width="734" loading="lazy" src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/275877173/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751510101&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2&amp;width=734&amp;height=357" data-image-src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877173/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751510101&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-height="1554" data-width="3194" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-id="275877228" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-default-alias="mceclip0.png" data-base-url="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-linked-resource-container-id="275877173" data-linked-resource-container-version="9" data-media-id="67669573-7a3d-4d15-8414-f97977662008" data-media-type="file" srcset="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/275877173/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751510101&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2&amp;width=1280&amp;height=623 2x, https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/275877173/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751510101&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2&amp;width=734&amp;height=357 1x">To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Bitesize: concrete examples of Linked Data

Created: 21 January 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021<h2 id="Bitesize:howpublishingLinkedDataimprovesdatafindability-Findingdata">Finding data</h2>People usually find data by following a link to it or by searching for it, whether through a web search engine or a more site specific search.Linked data allows assigning URLs not just to datasets, but to specific bits of data within that dataset, making it easy to share pointers to data. It is easier to back up reports or charts by citing the data that supports it.Because everything has a URL, assuming it is publicly accessible on the web, then web search engines like Google, Bing etc are able to index the data and direct users to it. In addition to their mainstream approach of indexing the text on web pages, they are increasingly making use of metadata embedded in web pages to influence search ranking and to enrich how search results are presented. This embedded metadata takes the form of linked data using the <a href="http://schema.org/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">schema.org</a> vocabulary.So, in site-specific searches, it is possible to supplement text based indexes with a more structured search using metadata. Linked data is well suited to linking datasets to standards-based machine readable metadata, helping people find the data they want.<img class="confluence-embedded-image image-center" alt="mceclip0.png" loading="lazy" src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877435/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751512452&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-image-src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877435/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751512452&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-height="530" data-width="1398" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-id="275877478" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-default-alias="mceclip0.png" data-base-url="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-linked-resource-container-id="275877435" data-linked-resource-container-version="7" data-media-id="7312a052-2410-4771-8bfe-587791eabb5c" data-media-type="file">To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Bitesize: how publishing Linked Data improves data findability

Created: 21 January 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021<h2 id="Bitesize:howpublishingLinkedDataimprovesdatause-Usingdata">Using data</h2>People generally want to use data to help them investigate an issue or to inform a decision. In most cases this involves using data from many different sources and the challenge of combining data from different 'data silos' is well known.Several aspects of linked data help with this problem:<ul><li>it makes data accessible through the web</li><li>Its approach to naming conventions make the data easier to join up. Each statistic has its own, globally unique identifier (name). This means that separate datasets can re-use the same identifier when they are talking about the same thing</li><li>data is machine readable and queryable, which helps with automated filtering and processing of large amounts of data</li><li>in linked data, the data model or 'schema' is described in the data itself, making it possible to enrich data by adding in lookups and connections</li></ul><img class="confluence-embedded-image image-center" alt="mceclip0.png" loading="lazy" src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877238/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751510768&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-image-src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877238/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751510768&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-height="1584" data-width="1396" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-id="275877279" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-default-alias="mceclip0.png" data-base-url="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-linked-resource-container-id="275877238" data-linked-resource-container-version="7" data-media-id="ae5ff250-12cc-4429-a5b9-3b9e6a414ae3" data-media-type="file">The linked data representation of information is a very precise one - it enables you, and sometimes requires you, to be explicit about aspects of the data that other approaches might leave implicit or open to interpretation. This makes it excellent for automated processing but requires some extra effort. The process of cleaning and transforming the data often helps expose mistakes or inconsistencies that might otherwise go unnoticed, and so helps improve data quality as a side effect of the data publishing process. To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Bitesize: how publishing Linked Data improves data use

Created: 21 January 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021<h2 id="Bitesize:howpublishingLinkedDataimprovesunderstandingofdata-Understandingdata">Understanding data</h2>Once people find data that might meet their purpose, they need to know where it came from and how it was processed, to help them know if it is applicable to their problem; to understand the level of quality and trustworthiness, and to apply it to their own problem.As well as helping with data discovery, metadata is also important for helping people understand data once they find it. The web based nature of linked data makes it easy to connect data at a fine grained level to definitions, explanations and contextual information. Use of standards is an important element of consistency and predictability in how data is presented, as well as making data more likely to be supported by good software tools. What makes data easy for someone to understand depends greatly on their background and their purpose. Well-structured, documented, machine-readable linked data is a sound starting point for presenting data in many different ways: for example as a CSV download, or a map-based visualisation, or through a web-based explorer. Linked data makes it possible to offer many different views on an authoritative underlying collection of data.The various Environment Agency linked-data-powered apps and explorers are good examples of the ways that data can be made more understandable for users.<img class="confluence-embedded-image image-center" alt="mceclip0.png" loading="lazy" src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877488/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751513004&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-image-src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877488/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751513004&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-height="612" data-width="1390" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-id="275877529" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-default-alias="mceclip0.png" data-base-url="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-linked-resource-container-id="275877488" data-linked-resource-container-version="5" data-media-id="09c7d1f7-f052-4d5e-bedf-6d3723d7f539" data-media-type="file">Linked data is an enabling mechanism for these various views: directly using 'raw' linked data is generally only for specialists carrying out analysis or building more 'friendly' views for broader groups of users. To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Bitesize: how publishing Linked Data improves understanding of data

Created: 21 January 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021<h2 id="Bitesize:whatisLinkedData?-WhatIsLinkedData?">What Is Linked Data?</h2>Linked data is… data you can link to. That’s because it’s built on all the mechanisms of the web, so each thing you want to describe gets a URL that is used both as an identifier for that thing and as an address you can look up to find information about it. Effectively every item in your dataset gets its own web page.<img class="confluence-embedded-image image-center" alt="mceclip0.png" width="442" loading="lazy" src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/275877289/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751511331&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2&amp;width=442&amp;height=88" data-image-src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877289/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751511331&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-height="296" data-width="1478" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-id="275877328" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-default-alias="mceclip0.png" data-base-url="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-linked-resource-container-id="275877289" data-linked-resource-container-version="5" data-media-id="c6541fea-7b8f-4276-989e-0cc4d78ca145" data-media-type="file" srcset="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/275877289/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751511331&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2&amp;width=884&amp;height=176 2x, https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/275877289/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751511331&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2&amp;width=442&amp;height=88 1x">The data formats and protocols of linked data are all W3C standards, offering the possibility for different organisations to make their data available in compatible ways.You can of course link to a whole Excel file or CSV file or Shapefile, without needing linked data, but in that case you are pointing to a whole bucket of data, and you need some other mechanism to be more specific ('open this link then go to row 125, column H'). That's much less standardised and much harder to use in an automated context. Linked data uses the data-modeling specification RDF ('Resource Description Framework') as the underlying way to represent the data. That is a very flexible approach that allows (even requires) you to be very precise about your data and is great for machine processing and data integration. It's not necessarily the easiest thing for most users to work with, but because it is precise, and easy to process in software then it's straightforward to create all kinds of other outputs from it according to what the data is and what users want - web pages, CSV, JSON, Shapefiles, etc. To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Bitesize: what is Linked Data?

Created: 21 January 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021 <h3 id="Bitesize:whatLinkedDatalooksliketechnically-Whatitlooksliketechnically">What it looks like technically</h3>Rather than being stored in a database as a collection of connected tables, rows and columns, linked data is stored in a graph database. A graph database is a much simpler way of storing data, which can be thought of as one big table, consisting of three columns, and as many rows as are needed (often hundreds of millions).Each piece of information is stored as a triple - a statement that consists of an identifier (the subject), a property (the predicate), and a value (the object). As an analogy, it works a bit like grammar: The cat (subject) sat on (predicate) the mat (object), but it's easier to show as a real world example.If we take catchment data explorer as an example, we have a lot of data about water bodies. One of these data items is the overall 2019 classification. In the graph database, this looks like this for one water body:<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="2f459a95-3e34-44dc-9806-0fe64653af2f"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
</pre>
</div></div> For two water bodies, it looks like:<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="d1bc2cd1-c521-4743-9f06-792551a4bc8c"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
Decoy Broad 2019classification Poor
</pre>
</div></div> This principle can be extended, so more water bodies just means more rows (or triples). If a new water body is discovered, or created in the real world, then it's simply a case of adding more triples.As well as creating more water bodies, this way of storing data makes the data model flexible. To add 2020 classification data to the database, we would simple add more triples - no requirement to change the structure of tables.<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="0896b306-5ce9-4d91-a7cd-19e24783ba3d"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
Captain's Pond 2020classification Good
</pre>
</div></div> We have a lot more information about these water bodies, and these can all be represented by more triples:<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="018ba885-889d-4a06-b175-a3f90e3f3c6e"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

Captain's Pond 2019classification Moderate
Captain's Pond meanDepth 1m
Captain's Pond altitude 26m
Captain's Pond waterBodyType Lake
Captain's Pond parentOpCatchment Bure
...
</pre>
</div></div> With thousands of water bodies in England, it's easy to see how the number of triples can get into the millions.From these examples so far, the 'linked' part of linked data hasn't surfaced. Looking at the examples above, we have the subject water body - Captain's Pond. With thousands of water bodies, there's a good chance that two water bodies could have the same name, which as well as being confusing, would cause problems with this data model. To help with this, instead of using the name of the water body as the subject, we use an identifier (a URI). These identifiers are unique within the database, and are consistent - ie wherever we want to attach some data to Captain's Pond, we can use its identifier, which is <code>GB30535397</code>.<div class="code panel pdl conf-macro output-block" style="border-width: 1px;" data-hasbody="true" data-macro-name="code" data-macro-id="6255545b-cb57-4736-95fe-599fa8252d44"><div class="codeContent panelContent pdl">
<pre class="syntaxhighlighter-pre" data-syntaxhighlighter-params="brush: java; gutter: false; theme: Confluence" data-theme="Confluence">subject predicate object

GB30535397 label Captain's Pond
GB30535397 2019classification Moderate
GB30535397 meanDepth 1m
GB30535397 altitude 26m
GB30535397 waterBodyType Lake
GB30535397 parentOpCatchment Bure
...
</pre>
</div></div> But this still isn't linked. Because actually, we don't just use the identifier on its own - we use a URL as the identifier. In the case of Captain's Pond on Catchment Explorer, this is <code>https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/WaterBody/GB30535397</code>. This has several benefits:<ul><li>the identifier is globally unique - we know exactly what it is that we are talking about when use that identifier.</li><li>we can create a page on the internet that holds the information that we know about this water body (you can click the link to see this in practice).</li><li>other people and applications can link to this water body. This could be from a report produced within the Environment Agency, it could be an article about the water body on a local news website, or it could be referenced from a separate dataset in another service, such as Flood Plan Explorer</li></ul>Wherever possible, data points within the dataset use URLs as their identifiers - in the example above - the classification, the water body type and the operational catchment that the water body is within would all be stored as URLs, each with their own page where you can find out more information, such as what 'Moderate' actually means, the definition of a 'Lake', or which other water bodies are in the same Operational Catchment area. This web of data has the potential to be extremely powerful, allowing people to explore, discover and use all the information in the dataset. To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Bitesize: what Linked Data looks like technically

Created: 21 January 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021<h2 id="Bitesize:whypublishLinkedData?-Whydoyoudoit?">Why do you do it?</h2>For most organisations the reason for making data available is to help people find, understand and use it.There are many ways to achieve those goals and an overall data strategy will combine a number of approaches, but linked data has an important contribution to make to those three pillars of making data useful.The World Wide Web Consortium has put together the <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Data on the Web Best Practices</a> and the <a href="http://w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Spatial Data on the Web Best Practices</a>, giving guidance and recommendations on how to make use of the web to disseminate data. Effective use of linked data is well suited to implementation of those best practices.It is also a good match to the recently released UK <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-data-strategy" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">National Data Strategy</a>. Linked data directly addresses the 'Data Foundations' element of this strategy, which states:“The true value of data can only be fully realised when it is fit for purpose, recorded in standardised formats on modern, future-proof systems and held in a condition that means it is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. By improving the quality of the data, we can use it more effectively and drive better insights and outcomes from its use.”<img class="confluence-embedded-image image-center" alt="mceclip0.png" loading="lazy" src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877380/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751511948&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-image-src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/275877380/mceclip0.png?version=1&amp;modificationDate=1714751511948&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-height="156" data-width="1284" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-id="275877425" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-default-alias="mceclip0.png" data-base-url="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-linked-resource-container-id="275877380" data-linked-resource-container-version="7" data-media-id="bd874adb-a9ac-4d1d-9162-4c5c7f617866" data-media-type="file">It also addresses the third priority ‘mission’ in the government’s strategy: “[...] the government (will drive) major improvements in the way information is efficiently managed, used and shared across government. To succeed, we need a whole-government approach that ensures alignment around the best practice and standards needed to drive value and insights from data; and the creation of an appropriately safeguarded, joined-up and interoperable data infrastructure to support this”To explore Defra's linked data, go to go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Bitesize: why publish Linked Data?

Created: 08 December 2020 Updated: 10 August 2023 <div class="table-wrap"><table data-table-width="760" data-layout="default" data-local-id="236d12a4-5bb0-49d2-aa75-f1f28ab8c439" class="confluenceTable"><colgroup><col style="width: 150.0px;"/><col style="width: 608.0px;"/></colgroup><tbody><tr><td class="confluenceTd">API</td><td class="confluenceTd">API is short for Application Programming Interface.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Application Programming Interface</td><td class="confluenceTd">An application programming interface is a set of rules and helpers that make it easier for developers to access data held in databases. The maintainer of a database will create APIs so that an external developer does not need to understand the full structure of the database, or the data contained within, in order to build applications that make use of the data.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Data cube</td><td class="confluenceTd">A data cube is a common structure for representing statistical data. The different ways of categorising the data (by location, time, or whatever other variables) are referred to as dimensions. If you had three such dimensions you could imagine representing the data as a cube, with one statistical dimension matched against each side of the cube. Though this is just an analogy and in practice a 'data cube' can have any number of dimensions. Different two-dimensional 'slices' through the cube can be presented as tables. Filtering and other such affordances help users to get to the data that they want.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Data Services Platform</td><td class="confluenceTd">The Data Services Platform (DSP) has been set up by the Defra group to make environmental data available to a wide range of users. The platform provides access to datasets, data services, and other information, in ways that are easy to use, both by themselves, and by other people and organisations</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Dimension</td><td class="confluenceTd">A dimension is one of the component parts of a statistical dataset, and helps to describe an individual observation. Dimensions can be thought of as columns in a spreadsheet, and are often things like Time Periods, Geographical Areas, and Measurement Types.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">DSP</td><td class="confluenceTd">DSP is short for the Data Services Platform.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Graph database</td><td class="confluenceTd">A graph database is a type of database where there is no hierarchy - all data is stored as a series of nodes and edges (links between nodes). Typically each node of the graph represents a thing or the value of a property, and each edge represents a property - a particular type of relationship between the two nodes that it joins. This makes it easier to query the database based on relationships and it makes for a very flexible data structure that is easy to alter or extend. Graph databases are very useful for storing datasets that are complex with lots of connections.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Identifier</td><td class="confluenceTd">An identifier is a string of characters which can help an application or person uniquely identify a resource in a dataset. This is often abbreviated to ID. It is helpful to use identifiers when communicating information about a thing (such as a town) rather than its name, as there may be more than one town with (for example) the name Newport, but they will have different identifiers.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Linked Data</td><td class="confluenceTd">Linked data is data you can link to. Linked data is built on the mechanisms of the web, so each piece of data gets a URL that is used both as an identifier for that piece of data and as an address you can look up to find information about it. This makes principle makes it easier for computers to access the data programmatically.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Machine-readable</td><td class="confluenceTd">If a dataset is machine-readable, then this means that a developer can write a computer script or program to get, process, analyse and/or visualise data. This could be done from R (a popular statistical programming language), Python (a popular programming language), or some other way. The benefits of this are that once the script is created, it can be scheduled to run every day (for example). A good example of this is the floods service, where data is used by the BBC to provide access to up-to-date flood information on their website, something that wouldn't be possible if a human had to update the data manually.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Metadata</td><td class="confluenceTd">Metadata is data that helps to explain a dataset. This may be the publisher of the data, the date it was published, or any licences associated with the data. In linked data, the metadata is published as part of the dataset, ensuring people who are using the data have access to the information about the data.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">RDF</td><td class="confluenceTd">RDF is short for Resource Description Framework. This is the data model that underpins linked data. RDF was adopted as a World Wide Web Consortium recommendation in 1999. Often used to talk about linked data - &quot;let's have a look at the RDF&quot; would mean to examine the raw linked data in a database.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Reference data</td><td class="confluenceTd">Reference data describes a type of data that helps to describe other data. A dataset such as Local Authorities is a reference dataset that is used to locate resources in a particular area. Because these local authorities should be consistent across different datasets, using a single, controlled list ensures interoperability between datasets, and a single point where changes can be made (for example to add new local authorities). Other types of reference data include codelists, such as exemption types in the registers dataset, or chemicals.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Slice</td><td class="confluenceTd">A slice is a particular filtered view of a datacube, where one or more dimensions is fixed. For example, limiting the dataset to show only data from 2019, and/or a particular river basin and/or a particular species of fish.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">SPARQL</td><td class="confluenceTd">SPARQL is short for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language. It is used for querying data in RDF format, in a similar way that SQL is used to query relational databases. SPARQL is a standard created and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. SPARQL is useful for getting data out of linked databases as an alternative to a more specific API.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Tidy data</td><td class="confluenceTd">Tidy data is the principle of representing a statistical dataset in a one-row-per-observation form. This means that each value in a dataset exists in its own row, with other columns being the dimensions that describe that data item. An example of this would be a dataset of river sensor data, where each row is one measurement, with other columns being the date/time of the measurement, the location, and the measurement type, such as height, or flow. Tidy data makes it very easy for developers and analysts to use the data, by filtering down to the slice of data required.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Triple Store</td><td class="confluenceTd">A triple store is a type of database used to store linked data. It is a particular kind of Graph Database, designed for use with data in RDF format. There are two triple store products in use across the DSP - Stardog, and Fuseki.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">Turtle</td><td class="confluenceTd">Turtle is one of several standardised text-based formats for representing RDF data. Files in this format are usually given the extension .ttl</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">URI</td><td class="confluenceTd">URI is short for Uniform Resource Identifier. This is a series of characters that can be used to refer to an abstract or physical resource. The characters must follow specific rules, defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force. HTTP URLs, as used for web site addresses, are one kind of URI. In Linked Data, each thing ('resource') being described is identified using a URL, which can also serve as the address of a webpage that provides more information about that resource. An example of this is the water body Captain's Pond, which has this URI: https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/WaterBody/GB30535397. Clicking the link provides more information about the water body, including a map.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">URL</td><td class="confluenceTd">URL is short for Uniform Resource Locator. Usually (though not always) this takes the form of http(s), and is more commonly known as a web address, which is a link to a webpage.</td></tr><tr><td class="confluenceTd">User Research</td><td class="confluenceTd">User research is an important part of the development and review of applications or datasets. Conducting user research ensures that requirements are based on user needs, and help with setting out the roadmap of a project. User research often takes the form of a combination of interviews, group workshops and observed sessions. Outputs are often recommendations, roadmaps, user journeys and wireframes.</td></tr></tbody></table></div>To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a> <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

Glossary of Linked Data

Created: 04 February 2021 Updated: 02 March 2021Linked data is a good choice for managing a large and varied collection of data, because of the way it helps make connections between separate but related data.In most organisations data tends to be in 'silos', each based around a topic or business area, and it is a common challenge to combine and compare data from different places.Linked Data uses web-style URIs as identifiers for the things of interest in the data (things like places, or species of fish, or measurement sites, or one particular observation of rainfall, or a classification of flood defence assets etc) and that enables the identifier to be globally unique. If two different systems hold information about the same thing, then they can use the same identifier for it, without risk of clashes or misinterpretation.For example, the Environment Agency's Asset Management linked data application uses identifiers like <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/asset-management/id/asset/24285" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">https://environment.data.gov.uk/asset-management/id/asset/24285</a> for assets. If you saw just '24285' in isolation, you wouldn't know what it meant without some extra explanation of the context. Two different applications might use '24285' to refer to different things, but the full URI should only ever refer to one specific thing. A key part of the Linked Data approach is that you can directly look up the identifier on the web to find out more about it. So if you put <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/asset-management/id/asset/24285" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">https://environment.data.gov.uk/asset-management/id/asset/24285</a> in your web browser, you get a web page with information to explain what it is. You can then see that it refers to an embankment, and find various bits of information about it. An obligation of a linked data service provider is to support looking up identifiers in this way.If you create an identifier in a web domain that you control, then you are in charge of the official definition of what it means. Others can use it if they want, but you get to define what it refers to. Another aspect of the Linked Data approach is to make use of a standard feature of the web called 'content negotiation', which means that you can provide information about a thing in various different formats and users of the data can choose which one of those is best suited to them. One of the measuring stations used by the Floods API has the identifier <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/stations/1491TH" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/stations/1491TH</a>. By default you get a JSON format description of it when you look it up, but that JSON response also lists some other formats you can have instead, for example <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/stations/1491TH.html" data-card-appearance="inline" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/stations/1491TH.html</a> to get a formatted web page about it. A programmer can specify in the header of their web request which format they want to receive. You can choose what information you want to supply in the different descriptions of a thing of interest - in this case the web page includes a map that shows where the station is, as well as the most recent water level reading and other relevant details. Directly looking up an identifer is not the only way you can provide information about it - you might have other custom applications that provide different views. For flood assets, there is a map based application that lets you explore all of the flood defence assets. In that application you can view data about our example embankment at <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/asset-management/index.html?element=http%3A%2F%2Fenvironment.data.gov.uk%2Fasset-management%2Fid%2Fasset%2F24285" data-card-appearance="inline" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">https://environment.data.gov.uk/asset-management/index.html?element=http%3A%2F%2Fenvironment.data.gov.uk%2Fasset-management%2Fid%2Fasset%2F24285</a> where you get a map showing where it is, alongside other nearby assets, plus a summary of its properties. The PublishMyData platform provides a range of views of data, in addition to supporting direct lookups of an identifier.The ability to look up the definition of a linked data identifier is a useful way to help users find metadata, for example definitions of terms used in representing data. Related information can be found just by following the links, as you would on a web page.Linked data is particularly useful as a way of managing and disseminating reference data, that is lists of definitions of common items of interest (whether real world things, or a way of classifying data) that other datasets often refer to. Geographical data is a common example: local authority districts or parliamentary constituencies are used in many different Environment Agency datasets as a property of something. For example that example asset is in the constituency with identifier <a href="http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/doc/7000000000024900" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/doc/7000000000024900</a>. If you look that up, then the Ordnance Survey provide information about what the constituency is called and where it is.One aspect of reference data is re-using authoritative data managed by other people, whether that's an external organisation like the Ordnance Survey, or another part of the Environment Agency. This reduces effort by building on work already done by others and also reduces the risk of data being out of date.Systematic use of authoritative identifiers in reference data also helps with combining data across data silos. For example, if two different data collections both include that constituency identifier as a property, then it becomes easy to combine different types of data about that constituency (or catchment, or stretch of river network).Finally, the linked data approach (in common with other kinds of databases) enables data to be delivered in standard machine readable formats that are good for processing in software, so helping users to analyse, process or visualise software. It is relatively easy to extract various subsets of data, transform them to JSON or CSV or GML or whatever format is most convenient for a user and deliver the data through an API or download.To explore Defra's linked data, go to <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Defra Data Services Platform</a>. For enquiries about the data, please <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/question" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Ask a Question</a>, <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/problem" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Report a Problem</a> or <a href="https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/feedback" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">Give Feedback</a>.

The benefits of publishing data as Linked Data

Created: 15 December 2020 Updated: 10 February 2021In this audio track, recorded for Defra and the Environment Agency, Sarah Roberts and Jamie Whyte explore what linked data really means, how it can have an impact on data use and where you can find it right now. Length: 20 minutes 30 seconds. Download the audio file here to listen to it in a media player:<a class="confluence-embedded-file" href="/wiki/download/attachments/275877038/what_is_linked_data_podcast_c.mp3?version=2&amp;modificationDate=1720104492044&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-nice-type="Multimedia" data-file-src="/wiki/download/attachments/275877038/what_is_linked_data_podcast_c.mp3?version=2&amp;modificationDate=1720104492044&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2" data-linked-resource-id="275877069" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-linked-resource-container-id="275877038" data-linked-resource-default-alias="what_is_linked_data_podcast_c.mp3" data-mime-type="audio/mpeg" data-has-thumbnail="true" data-linked-resource-version="2" data-media-id="4e027573-8a0a-4150-afe3-2932bf74668f" data-media-type="file"><img src="https://dsp-support.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/275877038/what_is_linked_data_podcast_c.mp3?version=2&amp;modificationDate=1720104492044&amp;cacheVersion=1&amp;api=v2&amp;viewType=fileMacro" height="250" /></a>

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Bitesize: how publishing Linked Data improves understanding of data

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