Using the Okavango Basin Information System (OBIS)

The Okavango Basin Information System (OBIS) is a web-based data management and dissemination platform that is being developed within the research project The Future Okavango (TFO) (see also http://www.future-okavango.org). This tutorial aims at giving OBIS users an overview of general features and describes how to use them in a step-by-step fashion.

Software requirements

In order to access and use OBIS, only a current web browser is needed. OBIS primarily tested using recent versions of the Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, and Google Chrome web browsers. As some of the OBIS user interfaces are best displayed on screens with resolutions of 1200x800 pixels and above, web browsers running on smartphones might not be suited.

Tutorial outline

This tutorial is divided into the following parts covering different components and functionalities:

• Getting started: login procedure and user interfaces
• User interface concepts
• Browsing data:
  • Geodata
  • Time series data
  • Study sites and observations, river systems and stations
  • Scenario
  • Indicator
• Adding and modifying data
  • Geodata
  • Time series data
• User permission management