This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 640276.
Maturity Matrix Assessment
Maturity Matrix Assessments (MMA), are tools developed within GAIA-CLIM to assess various quantifiable facets of the maturity of a measurement system or network of measurement systems. They represent a semi-quantitative classification of certain non-satellite Earth Observation capabilities concentrating upon a subset of Essential Climate Variables. Its use is primarily to assign networks into relevant use-categories using three tiers of measurement capabilities as articulated in deliverable D1.3. GAIA-CLIM maturity matrices results are summarised in deliverables D1.6 and D1.7 .
GAIA-CLIM maturity assessments have been built based upon the approach to assess Climate Data Records (CDR) undertaken by CORE-CLIMAX FP7 project which itself builds upon pioneering efforts at NOAA NCEI. However, there are important distinctions between measurements (GAIA-CLIM) and derived products (CORE-CLIMAX) which necessitate similar but non-identical assessments. There are seven major strands to GAIA-CLIM MMA as shown in the image for NDACC below:
- Metadata
- Documentation
- Uncertainty characterisation
- Public access, feedback, and update
- Usage
- Sustainability
- Software
Each strand has two or more sub-categories. Guidance for completion of an assessment is available in D1.3.
The MMA can be used both to aid user decision making as to which measurement series are suitable for particular use cases and aid measurement system owners in improving the maturity of their measurements. Within GAIA-CLIM assessment the maturity has been assessed at the network level and thus scores are representative of the level of maturity of each network and not individual sites
It is important to stress that this constitutes the first attempt at systematically and consistently assessing the maturity of the networks outlined in the full table of assessed networks shown below. To assess sensitivity several experts were solicited to independently assess certain networks for which they had in-depth knowledge and this assessment suggested assessor-to-assessor uncertainty no smaller than 1 - score level ( out of six) in any case and for some categories much broader. Given this, although the intention of GAIA-CLIM through this assessment is to support users' decision making in evaluating the suitability of a given network for specific tasks, they should not at this stage represent the primary or sole decision-making tool. Further development, consultation and experience is undoubtedly still required to refine the guidance, assessment process and tools to better support direct decision-making.
The image above shows an example of maturity matrix assessing NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change). To access each maturity matrix , click on the name of the network on the table below that includes all assessed networks . The full set of assessment results for all assessed networks is given in a cumulative table here
Table . Full list of networks assessed for which maturity matrices are available , the list above notes ECV and measurement type for each network.