Database Design for Environmental Sustainability

The importance of learning how to manage a database becomes more evident as the course advances.  Databases are a really powerful tool and can be associated with basically any field that has to manage and analyze data. Throughout the course we built up skills on basic database management:

1.     Language: It is important to familiarize with the database language and different terms in order to manage databases. In the following table you can find some of the most basic terms and concepts in database language.

2.  UML Diagrams: UML diagrams allow us to map out the tables and relationships of the database. It allows us to create a logical design that will be transferred in to a database management system.

3.     Establishing Relationships between entities: When we have our entities identified it is necessary to establish the multiple associations we will have in our database. This process is done when designing the UML diagram. We  can also establish business rules that will determine the cardinality of the relationships.

4.     Queries: Queries are a good tool that will   allow us to create commands to search for specific information within our database.

5.     Forms: A form is an excellent feature to allow clients to browse and filter the data easily. It  also allows you to restrict the access to manage the information to protect the data integrity.

6.     Reports: A report display a summary of a query in an easy way to understand. This can be useful when presenting the information to a client or person not familiar with database management forms or queries.

For further development of a database many other advanced features can be implemented. I would be interested in learning a bit more about basic programming to be able to make the search box and drop box feature interactive with the queries.