The Environmental Data Science Toolbox is designed to make methods easy to discover, understand, and reuse. This page gives a practical guide to navigating the book and using each method notebook effectively.
Navigating the Book¶
Use the left-hand table of contents to move between project pages and method notebooks.
Open the Methods Table of Contents if you want a quick overview of available methods, key concepts, and datasets.
Use the site search to find notebooks, keywords, or specific concepts across the toolbox.
Using a Method Notebook¶
Most method pages begin with a short summary and metadata that help you decide if the notebook is suitable for your use case.
Read the opening Challenge and Method summary to understand scope and intended use.
Review the notebook metadata (authors, DOI, links, and funding) for provenance and citation context.
Use dropdown sections to quickly access details such as runtime guidance, assumptions, data scope, and caveats.
Key Buttons and Links¶
At the top of method notebooks, you will typically find links such as:
Notebook Repository: points to the code repository hosting that notebook.
Method Repository: points to the package or broader method implementation when this is separate.
DOI links: point to the citable archived version (for example, Zenodo).
Use these links to access full source code, issue trackers, release snapshots, and citation metadata.
Running Notebooks Locally¶
Future versions of the Data Science Toolbox will support direct execution from the published site using Jupyter Book v2’s interactive execution functionality. This has been scoped and is coming soon!
For now, you can perform local execution in your preferred IDE (for example, VS Code or JupyterLab).
Open the notebook repository using the Notebook Repository link.
Clone the repository to your machine.
Create the environment using the environment file provided in that repository (for example, a clean or complete environment specification).
Run the notebook from top to bottom.
Where methods are computationally demanding, some notebooks may provide pre-generated outputs or guidance on reduced example workflows.
Reuse and Adaptation¶
These notebooks are examples of transferable workflows rather than fixed pipelines.
Reuse code blocks and analytical patterns with your own data.
Keep attribution and citation information when adapting methods.
Check assumptions and data constraints before applying a workflow to a new domain.
Citation and Attribution¶
To cite the toolbox as a whole, use the guidance on How to Cite.
To cite a specific method notebook, use the repository link shown in that notebook and the repository’s citation information.
Feedback and Community Input¶
If you spot issues, have improvement ideas, or want to suggest additional methods, please contribute via the project’s discussion and contribution routes: