Finding the Forest in the Trees

During the last few decades of the 20th century, the development of an array of technologies has made it possible to observe the Earth, collect large quantities of data related to components and processes of the Earth system, and store, analyze, and retrieve these data at will. Over the past ten years, in particular, the observational, computational, and communications technologies have enabled the scientific community to undertake a broad range of interdisciplinary environmental research and assessment programs. Sound practice in database management are required to deal with the problems of complexity in such programs and a great deal of attention and resources has been devoted to this area in recent years. However, little guidance has been provided on overcoming the barriers frequently encountered in the interfacing of disparate data sets. This book attempts to remedy that problem by providing analytical and functional guidelines to help researchers and technicians to better plan and implement their supporting data management activities. Table of Contents Front Matter Executive Summary 1 Introduction 2 Impact Assessment Project for Drought Early Warning in the Sahel 3 The National Acid Preciptation Assessment Program 4 The H.J. Andrew Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Site 5 The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center 6 The First ISLSCP Field Experiment 7 The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigation 8 Interfacing Diverse Environmental Data-Issues and Recommendations Appendixes Appendix A: Case Study Evaluation Criteria Appendix B: List of Abbreviations and Acronyms