An Interactive, Spatial Inventory of Environmental Data in the Mid-Atlantic Region

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with federal, state, local, and non-governmental partners to produce an interactive, spatial inventory of environmental data in the mid-Atlantic region. The inventory will include maps of sampling locations, lists of measurements, and design information for hundreds of research sites and monitoring programs. It will also feature user-defined queries, resulting in customized maps that satisfy search criteria. (For example, "Display the probability-based surveys that measure dry deposition and nutrient availability in soils"). The inventory will be used in an interagency pilot study, instigated by the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, to integrate environmental monitoring and research activities. The inventory will also provide information for a regional ecological assessment led by EPA Region 3 and the Office of Research and Development. In addition, an interagency consortium will use the inventory to identify suitable field data for assessing the accuracy of satellite imagery. In each of these three applications, the inventory will be tested and evaluated as a potential prototype for completing additional regions of the U.S. Maintained as an Oracle database, the inventory is accessible on the internet at http://www.epa.gov/monitor/. Currently, ten inventory records are on-line for demonstration. The complete federal inventory of approximately 180 records will be accessible on-line by October, 1997; approximately 200 state, local and non-governmental records are scheduled for on-line access by April, 1998.