Environment:
Ecoinformatics - Track A
8:30 - 8:40, Welcome, Introduction to track
William Sonntag
Chief of Staff for the Assistant Administrator, Office of Environmental
Information & CIO
Environmental Protection Agency
Ramona Trovato
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator
Office of Environmental Information,
EPA is cooperating with
environmental organizations and agencies at all levels--local, tribal, state,
national, and international-- to foster the development of ecoinformatics. The Ecological Informatics Track will
demonstrate many of the techniques and technologies that EPA is developing in
cooperation with other organizations. This has global benefits for the
environment and helps to initiate a marketplace for environmental information
technologies.
Gordon McInnes, Interim Executive
Director
European Environment Agency
The EEA aims to support
sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable
improvement in
Break
Associate Chief
Biologist for Information
Ecoinformatics supports natural resource management, landuse planning and the
protection of our ecosystems. Efficient informatics work is based on
standards and sharedterminologies, which promote interoperability, information
sharing, andintegration. The challenges andbenefits of ecoinformatics and
the importance of information sharing at thenational level are highlighted
using the experiences of the U.S. NationalBiological Information
Infrastructure.
Global cooperation is important for all nations and geographic areas. Environmental actions have global effects. Environmental information systems must address the wide range of capabilities needed around the globe.
Lunch
2:00 - 2:45 PM, Environmental Data Standards
Council--Charter and priorities
Mark Luttner
Director, Office of Information Collection
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Tom Lamberson (cancelled)
Deputy Director,
Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality
States, Indian
tribes and EPA have formed the EDSC to develop data standards for environmental
information that is exchanged and shared between all levels of government. This
presentation describes the organization, charter, policies and priorities of
the EDSC. This presentation will also describe the major features of the
National Environmental Information Exchange Network.
2:45 - 3:30 PM, Interagency/International Cooperation on
Ecoinformatics
William Sonntag
Environmental Protection Agency
This provides an
overview of cooperative efforts between states, EPA, the European Environment
Agency, and other agencies to work on IT projects. These include development of
environmental indicators and the IT systems needed to support them, development
and demonstration of an XML based information exchange network, IT R & D
projects and other multi-agency efforts. These involve developing and testing
the technology as well as the organizational management functions. The
technologies involve ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries, XML registries, and
other registries that are the focus of this Open Forum.
3:30 - 4:00
Break
4:00-
Managing Data
Semantics throughout the Information Flow - Linking the Registries
Environmental
Protection Agency
Science
Applications International Company
The need to manage organizational
metadata has spawned a number of consortia, national and international
standards that guide the design and development of registries. This presentation will address the
commonalities and differences between the registries and provide an example of
how the Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of implementing a
metadata strategy to link its various metadata resources across the enterprise.
Different interfaces to an integrated ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry will be
shown, including the Environmental Data Registry, the Substance Registry
System, and the Terminology Reference System.
The presentation will show how data element metadata in the EDR can be
downloaded for use in CASE tools to be used to generate schemas during system
design. The Agency's application
inventory, the Information Resources Registry System (IRRS) will be
demonstrated, and described as the link to other metadata registries, including
the Environmental Information Management System (based upon ISO 19115). Future
plans to fill in the gaps in the metadata architecture with an XML registry
(based on OASIS/ebXML) will be described.
The presentation will also show how these various information resources
can be registered in a UDDI registry to promote discovery and reuse of standards.
DAY 4 -
Link to Track Descriptions
Environment:
Ecoinformatics - Track A
8:30 -
9:15 AM, Blueprint for the Environmental Information Exchange Network
Renee
Martinez
Chief
Information Officer, New Mexico Environment Department
The Environmental Information Exchange Network (Exchange
Network) was developed in partnership between leaders in
State environmental departments and the U.S. EPA to address the
current ineffective and overly burdensome methods of exchanging quality
data. The presentation will highlight the drivers for the Exchange
Network and will describe the Blueprint that was developed as the conceptual
model for a new way of exchanging environmental information between partners
over the internet.
European Environment
Agency
This presentation discusses strategies for obtaining
environmental information when and as it is needed, i.e., Just-In-Time
Information. Policy makers are often overwhelmed by too much information or
they are unable to obtain and process the information they want, when they need
it. This can undermine good decision making and lead to unnecessary environment
degradation, impacts on human health and the economy. A June 2002 Harvard
Business Review article describes the information overload problem as faced by
doctors and some experiences and approaches being used to tackle the issue. The
relevance of these cutting-edge experiences to environment will be explored and
related to efforts in
Break
10:30 -
Joe Retzer
State environmental agencies, Indian tribes, and EPA are working
together to create an XML based network for exchanging data. The Network will
provide the basis for a Central Data Exchange that will simplify reporting to
EPA. It will also facilitate states and Indian tribes exchanging information
among themselves. The Network will involve the operation of nodes on the
Internet that exchange data through use of XML. This presentation covers the
operation and administration of the network nodes.
Michael Pendleton
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
To collect useful data, there is a need for data standards, XML design
guidelines and XML namespace management. Several registries are needed:
In addition, there is a need for XML design guidelines, data
standards, procedures for managing XML namespaces, and procedures for managing
and operating the registries. This presentation covers strategies for
developing the technologies and for developing the policies and procedures
needed for the Network.
Noon - 2 PM
Lunch
2:00 - 2:45 PM,
Environmental Data Standards Council Action Teams
Mary Blakeslee
Environmental Council
of the States
ECOS and EPA are working together to develop data standards for exchanging environmental data. EDSC Action Teams work on the data standards. In the process Action Team members look at terminology in the Terminology Reference System, compare existing application data elements in the Environmental Data Registry, and review the systems and data exchanges where the data may be used. Future work will include interaction with the XML registry as the data is used in XML Schemas. This presentation describes the organization, work and accomplishments of the EDSC.
European Commission,
Joint Research Centre Ispra
Environmental Data Exchange Network - Inland Waters
(EDEN-IW) is a research and demonstration project, funded by the European Union
Fifth Framework, showing how agent-based systems can utilize ontology based
queries to access data that is dispersed on systems that are heterogeneous
everything (platforms, networks, operating systems, data base management
systems, etc.). This presentation describes the progress and demonstrates the
capabilities for inland water databases that are dispersed throughout
Break
Session Title:
Technologies for Making Data Accessible- European and Worldwide
This session covers a wide range of techniques and technologies for accessing and disseminating data. They range from research and development efforts to global operational systems. The two presentations cover key efforts to develop an infrastructure for information exchange. This session is open-ended, in case people want to remain to see extended demonstrations.
Stefan Jensen
European Environment Agency
The European Environment Agency collects and shares data
with all of the European Union countries and also countries wishing to join the
European Union. This presentation describes the strategy behind the new
information infrastructure, it's key principles and components and the current
status of developments.
Jaanus Heinlaid
TietoEnator
Thi presentation describes in detail the available
registries and the technical approach taken to implement them. These
registries are harvesting metadata based on the Dublin Core metadata element
set, making intensive use of XML and RDF. Other registries contain data
definitions based on ISO11179 and store XML schemas and agreed lists to
harmonise data exchange in the European Environment Observation and Information
Network (EIONET).
DAY 5 -
Link to Track Descriptions
Environment:
Ecoinformatics - Track A
Dr. Fred Kruse,
Koordinierungsstelle Umweltdatenkatalog (UDK)
The Environmental Data Catalog
(UDK = Umweltdatenkatalog (German)) is a system introduced in
Molly O'Neill
State Director,
Network Steering Board
The Environmental Information Exchange Network (Exchange Network) is the new approach for exchanging environmental information between partners over a secure internet. This presentation will describe the governance or management structure of the Exchange Network as well as the approach to implementation and the current progress.
Break
Harvey Simon
Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 2
http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/proc02/pap0258/p0258.htm
In the aftermath of the September
11
TBA
End of Open Forum
2003