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ONRC Research 1999

Title:
A Clearinghouse for GIS data on the Olympic Peninsula

Principal investigator(s); affiliations(s):
Dr. David L. Peterson; University of Washington
Dr. Nicholas R. Chrisman; University of Washington
Dr. Edward G. Schreiner; USGS

Award:
$44,700

Project description:
Managing natural resources at large spatial scales, particularly across political and land ownership boundaries, is one of the greatest challenges of ecosystem management. For any specific biogeographic region, it is valuable to have a repository of georeferenced data on natural resources that can be accessed by both governmental and non-governmental organizations. A GIS clearinghouse is needed for large-scale resource management and analysis on the Olympic Peninsula. This project will deliver a comprehensive database of metadata (data about data, or descriptions of datasets) for geo-referenced information to the Olympic Natural Resources Center that will be maintained by the ONRC GIS lab. This database will be designed to be easily accessible and easily understood by all users and clients who contact ONRC. In addition, the project will develop a World Wide Web site for ONRC that will provide access to the database and contain “pointers” for databases at various agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Protocols will be established for maintaining and updating metadata contributed to the database, and training will be provided to database users and cooperators. The data clearinghouse will be a single, easy-access point through which land managers, scientists, decision makers and citizens of the Olympic Peninsula can preview and acquire geographic information on natural resources.

Project deliverable(s):
The Olympic Peninsula Clearinghouse is now a fully operational node of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and National Biological Information Infrastructure, and has strong regional support from agencies and nongovernmental organizations.