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Integration of Environmental Information and Indicators

Brand Niemann, US EPAThe Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable

January 25-26, 2007Updated December 17, 2007

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Abstract• There have been a number of efforts to integrate

environmental information and indicators during the past 20 years or so. The author has been involved in at least eight of those efforts and now has integrated examples from all of those into the re-design of the Sustainable Development Indicators Web Site which has enjoyed sustained popularity with search engines over the years.– “Create a Web-based directory of the many

sustainability efforts at the national, regional, and local levels to foster communication and networking among these efforts.” Appendix 3. Other Issues. National Report on Sustainable Forests—2003 (National Report) Page 151 of 152!

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Overview

• 1. History and Evolution: Slides 4-7• 2. Acronyms and Abbreviations: Slide 8• 3. Examples: Slides: 9-33• 4. Some Next Steps: Slide 34• 5. Updates: Slides 35 - 42

– 2007 Report on the Environment Knowledgebase– November 15-16, 2007, Sustainable Water

Resources Roundtable, Supported by Web 2.0.

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1. History and Evolution

Date Name Feature URL1993 to 2002 GES Hyperlinks to

Graphics & Tables Before the Web

Infobase (1989-1994) & EPA (2002)

1994-1998 OLR/S&T State of the Environment on Both CD-ROM and Web (Author-Once)

Infobase 1995

1998 and 2001 SDI/IE Searchable Web Site of Structured Reports

http://www.sdi.gov

1998-present DL SOE/FedStats Same as Above http://www.sdi.gov

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1. History and Evolution

Date Name Feature URL2004-present Heinz/GAO/

EPA/KNIIInitial Ontology of Indicators

http://web-services.gov

2004-present NICS/NARC/

SHEN

National-to-local for Semantic Interoperability

http://www.sdi.gov

2005-present DRM 2.0/

Semantic Wiki

FEA Compliance & the Writable Web

http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?EPAIndicatorDataforDRM2

2004-present CEQ Integrate the Roundtables

http://www.sdi.gov

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1. History and EvolutionDate Name Classification Specifics1993 to 2002 GES Statistical

Programs within Agencies

Programs: About 60

Agencies: About 6

1994-1998 OLR/S&T Subject Matter Experts and Editors

Species, Ecosystems, Ecoregions, and Special Issues.

Factors and Regional Trends.

1998 and 2001 SDI/IE 400 candidate down to 40 indicators in three categories

Economic, Environmental, and Social

1998-present DL SOE/FedStats Geography World, Country, US, Regional, & Local

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1. History and Evolution

Date Name Classification Specifics2004-present Heinz/GAO/

EPA/KNIIOntology with Instances

Topics, Organizations, and Jurisdictions

2004-present NICS/NARC/

SHEN

Time Series and Maps (Data Stories)

Jacksonville, FL, and Boston, MA

2005-present DRM 2.0/

Semantic Wiki

SWRR and other Water Indicators

EPA ROE2007 & USGS NAWQA

2004-present CEQ Four Roundtables and CEQ Leadership

Sustainable Forests, Rangelands, Minerals, and Water Resources

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2. Acronyms and Abbreviations• GES: Guide to Selected National Environmental Statistics in the U.S.

Government (US EPA).• OLR/S&T: Our Living Resources and Status and Trends (Department of the

Interior/USGS National Biological Survey/Biological Resources Division.• SDI/IE: Sustainable Development Indicators (Interagency Working Group)

and Industrial Ecology (Interagency Working Group).• DL SOE/ FedStats: Digital Library of the State of the Environment and

Federal Statistics.• Heinz/GAO/EPA/KNII: Heinz Center, Government Accountability

Office//United States Environmental Protection Agency/ Key National Indicators Initiative.

• NICS: National Infrastructure for Community Statistics.• DRM 2.0/Semantic Wiki: FEA Data Reference Model Version 2.0/Writable

Web Site That Supports Work with the Meaning of Words.• CEQ: Whitehouse Council on Environmental Quality.• FEA: Federal Enterprise Architecture.• SWRR: Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable.• EPA ROE2007: US EPA Report on the Environment 2007.• USGS NAWQA: United States Geological Survey National Water Quality

Assessment.

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3. Examples

• 3a. Federal and Global Environmental Statistics• 3b. Biological Resources• 3c. Sustainable Development Indicators and

Industrial Ecology• 3d. Digital Library (State of the Environment and

Federal Statistics)• 3e. Indicators• 3f. Community Programs• 3g. Semantic Interoperability• 3h. CEQ Roundtables

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3. Examples

http://www.sdi.gov

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3a. Federal Environmental Statistics

• Metadata Elements:– Department or Agency– Office– Program Title– Summary Program

Description– Data Coverage– Collection Methods– Collection Frequency– Geographic Coverage– Contacts (Public Inquires)– Publications– Databases

Note: The original DOS version and the Windows 98 versiondid not support structured tables and Web graphics formats.

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3a. Federal Environmental Statistics

Archived at http://www.sdi.gov/curtis/trends.html Tables in HTML and Excel

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3a. Global Environmental Statistics

• Metadata Elements:– Subject– Institution– Program Description– Data Description– Period of Record– Data Collection Methods– Data Products

• Publications– Inquiries– Internet Home Page

14 Subject Areas

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3b. Biological Resources

Author Once – Use Many: Web, Print, and CD/DVD!

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3b. Biological Resources

Another 500+ page report!

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3c. Sustainable Development Indicators and Industrial Ecology

Also Digital Library of Sustainable Development Reports!

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3c. Sustainable Development Indicators and Industrial Ecology

• Indicator Format:– Why is this indicator

important?– What does this indicator

show?– How does this indicator

relate to sustainable development?

– Figure (s)

• Note: Actual indicator data in an Excel spreadsheet.

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3d. Digital Library (State of the Environment and Federal Statistics)

Mostly graphics with a few data tables.

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3d. Digital Library (State of the Environment and Federal Statistics)

Statistical Abstract: Manual Aggregation to Living Document & “Real” Data Tables.

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3e. Indicators

• EPA’s Draft Report on the Environment (ROE) consists of a version of the report for general reading and a Technical Document that both pose questions and present indicators related to:– Cleaner Air– Purer Water– Better Protected Land– Human Health– Ecological Condition

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3e. Indicators

The State of The Nation's Ecosystems, 2002Informing Our Nation, GAO, November 2004

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3e. Indicators

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3e. Indicators

Note: Ontology as Model and Instances Underneath.

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3f. Community Programs

National Association of Regional CouncilsNational Infrastructure for Community Statistics: The Boston Foundation Indicators Reports

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3f. Community Programs

See December 8, 2006, The U.S. Mid-Atlantic Super-Region - Mid-Atlantic Regional PlanningRoundtable – III at http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ShenandoahValleyVAWVMidAtlantic

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3g. Semantic Interoperability

http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?EPAIndicatorDataforDRM2

See Next Slides

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3g. Semantic Interoperability

Note: Expanded format for each Indicator plus links to actual data!

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3g. Semantic Interoperability

Note: Very Comprehensive Report That Was Straightforward to Repurpose!

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3g. Semantic Interoperability

Note: Comprehensive Report That Was Also Straightforward to Repurpose!

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3g. Semantic Interoperability

• Indicator Format:– What Is This

Indicator?– Why Is This Indicator

Important?– What Do the Data

Show?– End Notes

• Note: No data in Excel yet.

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3g. Semantic Interoperability• Indicator Format:

– Introduction– What the Data Show– Limitations– Data Sources– References– Downloads– Data– Metadata

Note: Expanded format for each Indicator plus links to actual data!

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3h. CEQ Roundtables

• Sustainable Forests:– 7 Criteria and 66

Indicators• What Is the Indicator

and Why Is It Important?

• Graphics• Footnotes

– 2010 Report in process

• Data Report by December 2007 for review in 2008.

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3h. CEQ Roundtables

64 Indicators and 5 CriteriaFirst Approximation Report of the Sustainable Minerals Roundtable

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4. Some Next Steps

• Continue to use the LivePublish “Author Once – Use Many: Web, Print, and CD/DVD” system that has demonstrated longevity of information system technology based on Web standards.

• Continue to build the “Web-based directory” and use the new authoring and editing tools (Wikis and Semantic Wikis) in support of the Integration and Synthesis Group (ISG).

• Continue to develop the “Indicator Ontology” that provides a metamodel (KNII top-level framework) for organizing and finding the content and identifying information gaps.

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5. Updates• EPA’s 2007 Report on the Environment (ROE) Knowledgebase

– EPA's 2007 Report on the Environment (ROE) contains thorough documentation and standard metadata templates (see Appendix A in Part 1) for the 86 indicators selected using six criteria based on EPA’s Information Quality Guidelines and a Peer Review Process described in Appendix B of the report. This was “reused” to create a knowledgebase (see Slide 38 that contains a metadata database that could be considered to be “an integrated, agency-wide metadata management tool” and is similar to interagency data sharing and reuse done for years in EPA's Guide to Selected National Environmental Statistics in the U.S. Government and the Integration of Environmental Information and Indicators.

• Source: A New Enterprise Data Management Strategy for the US EPA - Part 1: Overview, August 15, 2007. See Word and PowerPoint.

• Source: A New Enterprise Data Management Strategy for the US EPA - Part 2: Inventory of Data Assets, August 29, 2007. Word.

• Source: A New Enterprise Data Management Strategy for the US EPA - Part 3: Integration of Data Tables, September 5, 2007. Word.

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5. Updates• Appendix A. EPA’s 2007 Report on the Environment: Science

Report Metadata Template– 1. Data Set Source– 2. Data Collection Date– 3. Data Collection Frequency– 4. Data Set Description– 5. Technical Questions:

• (1) Are the physical, chemical, or biological measurements upon which this indicator is based widely accepted as scientifically and technically valid?

• (2) Is the sampling design and/or monitoring plan used to collect the data over time and space based on sound scientific principles?

• (3) Is the conceptual model used to transform these measurements into an indicator widely accepted as a scientifically sound representation of the phenomenon it indicates?

• (4) To what extent is the indicator sampling design and monitoring plan appropriate for answering the relevant question in the ROE?

• (5) To what extent does the sampling design represent sensitive populations or ecosystems?

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5. Updates• Appendix A. EPA’s 2007 Report on the Environment: Science Report

Metadata Template– 5. Technical Questions (continued):

• (6) Are there established reference points, thresholds or ranges of values for this indicator that unambiguously reflect the state of the environment?

• (7) What documentation clearly and completely describes the underlying sampling and analytical procedures used?

• (8) Is the complete data set accessible, including metadata, data-dictionaries and embedded definitions or are there confidentiality issues that may limit accessibility to the complete data set?

• (9) Are the descriptions of the study or survey design clear, complete and sufficient to enable the study or survey to be reproduced?

• (10) To what extent are the procedures for quality assurance and quality control of the data documented and accessible?

• (11) Have appropriate statistical methods been used to generalize or portray data beyond the time or spatial locations where measurements were made (e.g., statistical survey inference, no generalization is possible)?

• (12) Are uncertainty measurements or estimates available for the indicator and/or the underlying data set?

• (13) Do the uncertainty and variability impact the conclusions that can be inferred from the data and the utility of the indicator?

• (14) Are there limitations, or gaps in the data that may mislead a user about fundamental trends in the indicator over space or time period for which data are available

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5. Updates

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5. Updates

• November 15-16, 2007, Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable, NOAA Science Center, Silver Spring, MD.– Supporting the Puget Sound Mashup of the EPA

National Environmental Information Symposium: Use Web 2.0 (e.g. Wiki) to build a knowledgebase for a community of practice on environmental indicators (Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable of the Whitehouse Council on Environmental Quality).

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5. Updates

Google: Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable

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5. Updates

• Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice (SICoP) DRM 3.0/Web 3.0 Semantic Wiki Pilot Projects:– Water Budgets: Foundations for Effective Water-

Resources and Environmental Management Knowledgebase Pilot for the Water Cycle - Drought Ontology and Mapping to the Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable Framework.

• Being incorporated into the SWEET Ontology with the Noesis - a smart semantic search tool, and High-Resolution Drought Forecasting System by Will Pozzi (CREW/WaterNet).

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5. Updates

Google: Water Cycle Ontology