Daniel Schrag, director of Harvard Center for Environment, contributed to new report citing the need for better data on biodiversity and ecosystem data.
Biodiversity and ecosystem data gathered by US environmental monitoring programs need to be better centralized, according to Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy, (.pdf) a report released today by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an independent council of scientists and engineers that advises the president on science and technology matters.
The report represents an update of a 1998 document called Teaming With Life, which urged President Bill Clinton to step up how the US assesses, monitors and studies its wealth of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The new report suggests ways to better document the threatened biological wealth of the US, from species to ecosystems, as well as the impacts of climate change.
“It is difficult to stem degradation and the loss of environmental capital if we don’t have an accounting of what’s out there, what condition it’s in and what its real value is,” said Rosina Biermaum, PCAST member and co-chair of the working group that led the study, at a press briefing. “Right now, not all the data that come from [monitoring] efforts is available in usable formats, but if it were, both the private and the public sectors could use the information to manage their businesses, fisheries, farms and forests, and be cognizant of environmental change.”
Note the report’s economic theme. These days, conservatives argue that environmental regulations hurt the economy.
The report calls on the feds to laungh an Ecoinformatics-based Open Resources and Machine Accessibility (EcoINFORMA) initiative. A primary goal of the initiative would be to ensure that Federal datasets relating to environmental health—as well as supporting socio-economic and geophysical data relevant for ecosystem valuation and decision-making—are published in machine-readable, interoperable formats to facilitate use by various stakeholders, including academic researchers, community organizations, and public policy officials.
Recommendations
••The OMB should enforce existing requirements that Federal agencies publish data related to biodiversity preservation and ecosystem services within one year of collection.
−−Enforcement requires no new standards, and can be achieved through application of language specified in the America COMPETES Act and the Open Government directive.
••A facilitating and coordinating entity should be established by OSTP and NSTC to develop informatics capabilities that will serve all biodiversity and ecosystems-relevant agencies, national and regional assessments, and other integrative activities.
−−This entity or initiative will be called EcoINFORMA—Ecoinformatics-based Open Resources and Machine Accessibility.
−−To reduce current duplication of effort and expense and increase productivity, agencies will work with EcoINFORMA to assure that their data relevant to biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the socio-economic and geophysical data discussed in this report, are published in machine-readable, interoperable format to facilitate research and to support policy-and decision-making.
−−EcoINFORMA will also serve a bridging function among the Federal government, state and local governments, and other sectors of society, and provide a platform useful to all.
••EcoINFORMA should seek out and encourage partnerships with the private and academic sectors to maximize financial savings and develop innovative tools for data integration, analysis, visualization, and decision making.
−−This collaboration will lead to the common standards and protocols needed to promote development of new informatics tools.
••EcoINFORMA should be involved in the highest levels of national information strategic planning and development, and be authorized to collaborate internationally.
−−The broad swath of data types that this report finds must be integrated will naturally inter¬sect with yet more kinds of information. It is important that informatics capabilities evolve toward universality; all information domains, including the ones of concern here, must be represented in deliberations concerning National Information Technology Research
and Development (NITRD)188 and the “interagency public access committee” that is to be established under the NSTC under the authority of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, Title I, Section 103.
−−The standards and protocols for data and metadata, and information exchange, required for national initiatives must be developed on a global basis so that the United States can contribute to and benefit from international efforts such as GBIF and GEO BON; thus, a focal point for international cooperation is essential.