Harvesting Information to Sustain our Forests: Creating an Adaptive Management Portal NSF DIGITAL GOVERNMENT PROGRAM Tim Tolle & Lois Delcambre Co-Project Directors

Duration: 3 years Budget: $1.5 million Participants: –Adaptive Management Areas (Tim Tolle) –Oregon Graduate Institute (Lois Delcambre, David Maier, Patty Toccalino, Fred Phillips), –Natural Resource Information Specialist (Eric Landis) –Federal Agencies: Forest Service (Northwest Region), PNW Research Station, Bureau of Land Management, National Science Foundation, Fish and Wildlife Service Location: Western Washington, Oregon and California PROJECT FACTOIDS

Staff Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Mark Whiting Science Advisor, USDI, National Park Service Regina Rochefort Communications Director, USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station Cynthia L. Miner Chief, Office of Technical Support, Forest Resources, USDI Fish and Wildlife Service Monty Knudsen Executive Director, IMFN Secretariat Fred Johnson MD, Asst. Professor, Division of Medical Informatics and Outcomes Research, OHSU Paul Gorman Sustainable Northwest Martin Goebel President, IUFRO, Oxford Forestry Institute, Dept of Plant Sciences Jeff Burley Co-Inventor of the Topic Map Model Michel Biezunski Advisory Board Forest/environmental expertise Computer science expertise Assistant Director, Ecosystem Mgt., USDA, Forest Service Steve Solem

Current Natural Resource Information Management Conditions Diversity of Information Content –Spatial Scale - from genes to ecosystems –Temporal Scale – that’s biological science –Both biological and non-biological information Numerous Formats –Napkins to GIS including tabular, graphic, text, video, audio, physical specimens –Providers provide data – Users seek knowledge

Current Conditions (cont.) Numerous Independent Locations of Holdings –Desktop corners, old floppies, hard drives, libraries, websites, home offices, back rooms More Mandates Regarding Collection, Management and Dissemination –EO – “standardized documentation” –NEPA – provide environmental effects of management actions to decision makers & public –FOIA – access to federal documents –Unit and Project “Mandates”

Current Conditions (cont.) Multiple Stakeholders –Providers - data “owners”, support staff, archivists, budget personnel, webmasters –Users – resource managers, K-PhD, business, policymakers, researchers, public interests Numerous Controlled Vocabularies & Thesauri –Integrated Taxonomic Information Service Database –Global Change Master Directory Keyword List –NBII Thesaurus (early 2001) –WMC’s Recommended Watershed Terminology –NRCS Climate Glossary –“Local” and Individual Keyword Lists

What do I need? Where can I find it? How do I get it? What the Information User Sees Clara Weaver

What the Information Provider Perceives I’ Mandate Citation I really want to make my information available, but at what price? Fred the Fish Biologist

Worldwide Web You Say? Look Again 550 Billion Documents Available - 1 billion indexed through conventional search engines Quality Assurance? – anyone can contribute and “recontribute” No Standards for Vocabularies – a “tree” is not always a tree Is the Information Sustainable? When was it produced, has it been updated?

Challenges Easy Access for All Levels of Expertise Turning Data into Knowledge - Usable Making Contributions Simple Low Cost Interoperable Searching Persistent Information Provide Quality Assurance Encourage the Use of Standards

Principal Team Members Tim Tolle Regional Coordinator for AMA, US Forest Service Eric Landis Forest Information System Specialist, Consultant Craig Palmer Natural Resources Monitoring Expert, UNLV Fred Phillips Professor and Head, Mgt. of Science and Tech., OGI Patty Toccalino Asst. Prof., Environmental Science and Eng., OGI Lois Delcambre Professor, Computer Science and Eng., OGI David Maier Professor, Computer Science and Eng., OGI Shawn Bowers PhD Student, Computer Science and Eng., OGI Mat Weaver PhD Student, Computer Science and Eng., OGI Forest/env. expertise Computer science expertise

Adaptive Management Areas

Figure 1: Adaptive Management of Forest Lands Monitor: Gather Information Continuous Management Evaluate (Lessons Learned) Act Plan & Set Directions

Issues raised by Eric Internet used now and potentially useful Reliability of internet not present –Searches –Information

The ability of the user to search multiple and diverse sources (individual Adaptive Management Area sites) in an easy manner. What do we need?

Understand the client requirements and opportunities

Test Areas

Cle Elum and Wenatchee Eugene and Corvallis Star RS and Applegate Watershed Center

Clients answered technical questions

“Places”

Similar Places

What kinds of records?

Searching for information

Answer policy questions

Provides guidance on the type of information which should be included as a part of the system. Typically includes:  Types of eligible information resources  Format for meta-information (catalogue)  Quality of eligible information resources  Conditions for entering meta-information DEVELOP POLICIES

Policy findings Access issue?

Policy findings Policy Board?

Policy findings Using common meta-data?

Title Author or Creator Subject & Key Words Abstract or Other Text Description Publisher (or AMA) Date Made Available Type (e.g. Paper, WWW Page, Dictionary) Format (e.g. Map, Text) Resource Identifier (E.G. ISBN, URL) Source (If Not Original) Language Relation (Conference, Compendium) Coverage (Spatial and Temporal) Rights (Copyright Notice) STANDARD META-DATA

Policy findings? Make data available?

Concerns: funding beyond development

Concerns: “I just want to point and click to get what I want.”

Concerns: Maintain links to other sites

Primary Information Documents –reports –assessments –decisions –studies –environmental impact statements –…. Maps –in GIS systems –on paper

Access to Documents

Documents are often linked to a geographic place Place 1 Place 2 Place 6...

Many of the keywords (describing climate, topography, hydrology, etc.) are associated with places! Place 1 Place 2 Place 6...

Therefore….attach metadata to places! Place 1 Place 2 Place 6... hydrology topography climate

One controlled vocabulary - per aspect of interest Place 1 Place 2 Place 6... hydrology controlled vocabulary topography controlled vocabulary climate controlled vocabulary

Feature: search by one or more aspect Place 1 Place 2 Place 6... climate controlled vocabulary userbrowses tofinddocuments

Similarity Search Place 1 Place 2 Place 6... climate controlled vocabulary userwantsstudies in places like this one

Geographic places relate spatially Place 1 Place 2 Place 6...

Use a gazeteer to relate place names to GIS sytem(s) Place 1 Place 2 Place 6... Gazeteer (to look up place names) GIS

System Features Search by one or more aspects of interest (superimposed information - controlled vocabulary) Search by location (GIS) Search by place name (gazeteer)

System Features (cont.) Make it really easy to browse the superimposed information (the controlled vocabularies) Provide the same, easy-to-use mechanism for: –attaching metadata to place –searching for a document by aspect/keyword –specifying a similarity search –navigating through related documents

System Building Approach: Shopping Shop for existing technology to incorporate: –gazeteer (team will visit UC Santa Barbara on Dec. 1) –topic map browser (topic map community) –architectural elements….

Digital Libraries

Infrastructure Digital Library Framework Document Server Digital Object Identifiers Gazetteer

Library Collection + Catalogs + Services Basically the same for “real” and digital libraries

Sample Architecture User Browser UI gateway Handle System Repos. Collection Index Collection

Services and Interfaces Repository service: deposit, storage, access Index service: queries to handles and meta-data –document format –fixed vocabulary fields Collection service: form meaningful groups User interface gateway

Which Architecture and Implementation? Have looked at Dienst –Both a protocol and implementation –There are other proposals Leipzig Document Server –Web interface for depositing documents –Can handle Dienst protocol

Digital Object Identifiers From publishing industry –General way to name documents and other “creations” (e.g. opera score) –Different levels of granularity (in theory) document, section, paragraph –Issued through a naming authority Can have sub-authorities –Associated description with each DOI

Key Aspects of DOIs Identifies content, not location Persistent Built on Handles –Handle format naming authority/unique local name /january99-bearman

Alexandria Digital Library New idea on meaning of a document: geographic location to which it pertains Makes use of a gazetteer –Shannon: river 240 m W Ireland flowing S + W into the Atlantic –Salmon st.: D-4,5, map 32

Computerized Gazetteer Geographic name Geographic location Type of feature

Use of Gazetteer Now: label documents with gazetteer entries Later: link documents to locations by place names they mention