Report of the North American UNEP/GRID Users' Meeting
May 12-13, 1994
EROS Data Center
United States Geological Survey
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57198 USA
Agenda for the UNEP/GRID Users' Meeting
Thursday, May 12, 1994
Chair: Peter S. Thacher Rapporteur: Tom Loveland
8:30 - 9:00 Introduction
Welcome by Don Lauer, Chief, EROS Data Center
Objectives, Agenda, Logistics
9:00 - 9:30 Statement by representatives of UNEP, NASA, UNDP,
and WRI
9:30 - 10:00 Information for Decision Making: Post UNCED
Opportunities -- Peter S. Thacher
10:00 - 10:30 From Global Change Research to Local Uses -- John Townshend
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 - 11:30 Tour of EROS Data Center
11:30 - 12:30 Lunch
12:30 - 1:00 GRID-Sioux Falls Activities -- Ashbindu Singh
1:00 - 1:15 Global 1 km. Land Cover Characterization Database -- Tom
Loveland
1:15 - 1:30 Global Topographic Database -- Sue Jenson
1:30 - 1:45 Accessibility of GRID Data Sets and a Demonstration of Country
Data Sampler -- Darrel VanderZee
1:45 - 2:00 Harmonization of Socio-Economic and Physical Data - A Case Study
of Senegal -- Gray Tappan
2:00 - 2:30 Gap Analysis in Biodiversity -- Tom Edwards
Information Super Highway and Electronic Encyclopedia of
GAP -- Tony Butzer and Brian Biggs
2:30 - 3:00 Coffee Break
3:00 - 5:00 User Needs and Feedback (comments by participants)
6:30 Dinner
Friday, May 13, 1994
8:30 - 10:00 Discussion and Recommendations
(Role and activities of UNEP/GRID and other international
agencies in interfacing data, networking, technological
linkage between developed and developing countries)
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee Break
10:30 - 11:30 Continue
11:30 - 12:00 Summary by the Chairman
12:00 Meeting Adjourns
Lunch
Recommendations from the
North American UNEP/GRID Users' Meeting
May 12-13, 1994
EROS Data Center
United States Geological Survey
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA
General Comments
GRID-Sioux Falls, part of the United Nations Environment Programme's Global Resources
Information Database (UNEP/GRID), is in a unique position to continue to provide supporting
services to the international scientific community, such as to ICSU's "Global Change"
programme, and, additionally, to assist in the infusion of advanced technologies into
developing country programmes supported by the international development community.
GRID-Sioux Falls has access to state-of-the-art resources for remote sensing, geographic
information systems (GIS) database development, data management, and data distribution of
the sort called for in Agenda-21 approved at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio to attain
"sustainable development". But if these resources are to be applied to the benefit of
developing countries, much closer ties will be needed with the development community,
especially with UNDP in connection with its lead agency role in "capacity-building". This is
a particularly important function for GRID-Sioux Falls, given the numerous and growing
global data sources such as global land characteristics data base, global topographic database,
and global soils texture database, many of which would be of value to developing countries,
yet are not readily available to them.
The participants attending the North America UNEP/GRID users meeting recommend a series
of programmes, activities and strategies that will allow the effective expansion and
strengthening of this function. The recommendations deal both with the overall mission of
UNEP/GRID, and specific aspects of the GRID-Sioux Falls operation.
UNEP/GRID Mission Recommendations
- Given that UNEP has an established international mission and may more
readily be accepted across national boundaries than national institutions, it it is
recommended that UNEP/GRID build on its present infrastructure to play a
major role for information management and coordinating access to data in
support of new UNEP mandates (especially those arising from government
approval of Rio's Agenda 21). GRID, with its long-standing infrastructure for
database collection and distribution, is the logical leader of this activity.
- GRID should establish close collaboration with the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) so that it can take advantage of UNDP's
presence in developing countries for outreach activities and contribute to
national capacity building. In particular, UNEP/GRID and UNDP should
initiate discussions with a view to developing a collaborative effort to improve
the use of spatially referenced data for sustainable development purposes at the
national level, including the provision of new insights and knowledge gained
through international scientific work, such as under ICSU's "Global Change".
- In order to increase the chances of success, UNEP/GRID should make efforts
to identify and cultivate its users more precisely. They should focus on a few
key customer types rather than try to do something for everyone. Specifically,
we recommend that GRID:
- Focus initially on making UNEP and other United Nations data
accessible to a wide variety of users. Following this, they
should focus on establishing partnerships for exchanging and
relaying data with other organizations' for the benefit of users in
both the scientific and development communities. GRID should
also be a catalyst for getting other organizations outside the
United Nations to put their data into a United Nations data
network and making them available in an unrestricted and
equitable fashion.
Emphasize the use of its data and networking capabilities for the
benefit of developing countries. The linkage of GRID databases
to country capacity building should be stressed.
- Facilitate mutual access to national data sets for the common
benefit of both national development planners and the global
change scientific community, and take advantage of data sets
from organizations with which UNEP has close institutional links
e.g. USGS, NASA.
- In order to provide the needed services to a growing user community, GRID
should develop an action-oriented plan that identifies a strategy for providing
access to data, increasing the awareness of the types and roles of data
resources, and improving user capacities to utilize appropriate data.
- GRID should take on a proactive leadership role and promote the data
clearinghouse concept in which a linked network of partnerships with other
data archive and management centers as well as with major database producers
is used to provide databases to users. In particular, GRID should:
- Develop and try to prioritize reliable, precise user-models to
enable it to achieve objectives set forth in Agenda 21.
- Facilitate links to databases. This could include playing the role
of data broker that links data sources to the scientific
community.
- Develop working partnerships in data source determination and
develop "pointers" to all such sources as are readily available.
- Develop systematic updating of UNEP-archived data and
promote updating of data archives by all partners.
- Extend its networking/linking facilities into effective distribution
mechanisms that provide flexible means for communicating
information and, where feasible, databases to users worldwide.
- UNEP should ensure adequate resources are available for GRID data
management.
- GRID should catalyze and coordinate the assembly of databases. GRID should
also take an active role in generating value added products and demonstrating
the value of harmonizing data so that the data are more useful for
environmental and sustainable development applications.
- GRID should use demonstration projects to inform and cultivate its user
community and should investigate the use of pilot countries to improve its
methodology for disseminating data in formats designed to be useful to users at
differing levels of experience. For example, working in close partnership with
UNDP, GRID could work with key organizations within countries that have
database experience, and use them as their diffusion network into country
decision making bodies.
GRID-Sioux Falls Mission Recommendations
Meeting participants enthusiastically endorsed the accomplishments of GRID-Sioux Falls.
The group was particularly impressed with the use of innovative partnerships in a wide range
of activities including database development, data distribution, technical assistance, and
programme development. The consensus was that GRID-Sioux Falls provides an excellent
model for the entire UNEP/GRID programme. Their access to unique expertise in remote
sensing, GIS, and electronic data handling and networking is significant and should be
leveraged to benefit the entire UN system and other potential GRID partners in the
development and scientific communities.
To support an improved UNEP/GRID, meeting participants recommended that GRID-Sioux
Falls:
- Develop a "Strategic Acquisition Plan" with UNDP that specifies data
requirements, priorities, mechanisms, partnerships, and milestones for the
development of an improved databases for sustainable development.
- Continue its efforts to identify, test, and implement electronic data access and
distribution mechanisms, such as "Mosaic". This capability needs to be
developed, and complimentary activities initiated, to provide practical products
to users with a variety of technological capabilities.
- Continue its global focus. However, GRID-Sioux Falls should also accelerate
their efforts in expanding services throughout the Western Hemisphere. One
crucial aspect of this is to work toward increasing partnerships in this
Hemisphere.
- Continue its efforts to distribute programme, technology, and methodology
information that is relevant and beneficial to developing countries.
- GRID-Sioux Falls should continue its effort to convince the U.S. Defense
Mapping Agency to release their global set of Digital Terrain Elevation Data
(DTED) for use by the international community. In particular, GRID-Sioux
Falls should serve as a catalyst for articulating the importance of such data sets
for developing country applications.
Finally, meeting participants concluded that GRID-Sioux Falls should continue to take
advantage of its unique access to the state-of-the-art data management, networking,
distribution, and data set development capabilities of the EROS Data Center. GRID-Sioux
Falls should play an expanded support mission for the whole of UNEP. However, to do this,
they will need to enlist new sources of support. Together with new partners GRID-Sioux
Falls should seek additional funding so that it can provide additional support to the rest of
UNEP. A possible strategy for this is to have all UNEP units examine their needs, compare
these needs to GRID-Sioux Falls capabilities, and determine if they should transfers resources
to GRID-Sioux Falls for support services.
List of Participants
Peter S. Thacher
Earth Council Foundation-U.S.
1709 New York Avenue NW, Suite 210
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202-628-4840
Fax: 202-628-4842
E-mail: [email protected]
Eduardo Gutierrez
UNDP/DAIS
One UN Plaza
Room 1618
New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212-906-5500
Fax: 212-906-6663
Eric Rodenburg
World Resources Institute
1709 New York Avenue NW
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202-662-2575
Fax: 202-628-0878
E-mail: [email protected]
Barry Henricksen
UNEP/GRID
PO Box 30552
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254 2 624202
Fax: 254 2 226491
E-mail: [email protected]
Anthony Janetos
Mission to the Planet Earth
NASA Headquarters
300 E Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20546
Tel: 202-358-0272
Fax: 202-358-2771
E-mail: [email protected]
Wayne Mooneyhan
USRA
300 D Street SW, Suite 801
Washington, D.C. 20024
Tel: 202-488-5137
Fax: 202-479-2613
E-mail: [email protected]
Sandra Brown
U.S. EPA
200 SW 35th Street
Corvallis, OR 97333
Tel: 503-754-4346
Fax: 503-754-4799
E-mail: [email protected]
Gyde H. Lund
USDA Forest Service
PO Box 96090
Washington, D.C. 20090
Tel: 202-205-1147
Fax: 202-205-1087
E-mail:
fswa/s=g.lund/ou=w0iccmhs.attmail.com
Louis Iverson
US Forest Service
359 Main Road
Delaware, Ohio 43105
Tel: 614-368-0097
Fax: 614-368-0152
E-mail:
fswa/s=l.iverson/[email protected]
John R. Townshend, Chair and Professor
Department of Geography
University of Maryland
Room 1113 LeFrank Hall
College Park, MD 20742
Tel: 301-405-4050
Fax: 301-314-9299
E-mail: [email protected]
Tom Edwards
National Biological Survey
Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research
Unit
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322
Tel: 801-797-2529
Fax: 801-797-4025
E-mail: [email protected]
Merrill K. Ridd, Director
Center for Remote Sensing and Cartography
University of Utah Research Institute
Research Park
391 Chipeta Way, Suite C
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
Tel: 801-584-4457
Fax: 801-584-4453
E-mail: [email protected]
James W. Merchant
Associate Professor/Director
Center for Advanced Land Management
Information Technologies
Conservation and Survey Division
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
113 Nebraska Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0517
Tel: 402-472-7531
Fax: 402-472-2410
E-mail: [email protected]
Ron Eastman, Director
The Clark Labs
IDRISI Project
Graduate School of Geography
Clark University
950 Main Street
Worcester, MA 01610
Tel: 508-793-7526
Fax: 508-793-8881
E-mail: [email protected]
Roman Alvarez, Director
Circuito Exterior
Ciudad Universitaria
Apdo. Postal 20-850
01000 Mexico, D.F.
Tel: 525-622-4340
Fax: 525-616-2145
E-mail: [email protected]
Ken McGwire
Remote Sensing Research Unit
Department of Geography
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Tel: 805-893-8743
Fax: 805-893-3703
E-mail: [email protected]
John Katzenberger
Aspen Global Change Institute
100 E. Francis Street
Aspen, CO 81611
Tel: 303-925-7376
Fax: 303-925-7097
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Yi-Fan Li
Modeling & Integration Research Division
Air Quality Research Branch
Atmospheric Environment Service
4906 Dufferin Street
Downsview, Ontario M3H 5T4
Canada
Tel: 416-739-4892
Fax: 416-739-4288
E-mail: [email protected]
John Kineman
Global Ecosystems Database Project
National Geophysical Data Center
325 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80303
Tel: 303-497-6900
Fax: 303-497-6513
Don Lauer, Chief
EROS Data Center
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6123
Fax: 605-594-6589
June Thormodsgard
Chief, Science and Applications Branch
USGS
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6113
Fax: 605-594-6589
Don Moore
USGS
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6008
Fax: 605-594-6589
E-mail: [email protected]
Tom Loveland
USGS
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6066
Fax: 605-594-6589
E-mail: [email protected]
Sue Jenson
USGS
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6011
Fax: 605-594-6589
Gray Tappan
Hughes STX
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6037
Fax: 605-594-6589
E-mail: [email protected]
Tony Butzer
Hughes STX
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6836
Fax: 605-594-6589
Ashbindu Singh
Facility Manager
UNEP/GRID-Sioux Falls
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6105
Fax: 605-594-6589
E-mail : [email protected]
Darrel VanderZee
Hughes STX, UNEP/GRID
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6854
Fax: 605-594-6589
E-mail: [email protected]
Brian Biggs
University of California Santa Barbara,
UNEP/GRID
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6108
Fax: 605-594-6589
E-mail: [email protected]
Monika Puscher
Consultant
UNEP/GRID
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
Tel: 605-594-6110
Fax: 605-594-6589
[ UNEP/GRID Sioux Falls ]
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Last modified: 12 November 1996.