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In-Depth Information
data (CUAHSI 2012a). HIS has pooled datasets from many sources into a co-
herent and accessible prototype national system for water resource data discov-
ery, delivery, publication, and curation (CUAHSI 2012b). What is missing is the
integration of the data into a modeling or forecasting system, which EPA could
provide. Problems could be analyzed and solved by using an intelligent digital
environmental data system. A human information system is also needed to ar-
chive land use, census, voting, planning, and other socioeconomic data relevant
to environmental processes and management. The socioeconomic and environ-
mental data would be referenced to common coordinates for use in cross refer-
encing and to enable testing of hypotheses concerning how to solve problems in
innovative ways (such as behavioral incentives vs command-and-control).
A central tenet of an intelligent digital environmental data system is that
dense, coherent, accessible, multidisciplinary data will serve as an attractor to
bring together a broad range of environmental scientists, social scientists, and
engineers to pose research questions and devise solutions to environmental prob-
lems. It could encourage a social transformation in how interdisciplinary work is
accomplished.
Archives and Repositories
It is essential to characterize the environment in diverse ways, although
many of the data that result are of limited use without the ability to detect
change over time. The implications of exposure to toxic and harmful materials
are understood to some extent, but many of the issues being addressed by EPA
are in the context of environmental factors whose effects are best characterized
in terms of changing exposures or accumulation of materials. Given the great
spatial and temporal variability of those same factors, it is often difficult to un-
derstand the importance of measurements at a single point in time or space, so
measurements of low spatial and temporal scope can easily lead to spurious con-
clusions. To ensure that EPA and environmental scientists more broadly can
effectively understand the relative importance of any single environmental data-
set, it is critical to develop and maintain long-term records that are composed of
multiple parameters (Lovett et al. 2007). The challenge is to ensure that enough
environmental data are collected and preserved to support understanding of
long-term trends among the key parameters now identified as important, while
providing a high likelihood of providing the data necessary to understand
emerging issues. Making data and samples accessible to future researchers are
central to ensuring that the understanding of environmental phenomenon contin-
ues to grow and evolve with the science. Ensuring that all data collected with
federal funds are archived and accessible is critically important, although ideally
that would be the norm for all environmental data collected with public or pri-
vate funds. It is also important to develop sample archives in which materials are
appropriately stored for analysis or reanalysis later. New measurement tech-
niques are constantly emerging and providing useful insights. When it is feasible
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