Finding, Sharing and Using Distributed Data --
Northwest Environmental Data-Network Portal Development
The Northwest Environmental Data-Network (NED) is working to improve the quality, quantity, and availability of regional data and related information on fish, wildlife and their aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The NED Portal is part of a multi-pronged approach to meet this goal. It works with open standards protocols, such as web map and feature services, and houses centralized metadata records provided by data stewards. These records are searchable by keywords, time, geographyor full text. Once a user finds data to answer her question, the Portal’s map viewer pulls distributed data sets together into a single, scaleable view.
NED’s Technology for Data Discovery and Sharing Work Group analyzed data sharing recommendations provided to the NW Power and Conservation Council from SAIC consultants. The suggested approach -- to use industry standard protocols -- made sense. Protocols that work for others with the same problem were identified. Federal Geographic Data Committee members were queried regarding the nation's Geodata.gov Portal, which functions as the national metadata server. ESRI software was chosen to run the national Portal through open competition. The NED Steering Committee, comprised of Federal, state, Tribal, and public interest groups, recommended using the same software for NED. The ESRI Portal Toolkit was acquired and installed at the Bonneville Power Administration which had the necessary infrastructure in place to host the Portal. The look and feel of the Portal Toolkit has been customized to meet regional needs.
We are now focused on filling the Portal with metadata and data by identifying subject matter experts to steward their own data offerings, find related web map services, and help others who have fish, wildlife, and water data to publish in the NED Portal.
The NED Portal is the country’s first regional Portal. It will run in a coordinated, federated system and sit between the national Portal and developing state Portals.