A workshop hosted by NatureServe and the US Geological Survey with funding from the National Science Foundation
In an influential report to the President in 2011, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) laid out a strategy for leveraging environmental data to sustain our nation's environmental capital. The PCAST report recognized that improved management of biodiversity and ecosystem services requires focused efforts to integrate and utilize relevant data held by many different agencies. Since that report, Federal bureaus have been working diligently to realize this vision through the Ecoinformatics-based Open Resources and Machine Accessibility (EcoINFORMA) initiative. It is now time to more formally engage with non-profits, universities, local and state governments, and the private sector to leverage environmental data across the nation to achieve a sustainable environment for our nation’s future.
You are invited to join us in a workshop at the Department of the Interior South Interior Building on December 2-4, 2015, to move this process forward.
The focus of this workshop is to identify areas of collaboration within the Federal Government and among relevant private sector organizations in advanced uses of environmental data applied to forecasting and decision-making for the sustainability of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Workshop topics will include:
Building the dynamic biogeographic map of the nation, incorporating synthesized occurrence data and models for determining current status and forecasting future status. With potential focal areas on:
- Endangered species conservation status and forecasting in response to climate change.
- Invasive species status and potential threats to natural systems and native species.
- Pollinator status and distribution, the effects of toxins, climate change and host plant distributions and interactions.
- Dynamic dashboard syntheses, visualization, communication, and dissemination of broadly relevant biogeographic knowledge products.
A national framework for understanding and employing ecosystem services in decision support. With potential focal areas on:
- Nationally consistent data sets for decision support.
- Primary indicators and metrics at national scales
A national framework for species and ecosystem inventory, monitoring, and assessment. With potential focal areas on:
- Integration of data from monitoring programs across Federal agencies.
- Innovative strategies for synergy between Federal and non-Federal activities.
- Establishing metrics for assessing trends in ecosystem health over time.
- Innovative strategies for dynamic visualization and broad dissemination of assessment efforts.
- Identification of the most important data gaps and their causes.
Download the agenda
Registration
There is no registration fee but seats are limited. All participants must be registered. Federal employees are strongly encouraged to attend, but there are no travel funds offered.
For additional information, please contact:
- Non Federal employees: Healy_Hamilton@natureserve.org
- Federal employees: Annie_Simpson@usgs.gov
Student Travel Competition
A special competition will be held for student travel awards. Students now have until Tuesday, Novmeber 3 to submit their entries. Results will be announced on Friday, November 6.
