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News
- Fellowships Available in Estuarine Science, Deadline: June 6, 2008
- Conservation Easements Registry Now Available
- A new CERES service! California Military Land Use Compatibility Analyst (CMLUCA)
- 2005 California Watershed Forum: Building a Statewide Watershed Program
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- CalFish releases new version of California's premiere website on anadromous and freshwater fish
- California Bay-Delta Authority Science Program call for $18-$20 Million in proposals for projects
About the CEIC Catalog
Catalog Introduction
The California Environmental Information Catalog is an online directory for reporting and discovery of information resources for California. Participants include cities, counties, utilities, state and federal agencies, private businesses and academic institutions that have spatial and other types of data resources. The Catalog has been developed through a collaborative effort with the California Geographic Information Association, California Environmental Resources Evaluation System, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee.
Outreach Materials
Thousands of public and private agencies in California collect, use, and maintain geographic information in electronic format. In many cases efforts are duplicated, resulting in greater costs, inconsistent information, and longer information collection timeframes. The lack of knowledge about existing and planned geographic information resources is an underlying cause contributing to this unnecessary waste of public and private money. The California Environmental Information Catalog provides information about geographic information resources in an effort to improve their efficient use through information sharing.
The Catalog is a repository of information about environmental data resources in California. Its primary purpose is to provide users of environmental information with information that will help them identify existing resources, evaluate them, and simplify access to the information resource data. The Catalog may be viewed as a "Yellow Pages" of environmental information by indexing and organizing metadata that facilitates identification and access to the data.
Environmental resource data is not stored in the Catalog. Only data resource descriptions, including information on how to find out more about the data or obtain it, is stored.
The World Wide Web is used to extend Catalog access to anyone who manages or uses environmental information. The forms based method of information entry is designed to simplify the documentation process and produce a metadata record in a consistent format suitable for search and query.
Benefits of Catalog Participation
Participation in the Catalog will :
- Document the environmental data holding of your agency.
- Inventory environmental data throughout California.
- Identify existing environmental data that may be useful in meeting your agencies needs.
- Provide information for accessing environmental data resources.
- Increase the shared use and reuse of environmental data.
- Increase data development collaboration by identification of planned data collection efforts.
- Reduce data collection timeframes for GIS projects.
- Reduce costs for data collection and management.
- Reduce development and maintenance of inconsistent environmental data.