Project: South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) Environmental Database Development and Maintenance

Web Site: http://www.envirobase.usgs.gov/

Location: Total System; Broward, Charlotte ,Collier ,Miami-Dade, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Indian River, Lee, Martin, Monroe, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Polk, and St. Lucie Counties

Principal Investigator: Roy Sonenshein, sunshine@usgs.gov, 305.717.5824

Project Personnel: Tim Boozer, tboozer@usgs.gov, 352.237.5514x212; Marc Levine, mlevine@usgs.gov, 703.648.6465; Tammy L Bartlett, tbartlet@usgs.gov, 352.237.5514x205; R. Bruce Irvin, rbirvin@usgs.gov, 305.717.5835; Charles Rogers, cwrogers@usgs.gov, 305-717-5818; George Karavitis, george@karavitis.com

Other Supporting Organizations: None

Associated Projects: SOFIA Website (Heather Henkel, hhenkel@usgs.gov, 727.803.8747x3028), SOFIA Metadata (Jo Anne Stapleton, jastapleton@usgs.gov, 703.648.4592), Development of a Digital Library of Biological Information for the South Florida Ecosystem (Gail Clement, clementg@fiu.edu, 305.348.6745)

Overview & Status: The South Florida restoration effort requires multidisciplinary information relating to present and historical conditions for use in responsible decision-making. Searchable metadata provide a valuable tool for scientists, managers, and the public. Responsible resource management requires a firm scientific basis for decision making. The SOFIA database will provide hydrologic, cartographic, geologic, and biologic data and metadata to aid in the decision process. Ecosystem restoration and sound resource management will benefit south Florida by allowing a balance of uses and interests. The project will expand the project metadata inventory to include metadata on every dataset. The project will also develop an interface to the SOFIA web site using the Geo-Data Explorer (GeoDE) system developed by the USGS Energy Resources Program in Reston. The South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) website and database are the cornerstone of information management for the South Florida place-based science program. The data are available to Federal, State, and local agencies through a web interface and can be retrieved from the SOFIA database. Initial contact was made with ENP, USACE, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, SFWMD, Broward County DPEP, Dade County DERM, NOAA, and the Seminole Tribe regarding data access and metadata on the Geode site. Results published included South Florida Ecosystem Program Ecosystem Database Development: USGS Fact Sheet 174-96.

Needs & Products: The database provides a central archive for USGS project information collected as part of the USGS South Florida Everglades program. The current USGS databases do not provide a means of archiving much of the data collected. The database also provides a searchable access to the data, metadata, and products for all projects associated with the SOFIA program.

Application to Everglades Restoration: The SOFIA database will provide information on synthesis projects currently underway as part of the USGS south Florida program. The database will also provide access to information from other agencies, resource managers, scientist and others and facilitate science-based decision making as the basis for Everglades Restoration.