CONTACT:  Patricia Viets             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          (301) 457-5005             7/25/96

NOAA CREATES INDEX FOR EASE IN LOCATING ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

The federal government has reached a milestone in Vice President Gore's reinvention initiative by making its environmental data more easily accessible to the public through the Internet.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has created and placed on the Internet an index to the environmental data of eight federal agencies, including NOAA. The index is designed to ensure that the widest possible range of environmental data descriptions are just a computer click away.

The environmental data -- which run the gamut of biological diversity, water resources and water quality, solar activity, soil moisture, weather events, volcanoes, earthquakes and so forth -- are important to people from all walks of life. They are vital to our country's ability to protect human health, safety and welfare; to restore and maintain ecological integrity; and to sustain economic stability and growth. This National Environmental Data Index will be used initially for identifying environmental data holdings within the United States and, ultimately, internationally.

NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service was chosen to lead the indexing effort and create a locator system for on-line descriptions of environmental data by John Gibbons, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service led the two-year interagency team, which is composed of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior, and Defense, and the National Science Foundation, NASA and Environmental Protection Agency. The prototype index can be accessed at: http://www.nedi.gov.

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