Project Summary Sheet

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

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

Location (Subregions & Counties): 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

Funding (Source): USGS Place-Based Studies

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

Project Personnel: R. Bruce Irvin, rbirvin@usgs.gov, 305.717.5835; Oniel Slowley (contract), oslowley@usgs.gov, 305.717.5870; David Dwork (contract), ddwork@usgs.gov, 305.717.5871; Darr Halstead (student), dhalst@usgs.gov, 305.717.5800

Supporting Organizations: None

Associated / Linked 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 (Roy Sonenshein, sunshine@usgs.gov, 305.717.5824), SOFIA Geospatial Interface (Roy Sonenshein, sunshine@usgs.gov, 305.717.5824)

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 is expanding the project metadata inventory to include metadata on every dataset. The South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) website and database are the cornerstone of information management for the Greater Everglades Science Program: Place-Based Studies. The data are available to Federal, State, and local agencies through a web interface and can be retrieved from the SOFIA database. The database has been redesigned to provide storage and access to a greater variety of data types. A new web-based interface will be developed to provide access to the database. The interaction between the database, the other SOFIA products, and other available web-based databases is being evaluated. The database will be updated to provide greater interoperability between the database, other SOFIA products and other web-based databases. Data collection from completed projects continues on an ongoing basis.

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