A. GENERAL INFORMATION:

Project Title: South Florida Information Management: Metadata Management and Maintenance
Project Start Date: 1996 Project End Date: 2005
Project Funding: USGS Place-Based Studies Initiative
Principal Investigator: Jo Anne Stapleton
Email address: jastapleton@usgs.gov
Phone: 703 648-4592 Fax: 703 648-4616
Mail address: USGS, 521 National Center, Reston, VA, 20192

Other Investigator(s): None

Project Summary:
The South Florida restoration effort requires multidisciplinary information relating to present and historical conditions for use in responsible decision-making. Numerous data sets have been created as a result of USGS research conducted in support of the South Florida restoration effort. Metadata provide information for discovering, assessing, and accessing the data sets. Searchable metadata provide a valuable tool for scientists, managers, and the public. The project is expanding the USGS project metadata inventory to include metadata on every project and data set. Existing metadata is being reviewed for currentness and changes in contact information or project status. The metadata are posted for public access on the South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) web site. The metadata along with the SOFIA database and the Data Exchange are integral to information management for the South Florida place-based science program. The data and metadata are available to Federal, State, local agencies, and the public through the web interface.

Project Objectives and Strategy:
The objectives of the metadata project are to document the projects and the data sets produced as a result of USGS research in South Florida and to make the metadata and data sets available to potential customers, managers, and policy makers. The metadata contain information about the contents of the data sets, why the data was collected or created, who collected or created the data, the accuracy of the data, the contacts for questions about the data, and how to obtain the data. The metadata are available through the SOFIA website at http://sofia.usgs.gov.

Potential Impacts and Major Products:
The metadata will allow potential users of the data to evaluate whether the data are suitable for their needs and allow discovery of the data produced by the USGS in support of the Everglades restoration effort. Using metadata to document projects will facilitate non-duplication of research efforts.

The metadata records are the major products.

Collaborators:
Roy Sonenshein and SOFIA database personnel for new projects and data sets. Heather Henkel, SOFIA Webmaster, for posting the metadata on the SOFIA website and indexing and sending it to the FGDC NSDI node.

Clients:
NPS, South Florida Water Management District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USGS-WRD, USGS-GD, USGS-BRD, Federal, State, local policy and decision makers and managers, and the public

B. WORK PLAN

Title of Task 1: Metadata creation and maintenance
Task Funding: USGS Place-Based Studies Initiative
Task Leaders: Jo Anne Stapleton
Phone: 703 648-4592
FAX: 703 648-4614
Task Status (proposed or active): active
Task priority: High
Task Personnel: Jo Anne Stapleton

Task Summary and Objectives:
Same as the project summary - to create and maintain metadata for all data sets produced under the PBS-funded research, relevant historical data sets, and potentially data sets from other agencies and organizations that are relevant to the Everglades restoration process. This may include working with other agencies to create metadata for their relevant data sets and training others in the use of metadata production software and the FGDC metadata standard. The metadata will be made available to the public and other customers through the SOFIA web site.

Work to be undertaken during the proposal year and a description of the methods and procedures:

Work will continue on creation of metadata for current USGS PBS-funded projects and data, and relevant historical data sets and assisting other organizations with metadata creation as requested. Existing projects and data sets will be reviewed for metadata that needs to be created, updated, or deleted. The metadata will be created using SMMS (Spatial Metadata Management Software) from Intergraph along with USGS developed pre-parser (cns) and parser (mp) software to validate and produce metadata in various formats. The work may also include use of USGS-developed XMLInput Tool for outside customers who may not have access to SMMS.

Planned Outreach:
Presentations about SOFIA metadata at appropriate venues. Also possible training sessions on FGDC metadata and /or the use of various metadata creation software.

C. BRIEF DESCRIPTION ON HOW PROJECT TASKS SUPPORT THE DOI AND USGS EVERGLADES RESTORATION SCIENCE PLANS