SIS 495/2011:Topics

=Nature of Science and Research=
 * Researcher: Miriam
 * Discuss scientific inquiry and the scientific process; philosophical basis of
 * Discuss the general process and nature of scientific data.
 * Environmental Psychology Reference
 * Environmental scientists
 * Historical overview of Environmental Science (in North America) Reference

=Nature of Information Science & Core Information Science Concepts=
 * Researcher: Lisa
 * Define the core information science concepts for the class
 * Information behavior - seeking, collecting, etc.

Scientists and Information

 * Researcher: Todd
 * relationship of scientific process and research to information and information science
 * emergence of the data intensive research paradigm
 * DataOne scientists baseline assessment
 * merging blend of natural science and information science professionals (e.g. need to manage, archive, find data, etc.)
 * Biodiversity information needs

=Data collection and the data lifecycle=
 * Generation and diversity of environmental information
 * where does it come from? (observation of the natural world) How is it created? Role of the observer.
 * Types of data- soil, water, air, species counts, etc
 * Ways data can be collected (automated data collection, manual collection...citizens vs. scientists, advocates vs. objective observers)
 * Data reporting units (mg/kg, ppm, ug/l...)
 * Organizing environmental data
 * Managing environmental data
 * Interpreting environmental data
 * Raw data vs. summarized data vs. interpreted data vs. modeled data
 * QA/QC
 * Data Quality Objectives
 * finding environmental information / where is environmental information found?
 * major government databases
 * census data
 * NSF Grant Guidelines on Data Management
 * Information policies

The Environmental Data/Information Lifecycle
A possible organizing scheme for some of these topics may be the Geospatial Data Lifecycle proposed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee. There are seven stages:

Define
What is environmental information?

Inventory/Evaluate

 * Where is the data? Who owns it?  Who provides it?
 * Data ownership, legal questions, copyright
 * Managing or dealing with metadata

Obtain

 * Purchase
 * share or exchange data
 * modify legacy data
 * create new data.
 * Exchanging and collaborating (information, data)
 * Selecting reliable science data

Access

 * Where will the data/information be published? How do we disseminate the data?
 * Discuss pros and cons of open source and open data sharing

Maintain
Concerns about funding, personnel, infrastructure needs.

Use/Evaluate
User studies and evaluations. Have we met our goals?

Archive
How do we keep data for the long term after it is no longer being actively used?

=Metadata=
 * Researcher: Priyanki
 * Preparing data sets to model environmental processes
 * How environmental data/observations go from environmental data object to metadata
 * Environmental metadata

=Technology and Tools or Tool Finding Issues=


 * Information Systems and the Environment Reference
 * Database design & use for science/environmental data
 * Spreadsheets for modeling and problem solving
 * Environmental information management systems

=Environmental Decision Making=
 * Map data life cycle model to environmental decision making model and highlight role of data at different points of decisions
 * Environmental decision-making
 * who makes environmental decisions
 * role of the public in environmental decision making and interpretation of environmental information
 * Tragedy of the Commons Reference
 * Sampling bias
 * interpretive bias
 * Evaluation of environmental data

=Science Communication=


 * Communicating environmental data
 * Presenting environmental data
 * politics of communicating and presenting environmental data/politicizing of environmental data
 * citizen scientists
 * information as power
 * rhetoric
 * stakeholders and public participation

=Visualization=


 * Cool displays, youtube videos, etc.
 * Environmental modeling- types of environmental models
 * GIS

=Disasters and Catastrophes=


 * Environmental causes
 * Environmental results
 * Katrina, Pakistan floods, Indonesian tsunami, etc.
 * role of environmental information in dealing with environmental disasters.
 * how does access to environmental information help, are there negatives to access, who has access and how, to what?
 * Dealing with risk. Risk management, risk communication

=Sharing and collaborating around EI=


 * Networks (sharing research)

=Brainstorming Topics=


 * PARCC parameters and their relevance to data
 * Environmental information in science education
 * need for, role of, lack of, examples of (Phenology and schools)