173 



7*" tWIKONMENTAL REStARCH AND DtN-ELOPMtNT 



EuMiNATiNC Weaknesses, Capitauzing on Strengths 



The creation of an independent Environmental Monitoring Agency would 

 capitalize on the strengths of both USGS and NOAA. Inefficiencies in over- 

 lapping or duplicated capital investment and monitoring activities could 

 be eliminated. Existing weaknesses resulting from their organizational loca- 

 tions, particularly NOAA's, could be overcome. And, perhaps more impnir- 

 tant, monitoring and analysis of all the earth's resources — oceans, atmos- 

 phere, and terrestrial— would be brought together under one agency, which 

 could approach them with a comprehensive, unified perspective. We believe 

 that the EMA should operate initially as an independent federal agency; 

 however, if a Department of the Environment is established, it would be 

 advantageous to make the EMA a component of the Dcpanmcnt.*^ The 

 proposed federal environmental R&D infrastructure incorporating the changes 

 we have recommended is shown in Figure 6. 



NATIONAL CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION 



■ A National Center for EnvtronmentaJ Information (NCEI) should be es- 

 tablished within the proposed U.S. Environmentai Monitoring Agency. 



A National Center for Environmental Information should serve as 

 a focal p>oint for the storage and retrieval of information generated from 

 a range of sources, primarily federal departments and agencies, but also 

 state and local governments, academia, industry, and nongovernmental or- 

 ganizations. The center should be responsible for developing policies to ensure 

 that environmental data are properly stored and are readily accessible to 

 all users. 



The center should not be responsible for monitoring aaivities— it 

 should work, however, to ensure that the data developed by federal inves- 

 tigators and those in the priwtc sector arc stored in compatible formats, 

 and that they are properly catalogued. In most cases, individual federal pro- 

 grams, agencies, and depanmcnts would continue to maintain their own 

 databases. In this sense the center would function primarily as an electronic 

 access point and would not duplicate or supersede existing data storage cap- 

 abilities. For example, the center would not duplicate the extensive toxicolog- 

 ical information available at the National Librar>- of Medicine, but would 

 inform potential users of the information that is available and explain how 

 to access it. 



Efforts to coordinate the development, use. sharing, and dissemi- 

 nation of geographic data are already under way through the Federal Geo- 



