Challenge Grant UpdateApril 19, 2006

Douglas Sellers, NatureServe Janice Miller, WA DNR

Challenge Grant Update

About the Grant Partners Status of Grant Activities Unique Challenges Washington Node Update Next Steps Questions

Grant Partner Organizations

Challenge Grant Lead State of Delaware, Department of Natural Resources

and Environmental Control

Participating Agencies NatureServe State of Washington, Department of Natural Resources State of Washington, Department of Ecology State of New Mexico, Natural Heritage New Mexico State of Illinois, Department of Natural Resources

NatureServe Key Activities

Establish scientific standards for biological inventory and biodiversity data management.

Develop comprehensive and current databases for at-risk species and ecological communities.

Design advanced biodiversity data management systems in partnership with information technology leaders.

Make biodiversity information accessible through the Internet, publications, and custom services to clients and partners.

Provide information products and conservation services to guide natural resource decision-making.

NatureServe:

100 staff in 6 offices-Arlington, VA - Boston, MA-Boulder, CO - Ottawa, ON-Durham, NC-Minneapolis, MN

Puerto Rico

The NatureServe Network in 2006

TVA

Navajo Nation

Member Programs:

800 staff in- 54 U.S. programs- 8 Canadian programs- 15 Latin American/Caribbean programs

Natural Heritage Programs and Conservation Data Centers . . .

Collect, analyze, and distribute detailed information about plants, animals, ecosystems.

Conduct field inventories for rare and threatened species and ecological communities.

Track the distribution and conservation status of each species / community and the precise location and status of each population.

Conduct environmental reviews and assessments

Directly protect and manage natural areas in some places

Chris Hobson, Virginia Div. of Natural Heritage

Photo by Lynda Richardson

The “Typical” Natural Heritage Program

Approximately 10 Staff Annual program budget:

US $600,000 Responds to 2,500

information requests each year

Québec CDC Staff

New York NHP staff

Latin American program and CDC staff

Status of Challenge Grant Activities

Grant Objectives

Implement a new, voluntary biodiversity data flow: Provides EPA and Exchange Network users with access to

locations of threatened and endangered species Supports conservation planning, environmental regulation and

decision-making Creates opportunity for applications that can consume

biodiversity data Document and share results:

Promotes knowledge transfer to NatureServe network members Expands audience for Exchange Network to other conservation

organizations with similar biodiversity data holdings

Project Timeline

Year 1: Develop XML schema for biodiversity data flow Develop and implement data access requirements Develop and implement data transfer utilities

Year 2: Develop and implement Web Service APIs Prototype user interfaces to the biodiversity data Pilot NatureServe Vista application interface Document and share results

Challenge Grant Workshop

Gathered user stories for biodiversity data flow Identified web service

methods Drafted XML schemas

Example Web Service User Stories:GetSpeciesOccurrence

State transportation department planner wants occurrences of rare plants and animals within or near a road building project.

EPA Office of Wetlands, Oceans, & Watersheds needs generalized location data to find out which species are most at risk for impacts from water pollution.

Researcher needs distribution and status for a given species for a specified area.

Example Web Service User Stories:IsPresent

NOAA oil spill response team will have immediate access to the most up to date information on the presence of species in the vicinity of the spill to ensure those sites are prioritized for clean-up/protection and are not further damaged during emergency response/clean-up efforts.

DOT office of pipeline safety operators will be able to select an area around a pipeline where a break or defect is found to determine if there are species of concern in that area.

XML Schemas for Biodiversity Data

Species schema is at v 0.4 Species occurrence is at v 0.3 Public comments under review, working toward v 1.0 Addressing Exchange Network standards

Data Access Policies & Agreements

State Programs are custodians for detailed occurrence data Data access policies vary from state to state Data sensitivity issues include:

Protection of sensitive ecological resources Privacy protection for data providers and/or land owners

State-specific “Data Sharing Agreements” define terms under which NatureServe can provide data to third parties

Web Services

Biodiversity query methods: NameSearch* GetSpecies* IsPresent GetSpeciesOccurrence

*Beta version available now Production version June 06

NatureServe, DE, WA nodes established Exchange Network methods supported:

Authenticate, Query, GetServices

Prototype User Interfaces

Demonstration map viewer for species occurrence data

Displays detailed occurrence data, with species image and link to NatureServe Explorer for full species report

NatureServe Vista Pilot Use Exchange Network to

demonstrate application interface between Biotics and NatureServe Vista decision support system via Web Services

Pilot project in Delaware Natural Heritage Program to guide implementation of comprehensive state wildlife plan

June 06 target date for completing the Vista pilot

Unique Challenges

Not a typical data exchange flow Request/Response based Web Services Existing Web Services for data publishing Existing XML data standards under NatureServe

namespace

Challenge grant, with implementation goals Ambitious work plan, non-trivial technical challenges Deploying challenge grant products into production

environment at 2 states Combines challenge grant with deployment grants

Unique Challenges, cont.

Spatial Data Provide Web Services to species location data Create map-based user interface to spatial data Model complex polygon shapes in XML schema

Security Fine-grained authorization roles Spatial feature-level authorization Integration with NAAS

Heterogeneous Network Different deployment environments Different physical data models – similar logical data

models

Washington Node Update

Washington Natural HeritageProgram Node

Second Exchange Node for Washington: Why? How?

Washington Natural HeritageProgram Node

Steps to implementation: Work Plan Equipment Plan Contractor Selection & Requirements

Washington Natural HeritageProgram Node

Agency Structure Considerations: WA NHP Connection with WA DNR DNR ITD Coordination required

Equipment Support Application Support

Washington Natural HeritageProgram Node

Infrastructure Setup: Equipment Purchase & Installation Windsor Node Application Installation

WNHPBiodiversityDatabase

EPA SecureExchange Network

NatureServe

WA Ecology

US Forest Service

Land Trust Groups

Educational GroupsCounty and City

Planners

SFI Participants

Tree

Tree

SchoolBuilding 2

Build

ing 1

Build

ing 1

Washington Natural HeritageProgram Node

Current System Status: Where we are now Where we go next

Next Steps for Biodiversity Nodes

Knowledge transfer to 50+ state programs Free distribution of grant software products Publish technical and process documentation Present informational sessions at regional conferences

Improve grant guidance and visibility for non-traditional data flows

Connect NatureServe member programs with traditional state node agencies on future grant proposals

Add Washington next steps?

Questions?

http://services.natureserve.org/

Questions?

http://services.natureserve.org/