Arizona Data Services

A Fully Functional Prototype for the Arizona NBII Data Services Web Site

The mission of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center Sonoran Desert Field Station (SDFS) is to work with others to provide the scientific understanding and technologies needed to manage the nation's biological resources. A fundamental part of this mission is to contribute to the development of a national partnership for sharing biological information: the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). The NBII is an initiative of the USGS, Biological Resources Division to foster the development of a distributed electronic "federation" of biological data and information, relying on a network of partners and cooperators to make the data they generate and/or maintain available to others through this federation.

The objectives of the NBII are to make it easier for people to find the biological data and information they need, to integrate or combine data and information from different sources, and to apply data and information to actual resource management decisions. In addition to biological data and information, software tools are identified and available through the NBII, to help users to analyze, integrate, and display biological data and information. The NBII also points to sources of biological expertise; people and organizations that users can contact to get advice and assistance on finding and understanding biological data.

The Arizona Data Services Program is a joint effort by the Advanced Database Research Group in the Department of Management Information Systems, SDFS, and Advanced Resource Technology Group in the School of Renewable Natural Resources. Our goal is to more efficiently serve commonly requested GIS data to the public and the greater University community. This data sharing effort includes the production of numerous research data sets from important natural resource based projects, the development of GIS related software and data layers, and shared hardware and software facilities to increase our teaching and research capabilities. The overall purpose of this effort is to provide spatial information that will help promote a better understanding of our cultural and natural resources.