The Colorado Plateau is experiencing unprecedented growth which challenges our social, economic, and environmental systems. The people of the Colorado Plateau share a love for the land, but many disagree on how best to manage it. Socio-economic and environmental problems and their potential solutions transcend political boundaries. Credible, impartial, compatible, and widely shared geographic data provide common ground for discussion and a basis for sound decision making. The development of a consistent, policy neutral, and widely available data sharing mechanism is critical to meeting the needs of the people of the Colorado Plateau.
This effort focuses on collaboration of people and the sharing and coordination of data resources. The partners of this effort represent in a wide variety of interests and view points, with a common interest in geographic data initially within Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE:
It is the intent of the CPDCG to include any interested partner. The use of this mapped delineation of the Colorado Plateau is for orientation purposes and in no way is an exact boundary location.
OPERATING PRINCIPLES
1)Promote and enhance data sharing.
2)Freely make data available, but respect choice of individuals and organizations to protect sensitive and proprietary data.
3)Participation is open to everyone and diversity is encouraged
4)Leadership of the group is shared among the participants.
5)Acknowledgment that data are not centralized under any single entity but are contributed and maintained by many distributed data providers linked across the network.
6)Colorado Plateau Data Coordination Group activities should complement not compete with other coordinating groups operating within the Colorado Plateau.
7)Recognize that existing infrastructure of agencies, policies, agreements, and interests exist and must be respected.
PURPOSE AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Data Access
1) Widely share information about existing data to facilitate data searches and reduce redundancy in data development.
2)Identify and distribute tools to facilitate easy data searches and use.
3)Identify and widely share information about data sharing links such as NSDI.
4)Identify and explore solutions to filling gaps in the data sharing network.
5)Create a strategies to maximize the effectiveness of data sharing investments.
Coordination and data issue resolution
1)Establish relationships that create, expand, or continue cooperative data sharing opportunities across public and private sectors, and across institutional barriers.
2) Provide a forum to discuss data issues across the Colorado Plateau.
3)Facilitate identification and resolution data issues.
Data development
1)Share information on existing Colorado Plateau oriented activities, specifically as they relate to data acquisition and investment.
2)Facilitate data development, maintenance, and data sharing activities on the Colorado Plateau.
3)Identify core data needs and explore solutions to filling data gaps.
4)Where practical, identify, and use consistent geographic standards and processes to improve data compatibility.
Content and Metadata (data documentation):
1) Promote the use of consistent data standards across the Colorado Plateau.
2) Use the FGDC metadata standards, as appropriate.
3). Develop mechanisms to make divergent data sets compatible.
ORGANIZATION
Membership at large:
Steering Team:
Elected by the membership at large. The election process will be defined by the group at large. See Addendum.
The ultimate purposes of the steering team are to:
1) foster an atmosphere that focuses on geographic data and avoids political issues; engenders trust; avoids hidden agendas; ensures that there is no retribution; and fosters diverse representation on the steering team and the membership at large.
2) facilitate implementation of the purposes of the Colorado Plateau Data Coordination Group and monitor effectiveness.
Specific functions are in the areas of :
These functions will be refined and revised over time to meet changing needs. See Addendum.
