
Decision makers and scientists need global change information that is centrally accessible, clearly described, authoritative, and relevant. Meeting this need efficiently—when both the demand for and the diversity of available data are expanding rapidly—is a significant challenge. To help address this need, USGCRP developed a novel, comprehensive, web-based approach to information provision, known as the Global Change Information System (GCIS).
Designed for use by scientists, decision makers, and the public, the GCIS provides coordinated links to a select group of information products produced, maintained, and disseminated by government agencies and organizations. As well as guiding users to global change research products selected by member agencies, the GCIS serves as a key access point to assessments, reports, and tools produced by the USGCRP. It supports traceability between environmental data streams (such as observations and model outputs) and the resulting publications, creating an environment for users to access machine-readable information.
For the National Climate Assessment, the GCIS provides this traceability from key findings and figures to the underlying literature and data sets from which the information in the assessment is derived.
USGCRP also supports related Federal climate data-sharing efforts, including the Climate Data Initiative (CDI) and the Climate Resilience Toolkit (CRT).
The Climate Data and Tools Working Group (CDAT) was established to coordinate the interagency process developing the CDI and CRT. As these projects have matured and evolved, the working group has become a community for collaborating on technology to provide climate data and information to the public and decision-makers in more useful ways. As a part of the larger ecosystem of government work on climate resilience, CDAT focuses on making information discoverable, accessible, and usable.
Resources:
- Global Change Information System
- Climate Data Initiative
- Climate Resilience Toolkit
- Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness (PREP)
- Contact the GCIS staff