The promise of Geoinformatics, as part of the emerging Cyberinfrastructure, has yet to be fulfilled. Numerous individual databases, web-accessible tools, and information systems exist and more are under development or planned. What is still lacking is the ability to integrate data across systems in a reasonably efficient or comprehensive way. The networking of databases and other digital resources via interoperability is critical to attain the capabilities and synergies offered by Geoinformatics, but will require the community to address a range of technical as well as organizational and social challenges. This award will fund a series of workshops and other community planning activities to advance the process of community building in support of the development of a National Geoinformatics System.
