This project, which is part of a joint package from Drs. Brunt, Michener, and Stafford, will support a symposium for the exchange of information and technology among computer scientists, Geographic Information system/Data Management specialists, and environmental scientist (atmospheric, marine, and terrestrial) engaged in scientific database development, management of complex long-term and broad area data sets, and addressing questions at ecosystem through biosphere scales. The symposium will be organized along four related themes: (1) ecosystem, regional and global scale environmental research; (2) scientific databases for broad scale research; (3) data/information management technical aspects; and (4) management and analysis of broad scale spatial databases. A number to technical and scientific experts involved in each of the four thematic areas have been contacted and tentatively agreed to participate in the symposium and assist the symposium organizers in identifying internationally recognized experts in the respective fields. The knowledge exchange and cross-fertilization of ideas among scientists from a wide spectrum of disciplines fostered in such a form, are essential for the development of the scientific databases, data management, and analytical tools which will be necessary to address the problems facing environmental scientists at a variety of scales. A high quality volume of the proceedings will be produced in a timely fashion and preliminary manuscripts will be shared electronically.
