MINUTES

FIRST MEETING ON DATABASE NEEDS IN HAWAII

HELD ON OCT 8 1996

Participants (see attached list) at the first meeting held Oct 8, 10am-3pm at the USFWS conference room at the Federal Building in downtown Honolulu opened what is thought to be the first in a series of discussions by considering what is needed for Hawaii in general in terms of information resource. A deliberate attempt was made not to focus on a single database. This first meeting provides the basis for future meetings concerning other issues such as what type of technology to use, who will participate, how will we structure an extended database (EDB), etc. Scope and charge of the meeting was presented by Bill Steiner as follows: SCOPE: to determine the range of available databases in Hawaii of functional use to conservation biologists and managers; CHARGE: to investigate if these databases can be brought together or linked in such a way as to enhance overall conservation efforts in Hawaii.

The meeting opened with a discussion of the concept of a "dispersed database" by Scott Milller (see attached notes from Scott). It then moved to consideration of several broad questions including:

1. What databases exist in Hawaii which are of interest to the Conservation Biology community (handouts by the database owners where present accompanied this discussion)?

2. What are the needs of a Standard Database ?

3. What are Agency needs with respect to databases?

4. What major database gaps are present in todays disjunct databases?

The general results were captured in the following outline which is not meant to be a comprehensive set of notes (no secretary was present to record all that was said).

Details regarding background of different databases with respect to technology, software, vision, etc. will be the topic of future discussions, including those items not covered on the agenda of the first meeting. These latter topics include:

1. How do we better coordinate our efforts?

2. Can we improve our delivery of information? And,

3. From the revised agenda for the first meeting:

a. Oversight/governance of a distributed database system or extended DB

b. Access to the future(?) database system or extended database

c. Funding of the future database system or extended database

10/8/96 Hawaii Database Meeting 1; capture notes.

In attendance--see attachment.

A. Existing Databases:

1. Bishop Museum (see handout):

a. Databases on: Molluscs, Flowering Plants, 55,000 Bird Sightings,Taxonomic Authority Files

b. Working on Improved dissemination

c. Developing Conceptual Models

2. BRD (see handouts):

a. Databases on: Alien and Rare Plants, Feral Animal Control, Harmful, Non-indigenous Organisms, Pathogens, Hawaii Forest Birds (with vegetation & geological components), HNRMDC

b. Geocoding HAVO herbarium collection

c. Taxon Code Development

d. Genetic Safety Net----tie to Gary Ray

3. CPC

a. Databases on: Rare Plants, Genetic Safety Net, Gene Samples, Tracking DB for Re-introductions

b. Some geocoding in process

4. DLNR---tends to use Heritage DB

a. Databases on: Trails Inventory, Vegetation Mapping (see Ron Cannerella), Hawaii Streams Assessment

5. TNC

a. Databases on: Heritage; location & status of rare plants, Threatened and Endangered Species, Threatened Ecosystems

 

6. FWS

a. DB on: Fed. Status Tracking, Tracking of consultations including "takings", National Wetlands Inventory

7. Army

a. Databases: uses TNC Heritage DB

b. Has access to Integrated Training Area Management Program for Training Impacts on Army Property (CSU Center for Ecological Management of Army Lands) NOTE: access to this database, which includes impacts on Army lands in Hawaii, is controlled.

8. Biosystems Engineering-UH

a. Databases on: geographic weather differences, Land Use and Vegetation Cover, Groundwater Location

b. Physical assessments on impact to earth possible

9. CCRT-UH:

a. Database being developed on stream ecosystems

10. Hawaii State Water Commission (OSP?): Watershed DB

11. Agriculture:

a. Databases on: Certified Applicators, Tax map keys for farm lands, Restricted Use Information, Reports of Insecticide Sales

12: Identification of Other Dbs:

a. State Office of Planning

b. State Mapping Advisory or Authority

c. City & County of Honolulu

d. NIMF

e. NOAA Databases

f. USDA?

g. Soil & Geological Dbs, NRCD (highest accuracy on ag. Lands).

h. Identification, structure and functional purpose of national/international DBs

B. Needs of a Standard Database:

1. Must be robust!

2. Must have standards

3. Requires geographic standards

4. Requires taxonomic standards (technical/interfacing needs important)

5. Requires identification standards for collection info.

6. Needs linkage between existing DBs via "doorways"

C. Identifying Agency Needs:

a. Land Management Agencies:

b. Authority Files which are easily accessible

1. Location names: Geographic (latitude-longitude) vs Traditional names (see Historical Society Archives place names)

2. Taxonomic names (accept Bishop Museum standards?)

c. Additional Overlays such as:

D. Sensitivity Issues - not addressed in depth; reserved for future discussion.

E. Addressing Major Database Gaps

1. Getting data entered!!!

2. Establishing geolocations

3. Establishing Data Precision and Accuracy (confidence level)

4. Keeping current e.g. saving historical data while culling unprovable records

Scott Miller’s Diagram : (See Scott’s attached notes page 2 for explanation)