Discovering environmental data: metadatabases,network information resource tools and the GENIE system

Abstract

The existence of global computer networks in conjunction with various computer based tools offers the GIS community the possibility of identifying existing spatial data in a faster and more complete way. Using such tools could help the GIS community reduce the high costs of data collection. This paper focuses on the discovery of environmental data using metadatabases and network information resource tools and includes comments on some of the limitations of these computer based tools. The article will conclude by describing how the system developed by the GENIE project attempts to overcome some of these limitations.