The NBII's Northeast Information Node will be a user-friendly website providing access to biodiversity, natural resources, and ecosystem information on New York and New England. Roberta Balstad Miller, Director of CIESIN, said that the project will initially focus on the Hudson River Corridor, Northeastern States Sustainable Forest Management, the New York City Metropolitan Area (urban ecology), the Hackensack River Watershed, Invasive Species, and Wildlife Disease and Human Health.
CIESIN is uniquely positioned to implement this project for the government because of its experience integrating natural resources data, information products, and analytical tools that support science-based decision-making.
In addition to this award from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), CIESIN recently received a five-year, $20 million contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to operate NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) in support of the application of socioeconomic and remote sensing data in research and decision-making. CIESIN has also worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society to publish an inventory of the world's wild places called Last of the Wild, and with Yale University to issue an annual Environmental Sustainability Index measuring countries' performance as it relates to the Earth's resources. The International Council of Science (ICSU) in Paris has designated CIESIN the
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Contact: Jennifer Freeman
jbfreem@aol.com
917-496-8131
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
29-Jan-2004