Ohio Ecological Data System (EDS)

On of the key “infrastructure” components of this project was the construction of a database and data retrieval tool with web interface. A primary goal of this tool was to share interdisciplinary data and information among researchers and students to enhance and promote future ecological research. At most universities, thesis and even faculty research projects can be data dead-ends where environmental field data is difficult for future researches to reliably access and utilize. As soon as students finish and faculty retire or move on their data can be difficult to find and limitations and nuances of the data lost.

One of the strengths of the Ohio EPA ECOS database and its newer EA3 replacement, in combination with the US EPA STORET and the Water Quality eXchange (WQX) efforts, is that historical data can be re-used in projects such as this. Limited funding at Ohio EPA makes the immediate usefulness of some of this data to outside users difficult because their data is not easily accessible. Our goal in this project was to build a data structure compatible with Ohio EPA’s EA3 which in turn was built to be readily linked with U.S. EPA STORET and its more recent shift to WQX. The WQX is envisioned as the new way of sharing ambient water quality data by USEPA. Our goal was to make this STAR and other historical Ohio EPA data available to regional researchers and users such as watershed coordinators. The Ohio EDS system has a web-based GIS front end and data can be selected interactively and either viewed or downloaded into Excel spreadsheets. Our goal is to refine EDS as are we are funded for other ecological projects so that we continue to capture and share data among researchers in Ohio and across the Western Allegheny Plateau (WAP) ecoregion. The strength of this tool is the inclusion of RGA and geomorphology data elements that are not currently in Ohio EPA’s data system. Like this STAR project, this tool was conceived as an instrument that encourages researchers to cooperate across disciplines.

            Map & Database System