Focus saved in several ways: to a user profile, to a GeoRSS feed, or as an HTML page or HTML fragment that allows users to embed a defined block of HTML inside documents at key locations. Data can also be downloaded in various GIS formats, including Esri shapefile format, via an FTP link. One-Stop Shop for Data When Stone first began looking for relevant data, it discovered this was a huge task. To find the data included in the atlas, the company employed Web searches, phone calls, e-mails, and face-to-face conversations with staff from more than 300 organizations. Since the first launch, more data has been added for a total of nearly 400 searchable datasets. Data includes administrative boundaries; elevations; cadastre; environment and geoscientific information, such as geology, groundwater, and soils; marine data, such as fish distribution and habitat, and uploading metadata that has been created by a metadata editor based on Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, like the metadata included within the Geoportal extension. Metadata can also be created using a Web form. Data providers can establish a data harvesting relationship with the portal through a subportal or Web-accessible folder. This allows the data portal to collect desired Web pages and extract necessary data. The Tug Hill Commission GIS Data Portal (24.39.214.21/ GPT9/catalog/main/home.page) is an example of a subportal. Tug Hill is a 2,100-square-mile area in a remote rural region of New York located between Lake Ontario and the Adirondacks mountain range. Several geospatial datasets were developed as part of an EBM demonstration project in the Sandy Creeks watersheds on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. A separate data portal, the subportal, was developed so the Tug Hill Commission could manage its own Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs. These wetlands located in Wilson, New York, on Lake Ontario are an example of one of the “biological supermarkets” that can be managed using The New York Ocean & Great Lakes Atlas. invasive species; as well as cultural information including historic sites and settlement information. Many datasets are from organizations that had never before distributed geospatial data widely. For example, the Facility Limit Measurement Violation data from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC)–Water Division provides information necessary for the Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program that had been identified as a priority through a data needs workshop. The agency had resource and technical constraints with sharing the data internally. Providing the data via the atlas— without having to host the data—allowed this important dataset to be shared. Publishers Control Data When the Atlas Data Portal was first launched, the council published the data and metadata provided by the data providers. Moving forward, the council will encourage data providers to publish metadata records directly to the portal and, when possible, host their own data through subportals. Providing direct access will ensure that data is as current as possible for EBM planners and communities. To make it easier, data providers have several avenues for easily publishing data using the portal. Records can be published by www.esri.com geospatial data holdings but still make the data available to New York Ocean & Great Lakes Atlas users. Next Steps This year, the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council will work with Stone Environmental to integrate the Data Portal and Data Viewer, currently two separate applications, by upgrading to ArcGIS Server. Additional enhancements will include the incorporation of thesauruses for enhanced searching and the use of Web Map Services (WMS) and Web Feature Services (WFS) for data dissemination. For more information, contact Becca Newhall Program Coordinator New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Council E-mail: Rebecca.Newhall@dos.state.ny.us Tel.: 518-486-7736 or David Healy Stone Environmental, Inc. E-mail: dhealy@stone-env.com Tel.: 802-229-1879 ArcUser Summer 2010 25