Metadata Training and Outreach for Tribal Environmental Science & Management on the Colorado Plateau

The project goal is to continue to reach out to tribal organizations lacking established metadata programs to aid metadata implementation. We have had a great amount of success with involving Native American Tribes on the Colorado Plateau with metadata training workshops and would like to continue providing this support to them. This project will provide FGDC compliant metadata creation training to tribal governments within the Colorado Plateau region for the maintenance of geospatial and environmental datasets. We will accomplish this through 1) training tribal GIS and natural resource professionals with little or no experience in developing metadata, 2) providing access to our registered clearinghouse for the publishing and harvesting of metadata, and 3) working with institutions that are also developing metadata to ensure we are building regional to national competency in an efficient and effective manner, and 4) providing an overview of other NSDI programs workshop participants can use and interact with. The results of this project would not only support more efficient internal resource management for tribes, but if willing to share data resources, it would greatly aid the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).  As part of the NSDI, The National Map, is lacking information for rural areas where many Native American Reservations are located. The Colorado Plateau encompasses several rural areas governed by Native American communities, some of them being quite large such as the Navajo Nation.

Final Report
Interim Report

Project PowerPoint Presentation

Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research

Contact:

Neil Cobb Ph.D., MPCER Director
928-523-5528
neil.cobb@nau.edu