Out of approximately 100 reviewers of the prototype CD-ROM, there
were 32 responses to the questionnaire and 5 letter responses.
Representativeness of the 37 responses to the overall community
has not been determined, although the original selection of reviewers
was targeted to active global change scientists. The reviews were
collated for each question and are summarized here. Many of the
reviewer's comments and recommendations have been incorporated
into the current version. Based largely on this review, some structural
and formatting changes were made as well. In all, the review was
very supportive of the basic approach and initial effort, and
very constructive in criticism. The full text of collated reviewer responses
is provided as an appendix. The following is a very general tabulation
of these comments.
1) Overall usefulness of the integrated database
1a) Software systems most useful with the database
1b) Importance of linkage between the database and GIS
1c) Importance of a "common-denominator" (GIS) approach
2) Accessibility of data, structures, formats, media, and projection
3) Adequacy for research needs
3a) Limitations of the database
3b) Priorities for improvement
4) Data potentially available for contribution from reviewers
5) Other known/recommended sources for data
6) Is the yearly release schedule reasonable
7) Helpfulness and completeness of documentation
8) Data quality
9) Research activities of the reviewers
10) Potential applications of the GED
11) Problems in educational use
12) Problems in dissemination to scientific groups
13) Comments on individual datasets
1) Overall usefulness of the integrated database
0 no answer 5
1 not useful 0
2 maybe/minimal 1
3 useful 10
4 quite/very useful - major step forward 9
5 nearly essential or extremely useful 7
Overall Ranking: (3.8) Very useful, major step forward
1a) Software systems most useful with the database
This table counts the number of mentions of a given software package. Multiple categories per reviewer were counted.
no answer 3
unable to access 1
GRASS 4
UNIX 13
IDRISI 8
DOS 22
User developed software 6
NCSA, Datascope, XIMAGE 1
SPANS 2
ARC/INFO 4
Laserscan Horizon 1
BIOGIS 1
DbaseIV, SPSS/PC, PC/SAS, Grapher/Surfer 1
IPW 1
MIPS 1
Overall Preference: 1-DOS/IDRISI, 2-UNIX/various systems
1b) Importance of linkage between the database and GIS
0 no answer 4
1 not important 4
2 marginal 3
3 important/desirable 7
4 necessary/very important 8
5 essential/extremely/absolutely 7
Overall Ranking: (3.4) Important/Very Important
1c) Importance of a "common-denominator" (GIS) approach
0 no answer 6
1 not important 5
2 marginal value 4
3 valid approach/desirable 5
4 correct/very/necessary approach 12
5 essential 1
Overall Ranking: (3.0) Valid approach/desirable
Notes: General agreement on importance of portability and need for supporting upload and exchange formats as an absolute minimum. Point of disagreement was if Lowest Common Denominator implies less portability and system independence.
2) Accessibility of data, structures, formats, media, and projection
Since some reviews gave a divided opinion between the various items in the question. To represent this evenly, two votes per reviewer were counted.
0 no answer/unable to evaluate 9
1 no - terrible 1
2 poor/not easy 8
3 fair - workable/useful 7
4 yes - good/easy/fine/no problem 33
5 yes - excellent/very accessible 7
Overall ranking: (3.7) Good, but some problems
Notes: The main criticisms were support for upload/exchange formats, lack of projection capability, need for better hardcopy output support, and need for distribution with full GIS software.
3) Adequacy for research needs
0 no answer/unable to evaluate 8
1 no - inadequate 2
2 poor - not entirely/unknown 4
3 fair - some datasets only 6
4 yes - good/useful 7
5 yes - excellent/very useful 6
Overall ranking: (3.4) Limited, fair to good
Notes: Main issues were scope, resolution, verifiability, and documentation. There was general agreement that while this is a good start, considerable improvement ,and expansion is needed.
3a) Limitations of the database
The major issues, in approximate order of importance, were:
1. disciplinary scope and completeness
2. scale integration
3. resolution
4. quality of datasets and geographic consistency
5. temporal coverage
6. documentation of derivation methods
7. interpretation
8. multiple platform support
Notes: See specific comments in Appendix A.
3b) Priorities for improvement
The following items, in random order, were mentioned:
System priorities:
access and multiple platform/systems support
geographic reference
subsetting vector files
ASCII file format
include hardcopy of images for comparison
Data development priorities:
documentation - add scope and limitations of each dataset
error analysis
accessibility of raw data
geographic evenness (quality, scale, coverage)
temporal evenness and longer time sequences
finer resolution / especially from remote sensing
Additional/improved datasets and/or derivations:
improved coverage of temperature, rainfall and FAO soils
more detailed topography
updated land-use coverage
soil attribute data layers
improved NDVI derivations
improved World Ecosystems
improved (corrected) topography and bathymetry
new soil texture database
agricultural practices
Earth Radiation Budget Experiment data
more current climate data
Sea Surface Temperature
sources and sinks of greenhouse gases
radiative forcing indices
volcanoes, large faults, historic landslides
dams, mines, cities, observatories
population density
GCM climate change scenarios
general geological/geochemical data
air pressure, air quality
drainage connectivity array consistent with terrain data
derived indices of moisture demand; PET, AET, etc. (weekly or
daily)
monthly evapotranspiration, moisture indices (Thornthwaite)
Kuchler's potential vegetation for North America
USGS DLG and DEM data for North America
paleoclimate datasets, 6000 and 18,000 B.P. - e.g., Dept. of Energy
lake level changes
paleo-environmental change last 130,000 years B.P.
atmospheric chemistry data (NOx, SO2, etc.)
socio-economic data (population, land use, agricultural zones,
cities)
analytical routines (aridity index, agroclimatic zones, vegetation
biomes)
4) Data potentially available for contribution from reviewers
Atmospheric trace gases
Aggregated Holdridge Life Zone Classifications for current and
doubled CO2 scenarios
BIOME model vegetation-climate classification
Agroclimatic zones, length of growing season, start of growing
season, other variables
Natural emissions of methane, non-methane HC, nitrogen and sulfur
Improved Micro World Data Bank II
Soil Nitrogen mineralization and trace-gas fluxes based on global
models
Water budget of the Nile basin (precipitation, potential evaporation,
and runoff)
EPA ecological and derived climate change scenario databases (ARC/INFO
format)
Individual monthly raingauge totals from Pacific atols, 1971-1990
Global distribution of 20 Most Important Agricultural Crops
Vegetation, NPP, Net nitrogen mineralization
Improved IIASA Database and agroclimatic indices from BIOME model
Hydrometeorological datasets
T & P for Europe (.5x1 degree)
GCM scenarios
Paleoenvironmental database
5) Other known/recommended sources for data
Complete model runs with all fields from GCM runs (NCAR 1XCO2
and 2XCO2 runs)
GCM scenarios (GISS, GFDL, CCC, etc.)
NCAR GCM temperature and precipitation runs
CDIAC Trends '90 data?
Improved FAO soil map of the world (in production)
Climatic trends and series (monthly), (see reference in Appendix A,
V:#3)
Monthly interpolations for solar radiation, (see references in
Appendix A, V:#5)
Agricultural models, e.g., International Benchmark Sites Network
for Agrotechnology Transfer, and DSSAT model system (Dept. of
Agronomy, Univ. of Hawaii)
World Weather Disc CD-ROM (Weather Disc Associates, 4584 NE 89th,
Seattle, WA)
Tropical Forest Depletion - FAO, Rome
Digital Chart of the World - Defense Mapping Agency
Geophysical hazards - World Data Center
Weekly GVI, e.g., Gutman, Univ. of Maryland
Int. Satellite Cloud Climatology Project - NASA
Soviet Global Land-Use - Univ. of New Hampshire
Digitized Global Vegetation Maps (see references in Appendix A
(V:#21)
Numerical weather prediction, 3-D atmospheric structure - NCAR,
NMC/CAC
Outgoing long-wave radiation - NCDC
SPOT and LandSat data
CIA World Data Bank II (full resolution)
Sea Surface Temperature time series from AVHRR
UK Met. Office database
Total water vapor (SSM/I) - NASA
Higher resolution NDVI - NOAA/NASA
Sea Ice - NOAA
Coastal Zone Color Scanner - NASA
6) Is the yearly release schedule reasonable
0 not answered 3
1 too long 1
2 just right 25
3 too short 2
Overall ranking: (2) just right
7) Helpfulness and completeness of documentation
0 no answer/unable to evaluate 5
1 no - inadequate 1
2 poor - needs a different approach 3
3 fair - needs significant improvement 3
4 yes - good/useful, some problems 18
5 yes - excellent/very satisfactory 3
Overall ranking: (3.7) good, but has problems
Notes: Needs better installation and operation procedures, standardized dataset documentation formats with more author input, better lineage and quality information.
0 no answer 8
1 no - inadequate 4
2 fair - needs significant work 5
3 mostly - some problems 7
4 yes - adequate 8
Overall ranking: (3.3) fair to good, but needs improvement
Notes: Most of the lower scores here refer to the quality and scope of the original data, not the quality of the integration work. The poorly documented quality of existing datasets is a primary motivation for this effort.
9) Research activities of the reviewers
(See specific responses in Appendix A)
10) Potential applications of the GED
(See specific responses in Appendix A)
11) Problems in educational use:
(See specific responses in Appendix A)
12) Problems in dissemination to scientific groups
(See specific responses in Appendix A)
13) Comments on individual datasets
(See individual dataset documentation chapters in the User's Guide)