A NEW PARADIGM FOR GEOSCIENCES INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Over the past two decades, geoscientists have been increasingly engaged in providing answers to complex environmental problems with significant societal, political, and economic consequences. Today, they have to perform under higher visibility by stakeholders. Their activities are much more scrutinized in regards to economic pressure, litigation support and regulatory compliance than in the past. Stakeholders are beginning to want to evaluate raw data, rather than just examine summaries in final reports. They also need assurance, partly because of legal reasons, that data control and quality procedures were followed.

In order to effectively respond to these problems, Geoscientists are now faced with the challenge of cost effectively collecting, managing, analyzing, and synthesizing multidisciplinary and complex information. This information must be processed and disseminated in a way that allows stakeholders to make informed and rational decisions. The new paradigm is clear – Stakeholders needs must be better met, and the systems used to store and generate information must meet these needs.

This paper addresses the challenges and implications of this new paradigm on geosciences information management in the 21st Century. It concludes with a case study for a successful implementation of the new paradigm in an Environmental Restoration Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory operated by the Department of Energy. This project has been forced to upgrade its data and business processes to better address stakeholder concerns about data accessibility, control and quality.