goddess of agriculture, whose symbol - the poppy - is the California State Flower,
the acronym CERES stands for California Environmental Resources Evaluation
System.
The Resources Agency is building an advanced high-technology system called
CERES that will collect and distribute information about California's
rich and
diverse natural heritage over "electronic highways." Named for Ceres, the Roman
goddess of agriculture, whose symbol - the poppy - is the California State Flower,
the acronym CERES stands for California Environmental Resources Evaluation
System.
At the touch of a keyboard, the complex, but user-oriented network will put a wealth of scientific facts, figures and findings at one's fingertips. It will instantly access a "library" of information, analytical tools and services from a wide array of sources, which include other data systems that reach far beyond California.
"CERES will stitch together diverse information and develop electronic highways to move it around," said Michael Mantell, the state's undersecretary for Resources.
The CERES network will help to sustain biodiversity by furnishing information about resource interdependence, thereby making it easier to manage and protect ecosystems, and to progress from narrower traditional conservation strategies based on individual sites and species.
Bioregions to get CERES
At first, the network, data, tools and services will be focused on bioregions where development, economic or community needs require information and cooperation to improve environmental decision-making. Four bioregions identified as sites for innovative programs in ecosystem and species planning are the Klamath-North Coast, Sierra Nevada, San Francisco Bay-Delta area, and the South Coast.
CERES is designed to assist in natural resources planning and decision-making, research, and education. It will enhance the consistency of information, and eliminate costly and time-consuming duplication of effort in gathering and compiling scientific data.
The network will be accessible to public agencies, non-governmental and private groups, the business sector, and the general public through personal computers and bulletin board systems in public libraries statewide. More advanced capabilities will be made available regionally on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) workstations.
The system will access data about vegetation from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; wildlife from the Department of Fish and Game; land use, such as farmland mapping, from the Department of Conservation and general plans and environmental impact reports from the counties. Text reports, statistical tables, photographs, and satellite imagery, also will be accessible.
In addition, through partnerships and other agreements, CERES will tap into databases of the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U. S. Geological Survey; the Interior Department's National Biological Survey (NBS), the University of California's massive Sequoia 2000 network, and the Australian Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN). The partnerships will help to minimize costs.
The California Executive Council on Biological Diversity will serve as a forum to guide, support and implement CERES. The council's 26 member agencies representing federal, state and local government, are committed to developing and managing information for entire ecosystems.
Robert Ewing of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, who is helping to coordinate creation of the CERES, told the council at its meeting in September that California needs a new approach to conservation that will help to avoid endangered species listings and the potential for economic upheavals.
"California is growing fast - by 600,000 to 1 million people a year - and we must accommodate this rapidly growing population within the constraints of our natural resources," Ewing said. "CERES will provide information from many sources that we need to help us deal with this growth more effectively."
Also coordinating CERES are Carol Whiteside, the governor's director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Gary Darling, technology adviser to the Resources Agency.
CERES will offer a variety of analytical "tools," such as visualization programs, forecasting models, and GIS technology, which display and analyze how biological features, such as wildlife and habitat, relate to each other over space and time, the ecosystem, and land use. Training to ensure full use of the network's data, analytical tools and services will be provided.