TCSF Information Technology Complete Program Outline

The following outlines a long-term program for building capacities and developing systems to enable better decision making. These include building capacity in information technologies, computer tools and human collaboration. A key component is effectively using the internet and the CERES program of the California Resources Agency for the three primary application themes described below. The Program is the result of collaborative efforts among partners over the past 12 months.

The three application themes include efforts by both the "Tahoe Group" and Sierra Economic Development District and Sierra Planning Organization (SEDD/SPO) to define and achieve separate goals/objectives of each. The "Tahoe Group" is comprised of the following partners which have agreed to participate in this program:

• California Resources Agency - CERES Project
• California Tahoe Conservancy
• California Department of Parks and Recreation
• Lake Tahoe Community College
• Sierra Economic Development District / Sierra Planning Organization (SPO/SEDD)
• Sierra Nevada College
• Tahoe Baikal Institute
• Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA)
• Tahoe Truckee Regional Economic Coalition (TTREC)
• University of California - Davis
• U. S. Forest Service
• U. S. Geological Survey

A grant from the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) is providing over 4,000 hours of staff time to TCSF through September 1997. To date TCSF has surveyed 70 organizations in the region, identifying the status of electronic communications capability, the interest in developing it further, and the information which is available and desired from each organization. During the grant, TCSF will establish home pages on the World Wide Web for at least 30 organizations, train organization staff, and identify applications which add value. CERES is acting as the server for the NTIA grant.

Capacity to implement all of these elements does not currently exist. It will need to be developed as specific goals and measurable objectives are undertaken. The time frames for these application themes and goals are delineated into three periods, which are shown for each goal/objective following the designation of which party is performing it.

The periods are:

Period I	Years 1-2
Period II	Years 3-5
Period III	Years 5-10

If the current perception is that the goal/objective needs additional funds to be accomplished, a "$" is marked next to the time period. Each goal and objective below is indicated as being part of the program for "Tahoe," "SEDD," or "Both."

This Program will be reviewed at the end of the NTIA grant period, and budgets and implementing programs for achieving future parts will be established. This Program will be continually reevaluated to reflect goals achieved, changing circumstances and needs. The need for external funding will also be continually evaluated.

The three application themes and goals are:

Application A.

Goal 1. Serve public domain data over the Internet in a usable format for land use planning and resource management activities throughout the northern Sierra Nevada bioregion with particular emphasis in the Tahoe Region. BOTH

Objectives:

• Use the CERES server to provide basic, usable, up-to-date, public domain, PC-based, GIS datasets in the following planning units: USGS 7-1/2 minute quadrangles, watersheds, counties, and the entire northern Sierra bioregion. Include the following selection of information layers for every planning unit: transportation, place names, political boundaries, Calwater watershed boundaries, quadrangle boundaries and names, surface water, topography, vegetation, public/private ownership, census, and soils. SEDD/SPO:I
• Provide additional information such as geographic databases, historical weather events, stream flow data and other water quality data, reference materials held by organizations and methods and guidelines for accomplishing restoration projects. Tahoe:I$
• Provide public access to this data via the Internet with user-friendly home pages for 30 organizations and create a Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network (TBWAN) and a Regional Index. These home pages will include up-to-date, federal geographic data committee (FGDC)-based metadata listing the datasets and ordering information. BOTH:I
• Develop and provide Internet access through CERES of FGDC-based catalogs of up-to-date information for the datasets. BOTH:II$
• Include information on each home page which identifies where information is located, what format it is in, a contact person and how to reach him or her for access to the data; BOTH:I$

Goal 2. Assist organizations, libraries, colleges and schools to become Internet-literate with Internet instruction and trouble-shooting activities, so that they may transfer GIS and other information electronically through TABWAN. BOTH

Objectives:

• Provide instruction to participating organizations to enable email and file transfer protocols among them, thereby saving money and time by replacing inefficient tape copying with Internet transfers. BOTH:I
• Provide HTML instructions for organization staff so they can create and maintain their own Internet home pages. BOTH:I
• Identify choices for serving home pages over the Internet, initially through CERES and eventually through a cost-benefit analysis which reviews their own hardware procurement, local Internet Service Providers and the establishment of one of more cooperative servers. BOTH:I$
• Assist agencies in using FGDC protocols when they become available, enabling future project data to be provided by the source in a format which can be made directly accessible electronically. BOTH:I

Goal 3. Contribute geospatial data and other information to the Internet via CERES from Sierra Planning and Economic Development District, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, US Forest Service, and others in order to 1) provide the best available information to planners, resource managers, decision makers, students and other information seekers, and 2) facilitate interagency communication and partnership development. BOTH

Objectives:

• Educate professionals at all participating organizations through a series of workshops to place their data onto the Internet. Conduct follow up session(s) to encourage and measure use of new technologies. BOTH:I
• Increase the amount of information which Tahoe Region and other northern Sierra region agencies make available on the Internet by instructing personnel about GIS and Internet technologies. As organizations become more familiar with the tools available, and as they realize the cost savings and other benefits associated with a shared information network, they will cooperate by digitizing and cataloging more of their data. BOTH:I

Goal 4. Provide increased rural and urban access to information and increased government agency operational efficiency throughout the Tahoe Region and northern Sierra Nevada region

Objectives:

• Work with the agencies to make application forms, request for proposals, job opportunities, information for bids and specs, environmental impact reports, agendas and minutes from council/board meetings, public notices and frequently asked questions available via the Internet through CERES, and allow questions to be answered by email, if staffing permits. BOTH:I$
• Establish question and answer forums (e.g. Internet newsgroups) and opportunities for scoping of environmental impacts on projects between public agencies and the private sector (including schools) to allow public access to decision makers without the need for driving to see them. BOTH:I$
• Evaluate the number of users and cost savings of the system to measure the effectiveness of the program. BOTH:I$

Goal 5. Reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) throughout the Tahoe Region and the northern Sierra Nevada region as some meetings and preparations such as agendas and preliminary information for review are replaced by telecommunications, thereby reducing costs, increasing efficiency and reducing automobile pollution. BOTH:I$

Objectives:

Evaluate the number of users of the system described above to measure the reduction in VMT during the program. BOTH:I$

Goal 6. Provide access to past and future project information (such as the Snow Creek Watershed Analysis by TRPA and the Sediment Loading Analysis Project by Lahontan Water Quality Board) to allow government and resource agencies to coordinate restoration activities in the Tahoe basin for better watershed management. Tahoe:II$

Objectives:

• Provide location and description information for past and current projects which impact resources so that future project planners may easily inventory and identify efforts by watershed. Tahoe:II$
• Link monitoring data, some provided by schools, from specific watershed projects to identify trends. Based on a more efficient inventory and identification of environmental trends, funding organizations and project applicants (including school-based environmental education programs) will target future restoration efforts in those areas which need it most. Tahoe:II$

Goal 7. Use CERES to share information and results from the comprehensive Basin-wide riparian habitat assessment project being undertaken by the California Tahoe Conservancy, U.S. Forest Service, and University of Nevada at Reno. Tahoe:II$

Objectives:

• Provide information regarding quality of existing riparian habitat for planning future habitat restoration and enhancement projects. Information will include extensive data on stream morphology, vegetative components, wildlife species population status in the form of videographic and GIS overlays and including narrative description and analysis. Tahoe:II$

Objectives:

• Collect information for watershed projects to allow evaluation of restoration and other landscape management efforts. This information must include biological, physical, economic and human components to allow comparisons between local examples and those found around the world. BOTH:II-III$

Goal 9. Identify, develop, and share information on the economy and human well being in the Tahoe Region using CERES and the Internet. Tahoe Only

Objectives:

• Work with TTREC to create a home page for TTREC and post the first economic information for the Tahoe Region which is now being generated on the Internet using CERES. Tahoe:I$
• Work with TTREC and other organizations in the Tahoe Region to identify and develop regional indicators of sustainability which integrate the economy, environment and human well being in the Tahoe Region and post them on the Internet using CERES. Tahoe:I$

Application B.

Central to this project is the development of an interactive, GIS package that relates TRPA thresholds to stresses in the Tahoe Region, and to information on sensitive areas, in order to predict the likely impact of these stresses on landscape units within the basin. Such a system would allow users to visualize the relationship of stressors to ecosystem condition, providing a powerful tool for communicating the utility of thresholds to Tahoe residents and visitors.

These indicators, housed within a GIS, would provide for a number of planning and modelling functions. TRPA could use this system to engage in proactive planning---to explore, for example, the implications of different population growth patterns within the Tahoe Region on future achievement of threshold standards within the Basin, and to set five year plans accordingly. Various user groups might be encouraged to use the system and options modelling to define the most desirable means for achieving environmental standards. This information tool, or set of tools, could serve as a catalyst for soliciting innovative ideas from stakeholders on how existing environmental standards might be achieved at the least social and economic cost.

TCSF and TRPA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with World Resources Institute and Institute for Sustainable Development to help facilitate this portion of the Program. Tahoe Only

Goal 1. Provide access to all of the TRPA thresholds on the Internet through CERES to promote understanding of the threshold system. Tahoe:I$

Objectives:

• Create a home page for TRPA and appropriate web linkages which explain all of the TRPA thresholds, the 1991 evaluation and the 1996 evaluation. I
• Provide training for key stakeholders to enable them to access and comment on TRPA thresholds. I
• Create updated reports on matters relating to TRPA thresholds. I$

Goal 2. Provide a framework which allows TRPA thresholds to be understood in a broadened context that considers spatial and functional interrelationships

Objectives

• Provide scientific assistance to help articulate and explain existing TRPA threshold results and their interrelationships. I$
• Provide assistance to design, develop and visually communicate the TRPA thresholds and other information about the Tahoe Region using the new framework and taking advantage of GIS and software presentation capabilities. II$
• Provide scientific assistance to help the Tahoe Region apply the understanding gained to the next 5-year phase of the thresholds. I-II$
• Use the Internet through CERES to disseminate the information. II$

Goal 3. Articulate and define working concepts of sustainability for application in the Tahoe Region. II-III$

Objectives

• Improve communication between stakeholder groups by facilitating community participation in defining sustainability for the Tahoe Region. II-III$
• Promote a participatory process to define a vision of sustainability for the Tahoe Region (linked to TRPA threshold interrelationships). II-III$
• Build useful and meaningful indicators of sustainability which are acceptable to the entire community. II-III$
• Create an interactive means (i.e. multimedia or virtual reality) of visually communicating information on the Tahoe Region and TRPA thresholds to residents and visitors in collaboration with LTCC and/or SNC. III$

Goal 4. Provide access to information (and the tools for managing it) which allow the Tahoe Region to use least cost approaches for achieving environmental standards. II-III$

Objectives

• Provide the means for the existing TRPA thresholds to be understood within the context of the total human environment. II-III$
• Demonstrate and inform stakeholders on developing new approaches to meeting environmental standards, including other examples where approaches have been used. II-III$
• Provide information tools to allow stakeholders to participate in the selection of different approaches for achieving environmental standards. II-III$
• Build enhanced capacity for creative solutions by persons seeking to achieve environmental compliance by offering participants the opportunity to be successful using least cost approaches. II-III$
• Create a self-developing, self-educating and self-regulating system for least cost improvements using an information-networking system on the Internet and CERES, to share experiences and new data sets. II-III$

Application C.

Increase educational quality and effectiveness by connecting schools, teachers, and students with resource professionals on the Internet through CERES Tahoe Only

Goal 1. Increase the quality of education in public schools by providing access by schools to resource professionals, first on the local area network (TTCN) and then encouraging Internet using CERES, home pages and email questions. Tahoe

Objectives:

• Build on the Sustainability Curriculum Program with Tahoe K-12 teachers established by TCSF and its partners SNC and UNEX, U.C. Davis, to set up email communications and project assistance during the school year. Tahoe:I$
• Provide assistance to local schools with information about Internet access, equipment, and training. Tahoe:I$
• Support teachers in learning to use the new technology by conducting training programs, and participating with teachers in dialog with their administrators, first on TTCN and then on the Internet Tahoe:I$

Goal 2. Encourage schools to provide a permanent, geospatial record of environmental, resource management and sustainability projects performed by students and include them on web pages, to share results within and among schools and agencies. These records will enable trend analysis through the use of graphical tools. An example is the ongoing tree surveys at Burton Creek State Park. Tahoe:II-III$

Objectives:

• Provide HTML training to school staff to enable them to create a home page on the Internet for each school, with web pages and links to each project, by type, results, year, etc. Staff can then train students to create, maintain and expand these links. Tahoe:I-III$

Goal 3. Use CERES and the Internet to provide a continuing linkage to other schools around the world (e.g. the students of Lake Baikal, Russia and the City of Baikalsk, Russia, sister City of South Lake Tahoe, for watershed-type projects at each lake) to increase the quality of science education through collaborative learning. Tahoe:II-III$

Objectives:

• Establish strategic alliances among Tahoe schools and others, encourage them both to use email correspondence among students, and use of the web for project collaboration and student peer learning for projects of interest. Tahoe:I-III$