Mapping the risks : assessing the homeland security implications of publicly available geospatial information
Assesses the homeland security implications of publicly available geospatial data and information. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, many agencies within the federal government began restricting some of their publicly available geospatial data and information from such sources as the World Wide Web. As time passes, however, decisionmakers have begun to ask whether and how such information specifically helps potential attackers, including terrorists, to select U.S. homeland sites and prepare for better attacks. The research detailed in this book aims to assist decisionmakers tasked with the responsibility of choosing which geospatial information to make available and which to restrict.
The earth below : purchasing science data and the role of public-private partnerships
The science data purchase program, also known as the science data buy (SDB) has been a success in supplying commerical remote sensoring data that serves NASA science requirements, but plans for it's continuation are uncertain. Although NASA has said that it will purchase science data when it is cost-effective to do so, trather than build new satellites, there is little guidance on determaining cost-effectiveness. This study was organized to examine the public-private partnerships in remote sensoring, metrics for evaluating such partnerships, the types of partnerships that might be most appropriate for NASA's earth science enterprise and options for the future of NASA's SDB. The authors believe that the "data clearinghouse" is likely to be the most appropriate partnership model for acquireing, maintaning and distributing data. The study cautions that NASA needs to understand and choose what kind of buyer of private remote sensoring data it wants to be beofre it develops specific cost-effectiveness metrics, and that it should clearly articulate the role of the SDB with respect to an overall strategy for eart science research.
START Implementation Plan 1997-2002
The primary goals of the SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training in global change science (START), which is co-sponsored by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP); the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP); and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) are to promote regional global change science and to enhance the capacity of individuals, institutions and developing regions to undertake such research. 
START capacity building initiatives include the recognition that human capacity building is much more than training and that, as with all development, sustainable development is best. Once-off training exercises are easy to organize, but are the least effective method of capacity enhancement and result in large cost/benefit ratios. In contrast, sustained development of human capacity through continual involvement with research maximizes efficiency and minimizes the cost/benefit ratio. START seeks to enhance regional global change research while at the same time enhancing the individual and institutional capacity to conduct such research. The details as to how START operates, and how it plans to encompass its vision and meet its objectives are given in the START Implementation Plan.