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Suggested Citation:"OVERALL LESSONS LEARNED." National Research Council. 2001. Resolving Conflicts Arising from the Privatization of Environmental Data. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10237.
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WAR AND PEACE AMONG STAKEHOLDERS 72 so far, apparently because the commercial market is not sufficiently mature to generate a financial return within a period of time consistent with private investments.d Lessons learned. When the commercial market is not mature, it may be difficult for federal agencies to find commercial partners. Under such circumstances the agency and the scientific community will have to evaluate their priorities and determine whether the data should be collected exclusively with public funding. a SAR data is currently available from European (ERS-1, -2), Canadian (RADARSAT), and Japanese (Japan Earth Remote-Sensing Satellite) spacecraft, as well as from two U.S. shuttle missions (Shuttle Imaging Radar mission series and the Shuttle Radar Terrain Mapping mission). Planned missions include the European ENVIronment SATellite (ENVISAT)-1, Canadian RADARSAT II, and Japanese Advanced Land Observation Satellite spacecraft. b Agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency concerning the direct reception, archiving, processing, and distribution of ERS-2 SAR data. ESA0169, August 28, 1995, 17 pp. A description of the terms of access to the European, Canadian, and Japanese spacecraft is given in NRC, 1998, Review of NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., p. 109–129. c Conference Report 106–379 on H.R. 2684, Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2000. House of Representatives, October 13, 1999. d Letter from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to NASA's LightSAR Announcement of Opportunity Coordinator, May 4, 1999. OVERALL LESSONS LEARNED In public-purpose environmental information systems a full and open data policy is optimal for collecting and synthesizing a wide range of observations, detecting scientific surprises, and avoiding or discovering processing or calibration errors. Commercial data that are provided without restriction and at reasonable prices are a valuable addition to public-purpose information systems. Providing unrestricted access can be compatible with commercial goals, either because the commercial market will not be adversely affected by open use and publication of the data, services are of greater value than the underlying data, the priorities of the commercial vendor have changed, or because the potential long-term gain far outweighs any lost short-term profit. Restricted data can sometimes be used for public purposes, such as when a scientific audit or

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Reliable collections of science-based environmental information are vital for many groups of users and for a number of purposes. For example, electric utility companies predict demand during heat waves, structural engineers design buildings to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes, water managers monitor each winter's snow pack, and farmers plant and harvest crops based on daily weather predictions. Understanding the impact of human activities on climate, water, ecosystems, and species diversity, and assessing how natural systems may respond in the future are becoming increasingly important for public policy decisions.

Environmental information systems gather factual information, transform it into information products, and distribute the products to users. Typical uses of the information require long-term consistency; hence the operation of the information system requires a long-term commitment from an institution, agency, or corporation. The need to keep costs down provides a strong motivation for creating multipurpose information systems that satisfy scientific, commercial and operational requirements, rather than systems that address narrow objectives. Resolving Conflicts Arising from the Privatization of Environmental Data focuses on such shared systems.

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