Laguna Watershed Knowledgebase

Research and monitoring provide lenses into the health of our watersheds and guide our work to conserve, restore, and educate. Often data and materials are difficult to find and use beyond the original project that produced it, and it can be a time-consuming endeavor to assemble data for a larger view.
There are many efforts in our region to standardize and coordinate data collection, improve data quality and access, and aggregate datasets for analysis, but there is a pressing need for a more coordinated, community approach to information management. The San Francisco Bay Area Conservation Commons (SF Commons) is an initiative dedicated to making our collective environmental information accessible and more useful for purposes of climate change research, regional conservation planning, and local stewardship. By supporting an actively involved community and bringing the information together in a relevant user environment, the SF Commons will allow us to leverage our collective knowledge toward collaborative solutions and respond effectively to environmental challenges of the present and future. I will describe the vision of the SF Commons, plans for addressing data management challenges we face in our organizations and as a community, the status of the effort, and how you can be involved in building the Commons.