Full document / COSOC-W-86-002 - the National Sea Grant Library

472
Estuarine andCoastal Management Tools of the
Trade. Proceedings of theTenth National Conference
of TheCoastalSociety. October 12-15,1986. New
Orleans, LA. Copyright byTheCoastal Society
1987.
DETERMINING ANDSERVICING MARINE POLLUTION DATA AND
INFORMATION NEEDS OFESTUARINE ANDCOASTAL ZONE
MANAGERS AND DECISION MAKERS
OPDIN Structured to Serve
James Bcrger and Ronald Smith
Ocean Polltitjon Data and Information Network
National Oceanographic DataCenter
NationalOceanicand Atmospheric Administration
Washington.DC 20213
The Ocean Pollution Data and Information Network (OPDIN)
includes a Central Coordination and Referral Office (CCRO) and
Regional services through National Oceanographic Data Center
Liaison Offices in Anchorage, Alaska) Seattle, Washington; La
Jolla, California; Miani, Florida; and Woods Hole,
Massachusetts. The CCRO primarily serves the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan community of managers and decision makers, and
provides national services to the Regional Offices. The
Regional Offices deal with the communities in their respective
regions on a day-to-day basis and have an intimate understand
ing of the current issues and resources in their regions.
The Typical Roquest
An Example of CCRO Request Response. Figure 1, illustrates
some of tho Network resources available to the decision
maker. In this example, the customer is provided with a
complete inventory of information, data and expertise relevant
to his problem, including its source, availability, cost and
access timeliness. As each customer describes his needs,
the OPDIN staff member enumerates the features of potentially
relevant Network resources (CCRO Response in Figure 1). Cus
tomer soloctions guide the staff through each resource to the
products that satisfy the request (Products in Figure 1).