California Rivers Assessment Interactive Database

The California Rivers Assessment (CARA) is a computer-based data management
system designed to give resource managers, policy-makers, landowners,
scientists and interested citizens rapid access to essential information and
tools with which to make sound decisions about the conservation and use of
California's rivers.

The California Rivers Assessment has the following goals: To provide a
computerized forum for collecting, storing, analyzing, exchanging and
retrieving river-related resource data; Improve coordination between local,
state and federal agencies, other organizations and the interested public; To
develop a perspective on the demands and uses of California's river resources;
and establish a process for evaluating and assessing river resources on an
ongoing basis.

Although a substantial amount of information about California's rivers is now
stored in computers, the locations and formats for this information vary, often
making it difficult to access and use. The second phase of the California
Rivers Assessment is design of a data management system called an Aggregated
Information Model (AIM) that makes a wide range of river-related information
available at a single location in a consistent format. As in Phase I, the Reach
File system and Hydrologic Unit Codes provide a common, statewide geographic
reference framework for integrating data from different sources.

The development of the AIM began with the acquisition and integration of
computer-based river resource information on 13 of California's 149 river
basins. These "demonstration basins" were chosen to reflect California's wide
range of biological diversity. The Aggregated Information Model now
incorporates 60 or more data sets for each of 120 river basins. These layers
include vegetation, land ownership, dams, water quality parameters, rare and
endangered species, native fish, National Wetlands Inventory designations,
soils and farmlands inventories. By June 1998, all of California's 149 basins
will have a uniform set of aggregated data, as well as other specific local
data sets.

AIM allows users to produce custom maps from GIS layers by providing a query
system over the World Wide Web. "ICE MAPS" (Interactive California
Environmental Mapping, Assessment and Planning System) enables users to create
and download their own maps by defining a region within the state and selecting
desired data sets. Map products include a title bar, scale bar, legend, links
to related Internet sites and tabular data where available. A new version of
"ICE MAPS" is also available, that allows users to actually query the AIM data.