What is the EDR?
The Environmental Data Registry (EDR) is a comprehensive, authoritative source of reference information about the definition, source, and uses of environmental data. The EDR is a part of the centralized Systems of Registries (SoR), which provides access to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) core registry systems. The EDR catalogs the Agency's major data collections and helps locate environmental information of interest. As the major tool supporting the Agency's data standards program, the EDR records and disseminates information about Agency data standards and the standard-setting process. The vision for EPA's data standards program is to promote the efficient sharing of environmental information among EPA, states, tribes, and other parties through the cooperative development of data standards. The EDR serves this program in two important ways.
First, as a reference tool, the EDR catalogs EPA's information resources and provides information for interpreting the environmental data. The EDR does not contain the environmental data itself, but rather information that describes the data to make it more meaningful. The EDR serves to document the diversity of data representations across information systems through central storage of application metadata. This information can be used to support initiatives to identify duplication of data, streamline information collection, and achieve information consistency and sharing across the programs.
Second, as the repository for standard data elements, the EDR fosters the use of consistently defined and formatted data elements and sets of data values. These standard data elements and values can be downloaded for use in application system design and reengineering. This capability supports initiatives to achieve enterprise information consistency through standard information representation. The data can also be accessed using the Environmental Data Registry (EDR) Portal, a search engine that enables users to search metadata registry content using a URL with integrated search capabilities. It enables users to search and seamlessly navigate to detail pages meeting the search criteria.
There is an
Overview
of the EDR and current information on the EPA data standards program in the
Registry Update Newsletter.
Who might find EDR information of interest?
The EDR is available to anyone interested in environmental information, including the public, environmental decision makers, industry, researchers, regulated entities, state and local environmental agencies, regulation writers, and computer system developers and managers. For example:
- Computer system developers and managers in EPA programs and EPA partner organizations can use the EDR to access information on approved data standards. Data element specifications and lists of permissible values (code sets) are available for downloading and use in new system design and system reengineering. Using standard data elements in application systems promotes the ability to exchange comparable data between systems. Reuse of defined data elements can streamline systems design and development.
- Interested EPA program staff, partner organizations, and the public can use the EDR to obtain information about new data standards initiatives, including copies of draft standards documents, candidate standard data elements, and current standard status. A Comments Form is provided for each data standard, and users are encouraged to comment on proposed (or existing) data standards.
- Any EPA Web site visitor can access the EDR to obtain information on EPA's information resources. The EDR helps environmental information users understand the meaning of EPA application system data. The EDR documents EPA applications by showing their table structure, the data elements within each table, permissible values associated with each data element, and the office responsible for the data. Public users can find contact or source information for the data in which they are interested.
- EPA information system professionals can use the EDR to inventory information managed across the Agency, to identify redundant data collection and storage, and to identify ways to streamline data collection and integrate information stores.
What does the EDR contain?
Number of data elements currently in the EDR: 11760
Number of submitting organizations represented in the EDR: 329
Number of information resources included in the EDR: 4309
The EDR contains EPA data standards and business rules documents, specifications for standard and candidate standard data elements, standard code sets for use as permissible values in application systems, EPA application system metadata including table structure and data element specifications and values, and news on the EPA data standard program.
What is the future of the EDR?
The EDR will continue to expand and add data elements and application metadata from existing information systems. The information on candidate data standards will be updated to support the efforts of Action Teams developing data standards by providing a location for recording data elements and tracking their progress through the standardization process. The EDR will preserve the historical meaning of Agency data over time by maintaining legacy system information.
As the collection of application metadata in the EDR continues to grow, the EDR will be an important tool that can be used to improve the effectiveness of environmental data usage. The EDR will advance and accelerate EPA's efforts to reinvent environmental reporting, reduce redundant data reporting and storage, and integrate Agency data systems. The EDR will continue to serve as the backbone to the Agency's data standards process. This will strengthen the Agency's capacity to use information effectively to manage environmental programs, and enhance the public's access to essential information for decisions about their health and the environment. If you have suggestions for including additional data collections in the EDR or comments, please use the contact us form.
Please read the
SoR Disclaimer for the Environmental Data Registry.
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