The following are references in Environmental
Chemistry:
1. General References
o The on-line National
Library for the Environment is a very useful site with the following resources:
issue reports, environmental law, demography, and ecology.
o The EPA maintains Envirofacts, a one-stop access to data drawn from six
major EPA databases, as well as cross references to
other sources of information. A EPA portal to
information is a search engine, abstracts to
EPA reports.
o The Extoxnet Infobase (Extension
Toxicology Network) which is a cooperative effort of scientists at the
University of California-Davis,
o The Agricultural Research Service of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture maintains TEKTRAN
(Technology Transfer Automated Retrieval System). TEKTRAN provides access to
abstracts of USDA work that is very relevant to environmental science.
o CambridgeSoft maintains ChemFinder, a remarkably efficient Internet search
engine, which searches for information on specific compounds by name, formula, CAS
registry number, and molecular weight. Most of the hits are
related to toxic properties.
o The National Academy of Sciences once maintained a Web
site with most of the reports generated by the now defunct Office of Technology
Assessment. Access to the archives of the OTA is now provided
by Princeton University.
o The Department of Energy maintains EnergyFiles,
an extensive collection of links to databases relating to energy. The project is run by the Office of Scientific and Technical
Information (OSTI).
o WorldAtom is the official Web site of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Wien. The site offers an extensive array of
reports, data, and other resources.
o A joint effort of the United Nations' Environmental
Program (UNEP) and the World Health
Organization's Environmental Epidemiology Network (WHO-GEENET) is a page that
is a clearing house of Web sites related to the safe
use of chemicals, environmental epidemiology, and the persistence of chemicals
in the environment.
o Information on Population. The Centre
for Population Biology maintains The
Global Population Dynamics Database [P. Inchausti
and J. Halley, Science, 293, 655 (2001)]. Quoting
from the abstract of the article: "The GPDD is an important new source of
information for ecologists, resource managers, and environmental scientists
interested in the dynamics of new populations." The Population Division of the United Nations
maintains a Populations Database that includes access to its reports. The user
specifies the data to be accessed and displayed. A
comparable UN site is the United Nations
Population Information Network. The Population Reference Bureau maintains a
Data Finder with data from more than 220
countries. This site has an focus on issues related to
family planning.
o The World Wildlife Fund Web site contains information
on more than 800 ecoregions.
The site includes an informative map. The report Africa Environmental Report can be accessed from a UN site.
o FishBase is a database with information on more than
26,000 species of fish. The database has an environmental emphasis. The U.S. Geologic Survey maintains the NAWQA
database on water quality that contains data on the effects of pollution on
aquatic organisms.
o Earthtrends is a Web environmental almanac that is managed by the World Resources Institute in
o Contemporary geography is a cross-disciplinary field
that significantly overlaps environmental science. Gavin Richards has developed
GeoExplorer,
a Web site oriented to students at the secondary level. It is
packed with resources on physical geography. The Geo-Images Project at
the University of California-Berkeley is a large collection of images related
to geology and physical geography.
o The Circumpolar
Arctic Vegetation Map maintained at the
o The U. S. Geological Survey provides through its WWW
sites access to very useful data on water quality.
§
acid rain (available at the Branch of
Quality Systems)
§
effects of pollution on aquatic organisms
(also cited above)
§
USGS Circulars (i.e. reports)
o AQUASTAT is a
comparable Web site dedicated to water quality and assets that is maintained by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
o The Ecological Society of America maintains EcoEdNet, a
collection of essays. experiments, and exercises for
the class room that covers all aspects of ecology. You have to register at no
charge to use the resources.
o NOAA maintains an
excellent Web site for the weather. This site is used
as a source of up-to-date information by government agencies such as the U.S.
Forest Service.
o The Chemical
Safety Library, originally developed by chemists at Bristol Myers Squibb,
contains extensive information on safety.
You have to register to access the information.
2. Toxic Properties (including MSDS data sheets)
o The Office of Response and Restoration of NOAA
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) maintains an instructive ChemAids
page. ChemAids provides access to a database of
information on the chemical consequences of a disaster such as a derailment. It
also has an informative problem set.
o TOXNET
maintained by the National Laboratory of Medicine is the gateway to a
comprehensive system of databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and
related areas. This should be your first stop in finding information on the
toxic properties of a substance. The full records are very comprehensive and
include information on physical and chemical properties as well as safe use and
disposal. The HSDB database is a good place to start if you require
quantitative data.
A good place to
start in a search of the massive government databases is NIH's SIS. Links are provided
to the Specialized Information System. In starting to use the
system, search by chemical name and CAS Registry Number.
o ECOTOX is an
extensive database prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency and contains
quantitative data on the impact of toxic substances on aquatic and terrestrial
organisms. Searching for data is expedited if you have
the CAS number for the toxic substance. DSSTox, a
new site from the EPA, is an attempt to provide access to a wide range of
databases with a standard format. TOXNET is
a resource of the National Library of Medicine. It provides a searchable access
to a range of databases. If you know the CAS number, provide it.
A related EPAS
resource is the IRIS Tracer
that allows one to follow EPA assessments of hazardous substances.
Tox Town is an
interactive Website devoted to toxic substances and is
maintained by the National Library of Medicine. It is oriented to the general public and a Macromedia Flash player must be
installed in order to view its entertaining graphics.
MAPPING OF
CONCENTRATIONS OF TOXIC SUBSTANCES
Emissions of substances are tracked by two government
agencies. EPA's Toxic Release
Inventory (TRI) provides information on toxic substances. The European
Union's European Pollutant Emission
Register (EPER) covers both toxic materials and greenhouse gases. TOXMAP, a site of
the National Library of Medicine, provides a cartographical presentation of
emissions of more than 650 hazardous chemicals into the environment. The Web
site uses data from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory. Geodata is
another
o The Chemical
Reactivity Worksheet, a source of information on the reactivity of
substances, can be downloaded from NOAA. The Web site
has other information on chemical combinations that can lead to serious
accidents.
o The Instant
Chemical Hazards and Safety database is another source of data on toxic
chemicals. The database is small now but is growing. The information on the
compounds in the database is extensive. The inclusion of LD50's and other
quantitative measures of toxicity is noteworthy.
o Another good place to turn for quantitative data, e.g.
LD50's, on toxic substances is the SIRI (Safety Information Resources,
Inc.) database.
o A very comprehensive database on pesticides is
provided by a Jinno Laboratory The
database includes spectra, structures, chemical and physical properties, and
toxicological data.
o Chemical Backgrounds
is a Web site that provides informative essays on more than 100 chemicals that
have an effect on the health. Each essay addresses the properties and
pharmacology of the substance.
o MSDS Solutions is a
comprehensive Web database of MSDS data sheets. You have to registrer
to use the database but there is not fee for the registration.
o The Carcinogenic Potency Database
is maintained by pioneer Bruce Ames at the
o The Strategic Environmental Research and Development
Program (SERDP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program
(ESTCP) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) provide a number of
comprehensive databases. The ASETSDefense
(Advanced Surface Science Technologies for Sustainable Defense) database
provides information on coatings and surface-treatment technologies. For example, problems associated with chromium[VI] and green alternatives are covered in
considerable detail. The SERDP/ESTCP Online Library provides
access to reports that deal with materials used by the DOD. The scope of the library is
comprehensive. For example, the
reports address ecological effects, remediation, detection, and persistence.
o The EPA GHG site (Greenhouse Gas Emissions from
Large Facilities) provides quantitative data on emissions of greenhouse gases
by all major sources in the US.
3. Degradation of Molecules
in the Environment
o The Biocatalysis/Biodegradation
Database at the
o
o The Environmental Science Center of Syracuse Research
Corporation has generously made available the Environmental Fate Data Bases (EFDB). These databases include DATALOG, a biobliographic file; BIOLOG, sources of microbial toxicity
and biodegradation; CHEMFATE, rate data for degradation of compounds in the
environment plus physical properties; and BIODEG, experimental data from
biodegradation studies. The Web site alsdo includes
TSCATS, a database on toxic properties; KOW, a database of octanol-water
partition coefficients; and a database on compounds involved in global warming
and stratospheric ozone.
o PBT
Profiler is an online tool for predicting the persistence, bioaccumulation
potential, and toxicity of PBT chemicals such as dioxins.
o The Center for Environmental Kinetics Analysis at
4. GIS: Data Acquired from
Remote Sensing
With the support and encouragement of Vice President
Al Gore, data acquired by satellites are now available on the WWW. This section
provides links to GIS databases that are relevant to environmental science.
o Mapping
§
Many
topographical maps use the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates (i.e.northing and easting) in place of latitude and
longitude. YNPRC, the
Yellowstone National Park Research Coordination Network, at Montana State
University provides tools for converting between UTM and lat/long.
§
Those seeking
topographical maps in a 7.5' DRG (GIS format) for California can obtain the
data from the Casil
site at the University of California-Davis. If you know the USGS ID number for the
map, you can go directly to the Casil site where DRG data are stored. The Casil site
is particularly useful if you are working in an area covered by more than one
topo map as it provides untrimmed, i.e. untrimmed, topo maps.
§
Data for
§
Data for
§
The Topoview
service of the USGS provides maps including topographical maps in geotiff format that were produced
from 1884 to 2006. Maps can also be downloaded from Topoquest.
§
Topozone provides
topographical maps at its Web site.
There is a fee for downloading entire sheets.
§
Topographical
maps in geotiff format can be
downloaded at a charge from the following commercial sites: Charttiff and Mytopo.
§
The United States
Forest Service (USFS) hosts a Website which provides extensive cartographical data for national
forests. The USFS also provides an
associated site that provides 7.5’ topographical
maps for all national forests in pdf and geotiff
formats. These maps have the
advantage that they have been updated more recently that USGS topographical
maps.
§
The Map Machine
of the National Geographic Society provides for much of the world satellite
pictures and highway maps that can be enhanced with
geophysical and demographical information such as the location earthquake
faults.
§
Normally there is
a charge for topographical maps for Europe. Three sites which focus on planning
tours in Switzerland
provide upon expansion topoquality
maps: Mapplus, Wanderland, and Wandersite.
§
This Cornell University site allows you to
make a digital map with the details that you select. Some of the site's own maps are interactive.
§ Mapping data and photographs covering many areas of the US are provided by Any Place America
.§ National Weather Service, weather patterns
and forecasts
§ Department of
Commerce weather page
§ OSEI (Operational Significant Event
Imagery Team)
§ GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite Project)
§ For extreme
weather conditions, consult a special Web site from the National Climatic Data Center.
The following agencies participate in the EOS
program:
§ EROS Data Center, land features (Landsat
images) and processes
§ Goddard Space Flight Center, upper
atmosphere, atmospheric dynamics, and global biosphere
§ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ocean
Circulation and Air-Sea Interaction
§ Alaska SAR Facility, sea ice and polar
processes
§ NWIS, data on hydrology from the USGS
§ Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center,
human interactions in global change
§ Global Hydrology Resource Center, global
hydrology
§ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, biogeochemical
dynamics
§ National Snow and Ice Data Center, polar
processes, cryosphere, and climate
§ Langley Research Center, radiation budget,
clouds, aerosols, and tropospheric chemistry
§ Directory of Earth Science Data Sets
§ The National Oceanographic Data Center is a clearing house for data relating to the ocean.
§ The Flood Observatory at
o
Environmine provides an
informative page on Acid Mine Drainage.
o
The report of the Heinz Foundation on The State of the Nations Ecosystems is now
available online.
o
Expertise is a source of Green resources
for the home, e.g. solar panels.