Environmental data represent characteristics or attributes of the environment.
Ideally, environmental data would be available to us in a form that shows patterns in space, trends in time, and attributes that occur concurrently with each other because of dependencies or interactions. Decision makers need to be able to see and understand these patterns, trends, and dependencies to predict the effects of a decision on the environment over time. These data are typically provided in lists or summaries that do not link to each other in space or time. Advances in image analysis and modeling techniques are enhancing our ability to visualize changes with time and to project possible future conditions with or without the effects of a particular decision or action. Our toolkit and many of the sites to which we link offer access to some of these techniques.