Cal-Atlas Geospatial Clearinghouse

The California Resources Agency operates and maintains the Cal-Atlas Geospatial Clearinghouse, formerly the California Spatial Information Library (CaSIL) operated by CERES. CaSIL was transitioned to the new Cal-Atlas site in late 2008.

The Cal-Atlas site facilitates the coordinated and sustainable development, maintenance, licensing and sharing of geospatial data and web map services by California government agencies, partners and stakeholders. California government agencies work with the California GIS Council, regional GIS collaboratives and the broader California GIS community to define the data architecture, systems, standards, agreements and processes for a fully integrated and effective California Spatial Data Infrastructure.

CGIA encourages support for Cal-Atlas as a repository for data sharing resources.

History of CaSIL and the CERES Program

Started July 1, 2001, the California Spatial Information Library (CaSIL) served to the public some of California's physical and cultural geospatial information, formerly distributed by the Stephen P. Teale Data Center through servers at the California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) in the Resources Agency and the CalSpace Program at UC Davis. Working primarily through the California Mapping Coordinating Committee (CMCC), CERES updated and improved CaSIL content. Grateful acknowledgement is given to NASA's funding support for CaSIL under Cooperative Agreement Notice 97-MTPE-02.

CERES (California Environmental Resources Evaluation System) had the primary goal of cataloging and making "discoverable" the tremendous volumes of data and information about Califorina's natural environment generated daily by both public and private sector organizations.

CERES accomplished this via the standards-based California Environmental Information Catalog (CEIC, pronounced "seek"). CEIC uses national standards developed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee and international standards represented by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. The California GIS Council has endorsed CEIC as California's primary National Spatial Data Infrastructure node.

CERES also developed and operated Internet portals around a number of environmental themes like watersheds and land use planning to provide one-stop-shops for environmental data and information within these domains. These portals are now consolidated as the Cal-Atlas Geospatial Clearinghouse.