Federal agencies such as NOAA, Dept. Agriculture, USGS, FWS, Census Bureau, NIH, and EPA have enormous data resources. Some of these are already used effectively - e.g. the Census Bureau Tiger Files are the basis  for the GPS units that have proliferated and are being built into many new automobiles.

NOAA's weather service and satellite surveys have provided critical information on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. USGS seismic network provides rapid information on earthquakes. 

But there are major opportunities to increase cooperation, target important practical problems and issues, and reduce inefficiencies due to inadequate cooperation and coordination among agencies. 

An important vehicle that combines Census Bureau demographic data, USGS political and geographic names and hydrographic features (lakes, streams, watersheds), EPA data on hazard, pipeline discharge, and superfund sites, and MARPLOT, a "poor man's GIS" or public domain mapping system is LANDVIEW (http://www.census.gov/geo/landview/). 

However, there are a host of opportunities to expand cooperative undertakings to integrate use of these data repositories with special attention to critical or desired needs as expressed by the user community, or seen by leaders with demonstrated vision. Here are a few

1. Water supply,

USGS with EPA's cooperation (also regional water resource agencies) hould generate national maps with keys to relative availability and use of water resource types, including areas where water is being "mined", i.e. used at rates in excess of recharge, so that water tables are systematically getting lowered with time. There are areas of the nation, like New Mexico, where mining has been going on for a long time and has or soon will reach crisis levels. Just getting these areas more visibility will encourage local and regional officials and the public to take the issue more seriously. These maps should also be linked to

2. Agricultural crops and forests

Maps of cultivated areas in the U.S. should be combined or provided with indexes of tolerances to changes in temperature. In some cases, like lodgepole pine forests currently plagued with epidemic attack by beetles, the effect of systematic temperature rise may be indirect, i.e. not threatening trees per se, but reducing their resistance to disease and attack. Total mapping of U.S. forests would need cooperation by the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service & Dept. Agriculture, U.S. Park Service, and U.S. Dept. Fish & Wildlife. That doesn't exist in systematic ways at the present, so far as I know.

Again, visualizing the sensitive areas will help raise awareness about global climate change, its impact on plants, and reduce inefficiency in uncoordinated programs.

Maps should include vegetated areas that are not currently cropped but might be employed forbiomass growth. See also Land Use, below

3.  Land use types

Many such maps are available, but are not currently easily accessible except to knowledgeable professionals. The vegetation types shown in such maps will be valuable to study CO2 uptake, and determine land possibly available to raise biomass for various purposes (including electricity generation).

At the same time, rate of fertilizer application, e.g. for lawns, landscaping would be valuable if it could be systematized. These data would help integrate nutrient inputs into water bodies like Chesapeake Bay where excess organic productivity has rendered much of the bay inhospitable to oysters.

4. Air, water, and soil chemistry and pollutants.

Distribution of pollutants  shouldn't be an arcane subject dealt with only by experts and regulators, or regarded with fear by the public. Lack of knowledge and information can get some issues to which special attention is drawn to claim disproportionate attention and cause unwise use of scarce resources that might be more efficiently employed.

The British earlier took local diets and water quality into account in setting limits for radioactive strontium (diets and water rich in calcium would make Sr 90 less toxic).  We might not be able to get that sophisticated because current lack of trust in federal regulators, but increased information will help create a more informed public.

USGS has a nearly completed national geochemical map of soils that is important. For example, some natural soils have much higher concentrations of minerals that give off radon (radioactive gas) than others. Others are naturally enriched in arsenic and other toxic metals. It's important not to confuse metals from such sources with industrial sources.

5. Energy use etc.

Maps of population density and energy use will have obvious value in looking at siting of renewable energy development.

6. Mapping illness and areal distribution (NIH, PHS, USGS)

There is major untapped potential in spatial mapping of various diseases (e.g. Lyme, respiratory illness, etc.) in providing clues to regional or other factors in their origin. Unfortunately, restrictions on releasing personal information on patients (i.e. home address) linked with illness appears to have held back useful correlations (.e.g cancer  vs. proximity to industrial sites, etc.)

More efficient yield from federal agency data and activities - how about taking a leaf from the Fraunhofer institutes?

Most people and agency employees would agree to the value of agency cooperation for public benefit -and the fact that there's not nearly enough of it. The big question is how to facilitate it.

Notwithstanding the massive data and good work involved with agencies, I know as a former federal civil servant that a significant part of the activity of many agencies goes to maintain or justify existing activities and facilities - some of to "look good" or document the performance of individuals, rather than concentrating putting effort where it would create the greatest yield.

NOAA has some of the best success among federal agencies in interfacing with the public and academic institutions. It could initiate some   no-nonesense workshops with representatives of other agencies (carefully chosen) to explore options - taking care to include the perspective of users (e.g. local and state agencies) and private industry into account. It could the then initiate practical initiatives where the will to cooperate was greatest.

The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft is an organization of 60 or more separate institutions in Germany that focus on putting research and cooperation to work in practical ways for the nations. Some of its money comes from the government, but much comes from contracts to perform specific work. It is highly prestigious and is part of the reason why for five years prior to 2008 Germany led the world in durable exports - as well as in environmental performance in renewable energy development.