The Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) was a cooperative
multiagency effort to assess the ecological condition of the
Southern Appalachian region.  Geographic information system 
(GIS) technology and data played a vital role in the assessment
process.   

This data base was assembled with primarily publically available
data from Federal and State agencies.   A great deal of effort
was made in converting the data into a common, useable format.
GIS provided the vehicle to accomplish that.

Each level of the data base contains a directory containing 
information about the datasets.  These directories, called 
metadata, often will supply the answers to questions about
the datasets.  However, the metadata is incomplete and at times
insufficient.  Revised metadata files for many of the datasets
will be accessable through the SAMAB Southern Appalachian Home
Page at URL:  
                http://www.lib.utk.edu/samab

A readme directory at each level provides information, including,
contents.txt, which is the directory contents listing.  At the
top level of each disc, the readme directory contains other
general information.  The file, sadb_all.txt, is a listing of the
entire data base in a structure format.

Karl A. Hermann
3/21/96