The Regional Information Clearinghouse
In 1998, NARC began the development and implementation of the RIC database to help bring rural and urban regional communities relevant and current environmental planning, modeling data and information. This database not only looked at specific regions, it also compared data cutting across jurisdiction boundaries. This database was also created to address how certain regions compared with others. The RIC database has sought to help to identify regional markets and aid in environmental planning that reaches rural and urban settings in a more timely and efficient manner and allows for more interaction between the urban core and rural regions. RIC partitions the entire U.S. into regions, so that, for the first time, regions can compare themselves to other regions in the United States.
RIC Database Central Mandate
The central mandate of NARC’s RIC is to help the regional organizations, RCs and MPOs stay ahead of the regional challenge curve in an efficient manner by:
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Continuously assembling a centralized Regional Data System that can advance regional interests and projects by incorporating relevant new data files and descriptive accounts as soon as they become available and by making the data available to members in a user-friendly format
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Using the data centrally to prepare recurring local state of the region reports and regional visioning or futures analysis projects and other studies to support regional communities’ strategic planning and policy development
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Making the data universally available on an up or down scale for local regional, state or federal use
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Keeping the system current
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Making the information available to regional community leaders and citizens, and their organizations, in an easy to use and access format, e.g., creating “regional extracts” and “regional profiles” that are available over the World Wide Web or other mediums
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Assisting community leaders and citizens, and their organizations, to apply the information to critical regional challenges, including making them aware of new developments and developing tools to facilitate the sharing of ideas and best practices