Abstract
Data-driven research on water resource planning and management of US reservation lands faces substantial challenges owing to a lack of accessible, updated, and integrated scientific data. Although several Indigenous studies have concentrated on water rights and policy, comparatively few have addressed the technical aspects of water resource planning and management of these lands. The goal of the study reported in this paper was to critically evaluate the discoverability of Water-Climate-Environment (WCE) data within Indigenous data repositories useful for data-driven water resource research. This study reviewed the implementation levels of Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability, known as FAIR guiding principles, in these scientific datasets for use by researchers. To accomplish this goal, we developed a systematic web-based search framework to identify active Indigenous-led WCE data repositories, evaluated them using FAIR principles, and offered recommendations for data utility enhancement. Our search yielded two publicly accessible data repositories: the Native Climate and Native Land Information System. The evaluation highlighted multiple key areas for the FAIRification of these data repositories, including assigning unique and persistent identifiers, enriching metadata, reformatting both data and metadata, registering data in different search engines, and specifying data use terms. These FAIRifications can enhance data discoverability and usability in data-driven water resource research for the interests of Native communities. Although this study is limited to Indigenous-led publicly accessible WCE data sources, we recommend conducting FAIR assessments of additional datasets, including those contained in larger databases or managed by non-tribal entities, as an important direction for future research.