1. A computer processor-implemented method for accessing environmental information, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving first environmental information regarding a proposed environment-modifying project, including information about project information, setting information, impact information, or mitigation information, wherein project information comprises information about an environment-modifying natural event or construction project; wherein setting information comprises information about a natural, constructed or socioeconomic feature in the area of the project; wherein impact information comprises information about a change to the setting brought about by the project; and wherein mitigation information comprises information about a feature designed to ameliorate a potential environmental impact of the project; (b) automatically associating at least some of the first environmental information within a source of information with metadata, including some interrelated project information, setting information, impact information, and mitigation information, wherein the metadata is selected from a controlled vocabulary or a user-defined vocabulary to characterize the first environmental information, at least some of the terms of metadata existing in an electronic thesaurus, wherein the electronic thesaurus comprises equivalent terms; (c) receiving a request from a computer for requested environmental information in the form of a search term, specific value or other user-specified indicator, the requested information being the first environmental information or any information associated with metadata or other information derived at least in part from the first environmental information; (d) relating the search term, specific value or other user-specified indicator to the metadata in the electronic thesaurus to facilitate identification of responsive sources of information corresponding to the requested environmental information; (e) identifying the responsive sources of information corresponding to the requested environmental information; and (f) displaying a listing of a plurality of responsive sources of information indicators, with the order of the responsive sources of information indicators corresponding to a weighting of metadata terms associated with the responsive sources of information.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata specifies a scientific name.