[SDI-Africa] FW: Here be Lions (Using Google Earth on Tanzanian biodiversity data)

[Ragnvald Larsen]

(Sorry for the cross posting for people also being on the TZGISUG mailing
list :)

 

Hello all,

     As some of you may know I have been working on a project for Tanzania
Mammal Atlas Project (TMAP). One of the results is some code which can be
used for making presence/absence data available:

 

http://tzgisug.or.tz/tikiwiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=6

 

Working with UMN Mapserver is not easy. The system has to be set up (HostGis
<http://www.hostgis.com/linux>  may help with this). Then you need to make
some fairly sophisticated code to run the whole thing. It is certainly
possible, but you will need time and persistence. All of it is just fine if
you have a couple of years experience with databases, GIS and programming.
But is there another way?

 

Last week I received an email from Megan Goddard with Google on the SDI-East
Africa mailing list, forwarded by Lorant Czaran. In her email Megan
suggested Google Earth & Maps could be used for various content in East
Africa. An outreach group will visit East Africa by the end of October.

 

Since I anyway am going to Arusha to do some work on the TMAP database next
week, I was inspired to look more closely at what Google could offer. I had
heard about the Kml-format (Kmz is the same file just zipped), I am a keen
user of Google Earth and I have even experimented with place marks and
simple image overlays. To cut it short I set out to do the same thing we are
doing with the “Countless” project
(http://www.mindland.com/countless_qdgc_demo/). The attached kmz-file is the
results of a day worth playing around an old copy of the TMAP database, PHP
and KML-files.

 

It should be possible to generate these kmz-files on demand, or preferably
as a batch job every weekend. This would give updated TMAP data on Google
Earth. Given the number of tourists visiting East Africa using a system like
this is likely to attract a lot of users. It is of course not a problem to
expand it to other species. TMAP is just one of the biodiversity oriented
databases around.

 

But this is a test/proof of concept only. There are a lot of survey data in
East Africa waiting to be published for the general public. Generalizing
data using QDGC is something I have discussed in a paper published at the
TAWIRI conference (Larsen 2005) and at the SCB conference this year (Larsen
2007).

 

For those of you interested in updated Lions data for Tanzania look up the
current map from Tanzania Mammal Atlas here:

 

http://www.tanzaniamammals.org/content/mammal.php?id=LN

 

 

Regards

 

Ragnvald

 

References:

* www.zonums.com <http://www.zonums.com/>  SHP2KML-software helping me to
export the QDGC shapefiles and understand how to build KML.

* QDGC: http://www.qdgc.org <http://www.qdgc.org/> 

* HostGis: http://www.hostgis.com/linux/

* Larsen, R., Holmern. Maliti and Røskaft.  2007. A Tool for Improving
Conservation Planning and Prioritization: - Mapping Biodiversity Using QDGC.
Society of Conservation Biology meeting 2007. Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

* Larsen, Ragnvald. 2006. Web Mapping Biodiversity. TZGISUG website:
http://tzgisug.or.tz/tikiwiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=6

* Larsen, R., Mduma, S., Maliti, H., Kaaya, J., Machoke, M. and Frederick,
H. 2005. Generalisation of spatial wildlife data in Tanzania. Arusha. TAWIRI
conference.

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