Internet Gateway for Delivering Biodiversity Data
ESRI User ConferenceJuly 2005
Field inventory & data recording
Data management and analysis
Conservation expertise and analysis
Information access and delivery
Decision support systems
Guiding Conservation
Action
Scientific standards and methods
Connecting Science with Conservation
NatureServe Information Products - Today
NatureServe Explorer• An online, searchable database of
conservation information on more than 50,000 North American species and ecological communities
InfoNatura• Extensive conservation information on the
birds, mammals, and amphibians of Latin America
Global Amphibian Assessment• An online, searchable database of the
world's 5,743 known species of amphibians Digital Range Maps
• For all birds and mammals of the Western Hemisphere, available as downloadable ArcView shapefiles
Ecological Systems• Of the U.S. and Latin America, available as
downloadable Access databases
Evolution of Information Delivery
Current Paper field surveys Manual data entry
Co
llec
tio
n
Future Handheld GPS/GIS unit Automated data capture
Client-server architecture ArcView 3.X technology Shapefile data storage
Service Oriented Architecture ArcGIS technology Geodatabase
Man
ag
emen
t
Manual taxon. reconciliation Manual spatial data aggregation
Automated taxon. reconciliation Automated geodatabase update
Exc
han
ge
Del
ive
ry
Manual custom data process Summarized location data on Web
Automated web data delivery Spatially-enabled website
Internet GatewayWhy?
• Improve the availability and use of biological and ecological information for informing conservation and land use decisions
• Improve interoperability with international biodiversity networks (e.g., GBIF, NBII)
• Improve the currency and quality of NatureServe data products
NBII GAP Portal
GBIF Data Portal
Published Services:
Internet Gatewayto What?
What is it? • Taxonomy & classification of species and natural
communities (Elements)
Where is it? • Mapped locations of species populations and natural
communities (Element Occurrences)
How is it doing?• Quality and condition of each element occurrence• Conservation status and trend of each element type
What is it?Botanical Taxa
• 24,497 Vascular Plants – 16,566 full species & 7,931 infraspecifics
native in U.S. and/or Canada
• 2,433 Bryophytes – 1,975 full species & 458 infraspecifics
• 4,012 Lichens – 3,882 full species & 130 infraspecifics
• Plus an additional ~10,000 non-native species
InvertebratesVertebrates
1,30012,0001,748~12,000 Total Taxa
0009,170 * Latin America
1,30012,0001,7482,840U.S. & Canada
Sub-species
SpeciesSub-species
Species
* Latin American Reptiles to be added in Calendar Years 05-06
Animal Taxa
L. Master
L. Master
Piotr Naskrecki
Terrestrial Ecological Systems
Group of plant associations that tend to co-occur within landscapes with similar ecological processes, substrates, and/or environmental gradients.
~800 in US & Canada; 1,700 in hemisphere
Good for broad-scale mapping
Where is it?
Boreal Toad, Bufo boreas boreas
An Element Occurrence (EO) is an area of land and/or water in which a species population or natural community is, or was present.
Identity Date Location
How is it doing?NatureServe Conservation Status Ranks
GX — Extinct
GH — Possibly extinct
G1 — Critically imperiled
G2 — Imperiled
G3 — Vulnerable
G4 — Apparently secure
G5 — Widespread, abundant and secure Eastern Prairie White-Fringed Orchid, G3 N3
L. M
aste
r
Wood Stork, G4 N3
N-rank and S-rank equivalents are used at National and Sub-national levels
Internet GatewayHow?
Build a menu of map and web services that:• Expose selected sets of data (defined by XML schemas)• Are directly accessible to other applications• Provide a custom user experience
Improve synchronization across Network nodes:• Separate record-level data updates from taxonomic reconciliation• On-demand data exchanges (change-driven, not time-driven)• More automated (XML, web-services-based process)
Share data, control who accesses it, and how they interact with it:• Local nodes set access control policies (not one size fits all)• Maximize level of access provided by each node
Architecture Applications Layer – NatureServe
Explorer, NatureServe Vista, and other custom applications submit XML-SOAP requests to web services.
Web-Application Services Layer – core functionality is implemented as web services and map services; security services provide authentication and authorization based on data provider policies; this layer interacts with the publishing database to retrieve information in response to user/application queries.
Database Layer – includes Biotics 4 source database, publishing geodatabase, and policy store.
Local DBsub-national element &EO data
Local DBsub-national element &EO data
Local DBsub-national element &EO data
Range-wide Element Data
Aggregated EO Data
NatureServe Explorer
Self-serve, online data exploration &
visualization
Custom Data Analysis & Delivery
Lab
or
Inte
nsi
ve D
ata
Exc
han
ge
& T
axo
no
mic
Re
con
cilia
tion
NatureServe Enterprise Databases
Current Data Delivery Framework
WebService
s
WebService
s
Local DBsub-national element &EO data
Public WebsiteUser
Enterprise Geodatabase
range-wide element &
aggregated EO data
Biotics 4
WebService
sCommercial
User
Academic Researcher
Se
curi
ty L
aye
r(a
uth
ent
ica
tion
, acc
ess
co
ntr
ol)
Custom Application Interfaces
Local DBsub-national element &EO data
Biotics 4
EnterpriseServer
Website User
InterfaceNatureServe
Explorer
Au
tom
ate
d D
ata
Exc
ha
nge
&
Ta
xon
om
ic R
eco
nci
liatio
n
Internet GatewayConceptual Approach
Access Control Approach
Problem• How to deliver the most precise level of spatial resolution to
meet clients’ needs while honoring data providers’ access policies?
Our Current Approach• Present one public-facing map service to the user• Develop multiple map services that present different levels
of spatial resolution to the same underlying dataset• Redirect users to the appropriate spatial resolution map
service based on their access rights
Example stakeholders that have a vested interest in the outcome of this project:• NatureServe Network data providers• Academic Researchers • Federal Agencies • State & Local Government• Other Conservation Organizations• Industry/Commercial Partners • Data Contributors• Public Website Users
NatureServe is continuing to document stakeholder needs to determine the products and services the system should support
Involving Stakeholders
Example Web Services
Submit species name and retrieve detailed species information, including legal and conservation status
Submit a boundary, and retrieve a yes/no response indicator for threatened and endangered species in that area
Submit a boundary and legal or conservation status, and retrieve a list of the species known to occur in that area
Example Map Services
Submit species name and display all known population occurrences for that species in North America
Submit a species name and a boundary, and display all known population occurrences for that species within the provided area
Select a USGS 7.5’ quad and display all known species occurrences that intersect the quad boundary
Putting it all together
Submit Query to
Map Service
XML Results
Formatted XML
Internet GatewayTimeline
Year 1: Data access workshop, November 2004 NatureServe Leadership
Conference Establish enterprise geodatabase and DiGIR registry Hold user story workshops to gather requirements for data content and data
access
Year 2: (getting underway now)• Development iterations begin for candidate releases
• Web application interface to geodatabase content• Web services• Data synchronization process and tools
Year 3:• Development iterations continue for production releases• Implement web services at two member program pilot sites• Rollout plan for network-wide implementation
Project Contacts:• Lori Scott [email protected]• Douglas Sellers [email protected]
For More Information:• www.natureserve.org• www.gbif.net
Get involved:• Review XML schema• Beta test web services
Resources
Financial support is provided by the National Science Foundation Biological Databases and Informatics
program (grant # 0345400) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant program,
through a cooperative agreement with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental
Control.
Acknowledgements
Top Related