Conservation Geoportal

The Conservation Geoportal was an online

web map service relevant to biodiversity conservation. It is currently defunct.^{[citation needed]} The site, its contents and functionality were free for anyone to use and contribute to. The Conservation Geoportal was launched on June 28, 2006 at the joint Society for Conservation Biology and Society for Conservation GIS Conference in San Jose, California, USA. As of October 2007, it included metadata for over 3,667 GIS records.^[1]

History

The Conservation Geoportal was conceived when representatives from a group of conservation-minded organizations met at the National Geographic Society in March 2005 to define a vision for a World Conservation Base Map. Initially the focus on developing an inventory or catalog of datasets and maps in the form of a metadata database was to be mined to develop the Conservation Base Map and Atlas.

Overview

The Conservation Geoportal constitutes a collaborative effort by and for the conservation community to facilitate the discovery and publishing of GIS data and maps, to support conservation decision-making and education. It does not actually store maps and data, but rather the descriptions and links to those data resources. These descriptions are known as metadata. It was intended to provide an efficient point of access for people interested in a full range of conservation-related GIS data. Capabilities of the Conservation Geoportal included:

Search for data and maps by keyword, category, geography, or time period
Save search queries for future use
Use the built-in Map Viewer to display, manipulate, and combine live map services
Map viewer supports
OpenGIS standards (WMS, WFS, WCS) and ArcIMS
services

Create, save, and email custom maps using data from various

web map service

Publish metadata for maps and data so others can find them
Featured Map section
Content in designated thematic data channels
Share information with other geoportal

Status

Sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, National Geographic Society and UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre
~2,000 visitors per month at its peak
~3,667 metadata records & 515 registered users

Data channels

The Conservation Geoportal included Data Channels and Sub-channels to organize and facilitate access to metadata describing data and maps in a given topic or theme. Channels provided quick access (2 clicks to content) to key data resources that experts consider important to the larger user community. Channels were managed by organizations and experts (channel stewards) knowledgeable about that theme, including:

Conservation areas: Conservation areas can include existing legally protected areas, as well as areas of ecological or cultural significance identified through assessment and planning efforts. They represent areas where conservation activities are currently taking place or where one or more organizations intend to take action
Species: Species distributions including amphibian, birds, fish, mammals and many others
Habitats: Habitats and ecosystems
Threats: Threats to biodiversity
Environmental factors: Physical environmental factors including soils, geology, land cover/land use and oceanography
Socioeconomics: Factors including population, economy, policy, culture, indigenous rights, ecosystem services
Base map layers: Layers including roads, political boundaries, and satellite imagery

Geoportal consortium

The Conservation Geoportal was designed and maintained collaboratively by a consortium of institutions including (in alphabetical order):

American Museum of Natural History
Conservation International
Environmental Systems Research Institute
IUCN
- The World Conservation Union
NASA
National Geographic Society
NatureServe
Smithsonian Institution
The Nature Conservancy
UNEP - World Conservation Monitoring Centre

University of Maryland - Global Land Cover Facility
USGS - National Biological Information Infrastructure

Technology

The Conservation Geoportal was based on

OpenGIS

standards, as:

ISO 19115 metadata
standards

Harvesting from ArcIMS, Z39.50, OAI, and WAF based metadata repositories
OpenGIS WFS, WMS, and WCS
services through the map viewer

ArcIMS Image and ArcGIS Image Server
OpenLS geocoder

Mashup capabilities

The Map Viewer let users overlay or mashup data layers from different map servers, which may be hosted by different organizations using different protocols (e.g.,

Web site

.

Parent project

The Conservation Geoportal was intended to support the principles and objectives of the

open access to and unrestricted use of, data, information and knowledge related to the conservation of biodiversity

with the belief that this will contribute to improving conservation outcomes.

References

^ Conservonline. "GeoPortal Status - October 2007". Conservonline. Archived from the original on November 8, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2007.

Sources

Biasi, F. 2007. New Conservation GeoPortal Taps into a World of Maps and Data, ArcWatch (May)
ArcNews Online Conservation GeoPortal to Support Worldwide Data Sharing and Discovery. (Summer 2006)
ConserveOnline (2006) Short Concept Paper on Conservation Basemap, Atlas, & GeoPortal. (.doc format)

External links

[status-1] Conservonline. "GeoPortal Status - October 2007". Conservonline. Archived from the original on November 8, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2007.

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