Geospatial information can empower decision-making on "extremely important" concerns in developing countries, such as development andenvironmental conservation, said Susan Wolfinbarger, from the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Global geospatial group to promote equitable data access

Gozde Zorlu

18 August 2011 | EN

A high-level global group promoting geospatial information could help developing countries gainbetter access to data to help tackle issues such as climate change, conservation and disastermanagement.

The UN has set up an expert committee and a programme on global geospatial information management under its Economic and Social Council to encourage international cooperation and establish best practice on the use of geographic data, collected by technologies such as remote sensing and the global positioning system (GPS).

The decision, announced last month (27 July), was triggered by a report earlier this year by the UN secretary-general that concluded that many developing countries have a "serious lack of institutional capacity to harness the enormous potential of geospatial information technologies and to build a sustainable national infrastructure".

There have been several efforts to manage such information, including the Permanent Committee for Geospatial Data Infrastructure of the Americas (PC-IDEA) and the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP).

"But these discussions have been regional in focus," said Paul Cheung, director of the new initiative and head of the UN’s statistics division in New York.

"There is a need for a global platform, for all countries to come together and focus on all of the issues. That is why we have created this committee," he told SciDev.Net.

A key task will be to standardise geospatial information and applications to enable the sharing of data and services across borders.

According to Cheung, geospatial data is increasingly owned by multinational corporations, which sell software and platforms to developing countries that may not have the capacity to know what the best products are or how best to use them. The new committee could help represent developing countries and advise them on building up their national institutions.

"Spatial information and analysis lie at the heart of nearly all major international peace, global health and economic development problems," Mark Becker, a geospatial applications expert at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, United States, told SciDev.Net.

"Having a central committee focused on setting standards for accuracy of data and guidelines for the fair redistribution of data is essential," he said.

Becker added that the new committee could increase the efficient use of spatial information in projects for developing countries, such as managing refugee centres and immunisation programmes.

"If you can easily discover and download data that is critical for your operations and not have to create it yourself you have increased your efficiency," he said.

Geospatial information can empower decision-making on "extremely important" concerns in developing countries, such as development andenvironmental conservation, said Susan Wolfinbarger, from the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"Given the rapid development of technologies such as remote sensing, mapping and GPS, a group of experts on geographic technology is essential to help develop standards for data quality, cooperation and use of geospatial information," Wolfinbarger added.

The first UN high-level forum on geospatial information management is scheduled to take place in Seoul, Korea, in October to bring together countries, international organisations and the private sector.

"But at the end of the day, it is governments that will have to decide on issues," said Cheung.

Link to UN secretary-general’s ‘Global geospatial information management’ report [217kB]

source: http://www.scidev.net/en/science-communication/open-access/news/global-geospatial-group-to-promote-equitable-data-access.html

Please feel free to share FREE ACCESS to ITC’s Market Analysis Tools with your colleagues or partners in developing countries by forwarding this email message.

ITC’s Market Analysis Tools offer the possibility of visualizing data with tables graphs and maps. Here is a brief summary:

§ Trade Map: an international trade statistics database covering over 5300 products of the Harmonized System, and up to 15,000 products at national tariff line level for over 220 countries and territories. The yearly data for 2009, both direct and mirror data, are available for more than 200 countries or territories. 70 countries have reported their 2010 Q4, representing almost two thirds of world trade. Monthly data is as current as March 2011 for some countries. Trade Map presents indicators on export performance, international demand, alternative markets and the role of competitors from both the product and country perspectives.

§ Market Access Map: a database providing tariff information (customs duties) for 184 countries, incorporating regional and bilateral preferences arising out of bilateral and regional trade agreements. It also allows users to analyse the protection of any geographic grouping and sectoral aggregation. In addition it offers the possibility of simulating tariff reductions using various negotiation formulae.

New! In the second half of 2011, Market Access Map will be replaced by a new integrated application offering comprehensive solutions for analysing market access measures worldwide, including tariffs, non-tariff measures (compulsory regulations) and trade data.

.       Investment Map: tracks global trends through a statistical database detailed by sector and by country (ISIC nomenclature). It is the only web-based platform to provide such detailed information on FDI flows and stock combined with trade and tariff data, as well as with information on more than 130,000 foreign affiliates located in developing countries. Investment Map country coverage increased significantly in 2010, showing detailed FDI data on about 100 economies.

§ Standards Map: a recently launched web-based tool that centralizes and disseminates information on private (or voluntary) standards and related research material to strengthen the capacity of producers, exporters and buyers to participate in sustainable production and trade.

To make the most effective use of our powerful tools, we also offer a complete self-guided training facility with video tutorials, downloadable presentations, practical exercise and user guides to help our users master the important features of the tools such as performance indicators, bubble graphs and maps: www.intracen.org/marketanalysis/DistanceLearning.aspx

Should you require any additional information, please contact: marketanalysis@intracen.org

See : http://www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/spatial-data

Note that the Globally Threatened Birds are available from the Birdlife Data Zone.

The 2010 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species contains assessments for almost 56,000 species, of which about 28,000 have spatial data. This spatial data collection provided below is for most of the comprehensivley assessed taxonomic groups such as amphibians, mammals, threatened birds, reef-building corals, groupers, wrasses, angelfish, butterflyfish, seasnakes, seagrasses and mangroves. Spatial data is also provided for many of the reptile species that have been assessed. Other groups will be added to this collection once they are mapped. It is important to note that some species listed as Data Deficient are not mapped. These data are made freely available to the public to help inform conservation planning and other decision making processes. For more information about the assessment process, please see the IUCN Red List website (http://www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/assessment-process).

The data are held in shapefiles, the ESRI native format and contain the known range of each species. Ranges are depicted as polygons. DBF files accompanying each polygon contain taxonomic information, and contain information on distribution status, sources and other details about the maps (see metadata document).  To limit the size of the shapefiles that are available to download, the higher taxonomy is not included in the data sets, only the genus and species name. The higher taxonomy including the current Red List Category information is available under each section, in excel format (these are the same data you would get if you ran a search on the Red List web site and exported the results as a CSV file), and you are able to join this file with the shapefiles when downloaded.

For ease of distribution and downloading the data is divided by taxonomic groups.

The data is available both in ESRI File Geodatabase format and the ESRI Shapefile format and is held in geographical coordinates. Please note that the files are large, and download times could be quite lengthy.

While this data is made freely available to the public, please note that unfortunately we cannot provide technical support for use of the data in analyses or general GIS support.

Data Links

Mammals
Birds
Groupers

Amphibians
Angelfish
Wrasses

Corals
Butterflyfish
Mangroves

Reptiles
Parrotfish
Seagrasses

Mammals

The ranges are available as a single data set (file Geodatabase) for all mammals or broken out into smaller data sets as shapefiles. The ranges are broken out by grouping families containing predominantly marine and terrestrial species.

The terrestrial file includes all mammals, excluding species in the families Otariidae, Phocidae and Odobenidae (i.e. all seals, sea lions and walrus), Balaenidae, Balaenopteridae, Delphinidae, Eschrichtidae, Iniidae, Monodontidae, Neobalaenidae, Phocoenidae, Physteridae, Platanistidae, and Ziphiidae (all whales, dolphins and porpoises), and everything in the Order Sirenia (manatees and dugongs). The latter families are included in the Marine shapefile.

All mammals – 2010 (zip file, 365.7 MB)

Mammals – terrestrial (zip file, 374 MB)

Mammals – marine (zip file, 356.4 MB)

See metadata document for further information.

Mammals – full taxonomy and Red List status (note that there are more species in this list than are mapped and the list does not include subspecies or subpopulations). The list presented as a Red List search result with links to each species fact sheet can also be found by clicking on this permalink:http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/search/link/4cc84a88-1fd94435.

source of this article: http://www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/spatial-data

The database is user-driven, and users can upload, store and manage datasets by creating personal profiles. The site already contains more than 8500 separate disease records.

The database was originally established in 2000 by NOAA and UNEP-WCMC, and was re-assessed in 2009 in light of the information needs and priorities of researchers, practitioners and managers working with coral disease. The new-look GCDD was launched in Samoa last week at the 25th General Meeting of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) (8-12 November, 2010). To visit the website, go to www.coraldisease.org.

Using the latest satellite images, users can pinpoint individual protected areas – such as national parks or marine reserves – and zoom in for information on endangered species, native plant life or types of terrain.

Protected Planet also offers visitors the opportunity to upload photographs of their trips to protected areas, write travelogues of what they saw and experienced for Wikipedia and recommend places of interest nearby—information that can be shared through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

click here for the BBC coverage on protectedplanet.net .

Protectedplanet.net applies an innovative, ‘Web 2.0’ approach to conservation and will be a powerful tool to help monitor future biodiversity targets. With half a million photos already on the site, protectedplanet.net has the potential to supply vast amounts of biodiversity information to the global community and, most importantly, to prove that it has never been easier for one person to make a difference to conservation.

The 2010 data has more than 200,000 areas in the dataset, 50 percent more than were reported in the 2008 data. Terrestrial protected areas is one of more than 40 map layers already available to view and download free of charge.

CEC latest newsletter highlights the new map layer and also shows the protection level of each of North America’s level I ecoregions. Read it online at:

English: http:/www.cec.org/newsletter/Newsletter_August31_en.html

Français: http://www.cec.org/newsletter/Newsletter_August31_fr.html

Español: http://www.cec.org/newsletter/Newsletter_August31_sp.html

If you would like to receive the Atlas newsletter on a regular basis (normally once every other month), please submit your e-mail address under the “subscribe to updates” section of the Atlas website (www.cec.org/naatlas).

Date and time:
Friday, 11 June 2010, 9:00 h -18:00 h
Room:
130, UN Campus – Langer Eugen, Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10, Bonn
Organizer:
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

A sub-set of two impact indicators was identified as the minimum required for reporting by affected countries beginning in 2012: land cover status and proportion of the population in affected areas living above the poverty line

In order to enable affected countries to report on the two impact indicators in 2012, the CST was requested to prepare a glossary of terms and definitions and to continue work on methodologies for collecting, processing, monitoring and reporting the relevant data needed to effectively use them

A meeting with relevant institutions and/or agencies that have experience related to the implementation of the sub-set of two impact indicators will be held on 11 June 2010. The meeting will give the opportunity to invited institutions and/or agencies to exchange information on international developments related to impact indicators and to share their experiences in implementing them

The meeting would have, among its specific objectives:

a. To discuss methodologies in use to measure the sub-set of two impact indicators and provide practical recommendations on data collection, processing, monitoring and reporting methods for the production of these indicators;

b. To review availability, accessibility and quality of the necessary data for the sub-set of impact indicators and to identify data sources and gaps.

c. To initiate the discussion on the technical support that the invited institutions and/or agencies could provide in the reporting process of the sub-set of impact indicators at the global and the national level.

Provisional agenda

source: http://www.unccd.int/science/announce/meeting-on-methodologies-data-needs.php

image: © Oleg Tsaruk, The batle with the nature, 1st UNCCD photo contest

The accounts reflect continued refinements and improvements to the methodology, developed in conjunction with Global Footprint Network’s National Accounts Review Committee, made up of representatives of Global Footprint Network staff and partner organizations, in particular academic institutions.

The accounts include the most updated figures as to humanity’s global Ecological Footprint and how that compares with biocapacity. They will also include rankings of Ecological Footprint per capita for over 100 nations, as well as revised maps showing which countries have an ecological deficit and which have an ecological surplus. Check www.footprintnetwork.org for the most recent facts and figures.

The database now offers access to over one million records from 120 datasets. This was one of the ambitious objectives for the end of the International Polar Year (IPY). The data is updated by more than 70 experts worldwide. SCAR-MarBIN makes it possible to instantly download data and map the occurrence and abundance of polar marine organisms.

Antarctic marine ecosystems are particularly challenged by Global changes. More and more, the Southern Ocean is considered as a hotbed of marine speciation, having a considerable influence on Marine ecosystems worldwide.
SCAR-MarBIN is the information partner of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML), one of 17 projects of the Census of Marine Life.

source: http://www.blueflipperdiving.com/news.asp?x=1&day=1&month=5&year=2009&item=3220

for more info you can also visit : http://www.scarmarbin.be/

The Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content.

In short a one stop shop for users to Open Access Journals.

Definitions:

Open Access Journal:

We define open access journals as journals that use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. From the BOAI definition [1] of "open access" we take the right of users to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles" as mandatory for a journal to be included in the directory.

[1] http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess

Quality Control:

The journal must exercise peer-review or editorial quality control to be included.

Research Journal:

Journals that report primary results of research or overviews of research results to a scholarly community.

Periodical:

A serial appearing or intended to appear indefinitely at regular intervals, generally more frequently than annually, each issue of which is numbered or dated consecutively and normally contains separate articles, stories, or other writings.

Selection Criteria

Coverage:

• Subject: all scientific and scholarly subjects are covered
• Types of resource: scientific and scholarly periodicals that publish research or review papers in full text.
• Acceptable sources: academic, government, commercial, non-profit private sources are all acceptable.
• Level: the target group for included journals should be primarily researchers.
• Content: a substantive part of the journal should consist of research papers. All content should be available in full text.
• All languages

Access:

• All content freely available.
• Registration: Free user registration online is acceptable.
• Open Access without delay (e.g. no embargo period).

Quality:

Quality control: for a journal to be included it should exercise quality control on submitted papers through an editor, editorial board and/or a peer-review system.

Periodical:

The journal should have an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number, for information see http://www.issn.org).

Metadata information

Metadata:

Resources will be catalogued on journal title level.

To make article level content searchable in the system, journal owners are encouraged to supply us with article metadata when a journal has been added into the directory.

If you are a journal owner and have not received this information, please contact us.

Project Background

The proliferation of freely accessible online journals, the development of subject specific pre- and e-print archives and collections of learning objects provides a very valuable supplement of scientific knowledge to the existing types of published scientific information (books, journals, databases etc.). However these valuable collections are difficult to overview and integrate in the library and information services provided by libraries for their user constituency.

At the First Nordic Conference on Scholarly Communication in Lund/Copenhagen (http://www.lub.lu.se/ncsc2002) the idea of creating a comprehensive directory of Open Access Journals was discussed. The conclusion was that it would be a valuable service for the global research and education community. Open Society Institute (OSI) supported the initial project work.

Available technologies make it possible to collect and organize these resources in a way that allow libraries worldwide to integrate these resources in existing services thus offering added value both for the service providers of these resources and for the global research and education community.