Tag: conservation

Building Out the ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard: An Accessible, Hands-On Approach to Conservation Education

The ASEAN Member States (AMS) is an organization made up of 10 Southeast Asian states—including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. With a goal to enhance and increase the efficiency of major conservation efforts and prevent species extinction across the ASEAN Region, the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) partnered with NatureServe—a nonprofit that provides biodiversity data to a plethora of conservation organizations—to create an interactive, online biodiversity dashboard.

This dashboard and map-centric tool would summarize and quantify the richness of ASEAN’s biodiversity while visualizing trends and geographic variation in biodiversity indicators used across the globe. The idea was to create a key resource for ASEAN stakeholders while being an open-source information application that would allow this important data to be accessible and understandable to everyone.

The Blueprint for Future Biodiversity Dashboards

NatureServe also wanted to take this dashboard a step further, with the idea to use the ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard as a pilot for future dashboards that would visualize biodiversity data worldwide using global datasets. To kickstart this project, they reached out to Blue Raster to help display ASEAN’s biodiversity data in an informative, eye-catching, and interactive way with a set of dashboards and web applications.

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Users can explore species occurrence, as well as their assigned IUCN Red List status, across the ASEAN region. In this example, species occurrence of reptiles is shown. Additionally, users can view other data such as protected areas. In this example, Protected Areas and Key Biodiversity Areas are visualized on the map-notice the widespread distribution of these areas across the region!

The Esri Technology that Made It Possible

In order to make the data come alive —which derived from the AMS, the ACB, and various global data sources—our team harnessed the capabilities of two ArcGIS Online applications, ArcGIS Dashboards and ArcGIS Experience Builder. It was important that we found solutions that would meet all of NatureServe’s criteria, and Esri’s web app, ArcGIS Experience Builder, did just that.

With Experience Builder coming out in late 2019 and Blue Raster kicking off our portion of the ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard in July 2020, the dashboard was one of the first major projects our team worked on using Experience Builder. With an abundance of creative thinkers and an eagerness to push the limits of the web app, our team, led by Program Manager Phil Satlof, was able to customize more within the biodiversity dashboard using Experience Builder.

Working with the Data

NatureServe provided all of the data analysis, as well as their conservation expertise, while our responsibilities included the visualizations and determining how the data would be displayed on the web maps. Blue Raster GIS Analyst Sarah Aldama worked closely with NatureServe’s GIS analysts and application developers to build out the first set of dashboards and web maps– based on NatureServe’s vision and map metrics.

One primary focus for NatureServe was to visualize and map indicator trends, which led members of our team to build out the shell for the Indicator Trends tab within the ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard. Some of the layers include the Bioclimatic Ecosystem Resilience Index, Forest Cover and Loss, the Protected Area Connectedness Index, and Protected Area Coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas. In addition to the Indicator Trends tab, Blue Raster also assisted with the Biodiversity Data tab.

This map shows the Biodiversity Habitat Index Annual Change rate from 2010 to 2015 at the country level. Users can also view the same data at the watershed level.

Collaborating for the Sake of Conservation

Working with NatureServe on this highly collaborative project from July until September 2020, our detailed work, valuable insight, and technical expertise helped the ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard become one of the first web-based exploratory maps to view biodiversity data through this regional lens. With guidance from our team, NatureServe was able to learn how to use Experience Builder to increase the capabilities of the ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard and create similar interactive, online platforms—like the Artic Biodiversity Dashboard.

You can explore the ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard now at dashboard.aseanbiodiversity.org. To learn more about our dynamic web and mapping solutions, visit blueraster.com/who-we-are.

National Audubon Society’s Bird Migration Explorer

Introducing the National Audubon Society’s Migratory Bird Project: Bird Migration Explorer

Since 1905, the National Audubon Society has worked to protect birds and the places they depend on for survival through science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation. With over 500 chapters across the United States, the National Audubon Society is known by many for its impeccable and expansive conservation work.

With the launch of its Bird Migration Explorer platform in September 2022, Audubon and its partners hope to teach users—including birders, conservationists, researchers, and even the general public—about the joys, complexities, and unique connections of migration. Through a partnership with Blue Raster, the platform tells the stories of migratory birds across the hemisphere, features mapping of over 450 species’ travels, and visualizes the conservation needs of high priority areas. Our team was able to help make this application a reality by configuring, publishing, and visualizing data from over 400 research studies.

Bird Migration Explorer

Exploring the Bird Migration Explorer’s Maps

Working with Postlight for all processing and publishing of datasets, and using Esri’s GIS software, Blue Raster was able to utilize ArcGIS Online to work with all of the given data and design the intricate and interactive maps within the digital Bird Migration Explorer experience.

When the Explorer first opens, it prompts users to select a bird species. This opens the Species Migration Map, which displays the movement and migration of the selected bird throughout the hemisphere each year using real tracking data. With the precision of the tracking data being an important element to each bird’s journey, our team had to find a way to depict the accuracy of the technology used—such as GPS tagging or banding—to follow each species. Using purple dots for low precision and yellow dots for high precison, we were able to successfully illustrate the differences in tracking methods.

The Species Connections Map shows where tagged birds have been re-encountered as they travel across the hemisphere using tracking, banding, automated radio telemetry, and genetics data. The Conservation Challenges Map combines migration data with conservation challenges data to show where, when, and how birds are exposed to issues such as climate change, urbanization, pollution, and more throughout the year. We used time enabled data layers for the threat locations and the weekly location of the birds to showcase the most threating areas to each species during migration. This feature helps users understand their impact on the lives of these birds and how they can improve their journeys.

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Bird Migration Explorer

How We Helped Audubon’s App Take Flight

Blue Raster configured this data in a PostgreSQL enterprise geodatabase, calculated connections using spatial joins, and set up automation processes using Python to publish and manage updates to these datasets. This system was used across all species migration, species connections, and conservation challenges datasets to generate the incredible mapping for the Bird Migration Explorer. We also created a scripting process for writing and formatting citations using the Zotero API which are applied to each dataset on ArcGIS Online.

Ready to experience the full annual migration for over 450 bird species? Check out Blue Raster’s work for the Bird Migration Explorer now!

Blue Raster Can Bring Your Story to Life

Contact us to learn more about this application or to see how interactive mapping technology could work for you.


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