John Wieczorek (for BGWG)Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

University of California, Berkeley

BioGeomancer: Collaboration to Automation

Georeferencing

Collaborations

Automation

Georeferencing

Collaborations

Automation

What is a georeference?

A numerical description of a place that can be mapped.

What is a georeference?

A numerical description of a place that can be mapped.

What is a georeference?

In other words…

ID Species Locality1 Lynx rufus Dawson Rd. N Whitehorse2 Pudu puda cerca de Valdivia3 Canis lupus 20 mi NW Duluth

9 Ursus arctos Bear Flat, Haines Junction

4 Felis concolor Pichi Trafúl5 Lama alpaca near Cuzco6 Panthera leo San Diego Zoo7 Sorex lyelli Lyell Canyon, Yosemite8 Orcinus orca 1 mi W San Juan Island

What we have:Specimens with Textual Localities

What we want:Mapped, Georeferenced Localities

What is a georeference?

A numerical description of a place that can be mapped.

“Davis, Yolo County, California”

“point method”

Coordinates: 38.5463 -121.7425Horizontal Geodetic Datum: NAD27

What is an acceptable georeference?

A numerical description of a place that can be mapped

and that describes the spatial extent of a locality

and its associated uncertainties.

“Davis, Yolo County, California”

“bounding-box method”

Coordinates: 38.5486 -121.754238.545 -121.7394

Horizontal Geodetic Datum: NAD27

“Davis, Yolo County, California”

“point-radius method”

Coordinates: 38.5468 -121.7469Horizontal Geodetic Datum: NAD27Maximum Uncertainty: 8325 m

What is an ideal georeference?

A numerical description of a place that can be mapped

and that describes the spatial extent of a locality

and its associated uncertaintiesas well as possible.

“Davis, Yolo County, California”

“shape method”

point easy to produce no data quality

bounding-box simple spatial queriesdifficult quality assessment

point-radius easy quality assessmentdifficult spatial queries

shape complete representationcomplex

Method Comparison

Georeferencing

Collaborations

Automation

Collaborative DistributedDatabases for Vertebrates

Collaborations

MaNIS Localities Georeferenced

n = 326k localities (1.4M specimens)r = 14 localities/hr (point-radius method)

t = 3 yrs (~40 georeferencers)

Scope of the Problem for Natural History Collections

Scope of the Problem for Natural History Collections

~2.5 Giga-records

Scope of the Problem for Natural History Collections

~2.5 Giga-records

~6 records per locality*

~14 localities per hour*

* based on the MaNIS Project

Scope of the Problem for Natural History Collections

~2.5 Giga-records

~6 records per locality*

~14 localities per hour*

~15,500 years

* based on the MaNIS Project

Georeferencing

Collaborations

Automation

Automation

Combining the Best in Georeferencing

GeoLocate

DIVA-GIS

MaNIS Georeferencing Calculator

BioGeomancer Classic

Major Activities (expected Sep 2006):

1) Develop spatial data standards for biodiversity

Major Activities (expected Sep 2006):

1) Develop spatial data standards for biodiversity

2) Assemble relevant spatial data

Major Activities (expected Sep 2006):

1) Develop spatial data standards for biodiversity

2) Assemble relevant spatial data

3) Further develop existing desktop applications

Major Activities (expected Sep 2006):

1) Develop spatial data standards for biodiversity

2) Assemble relevant spatial data

3) Further develop existing desktop applications

4) Create workbench for automated georeferencing, editing, and validating

BioGeomancer Workbench

Automated Georeferencing

Visual Georeference Editing

Georeference Validation

Outlier Detection

BioGeomancer Workbench

Automated Georeferencing

Visual Georeference Editing

Georeference Validation

Outlier Detection

BioGeomancer Workbench:Automated Georeferencing

Text Interpretation

Feature Lookup

Shape Generation

BioGeomancer Workbench:Automated Georeferencing

Text Interpretation

Feature Lookup

Shape Generation

Automated Georeferencing:Text Interpretation

“Between Albuquerque and Moriarity”

Locality Type: BF (Between Features)Feature1: AlbuquerqueFeature2: Moriarity

BioGeomancer Workbench:Automated Georeferencing

Text Interpretation

Feature Lookup

Shape Generation

Automated Georeferencing:Feature Lookup

BioGeomancer Workbench:Automated Georeferencing

Text Interpretation

Feature Lookup

Shape Generation

Automated Georeferencing:Shape Generation

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Bounding-box

Point-radius

Shape

BioGeomancer Workbench

Automated Georeferencing

Visual Georeference Editing

Georeference Validation

Outlier Detection

BioGeomancer Workbench:Visual Georeference Editing

BioGeomancer Workbench:Visual Georeference Editing

BioGeomancer Workbench

Automated Georeferencing

Visual Georeference Editing

Georeference Validation

Outlier Detection

BioGeomancer Workbench:Georeference Validation

Elevation

Geography

Species Distribution

BioGeomancer Workbench

Automated Georeferencing

Visual Georeference Editing

Georeference Validation

Outlier Detection

BioGeomancer Workbench:Outlier Detection

Elevation

Environment

Species Distribution Model

Beyond 1 September 2006

Seek Industry Support for Data Layers

Develop Workbench into Collaboratories

Develop Locality Interpretation in Additional Languages

Why do all of this?

So that those who generate and care for the data

can realize and share its potential.

http://www.biogeomancer.org