Vizzuality proposal for Where2.0

vizz_where20_proposal

Proposal: "Mapping to save Biodiversity"

Proposer
Javier de la Torre (jatorre@vizzuality.com)

Description
Biodiversity is the term used to describe the incredible variety of life that has evolved on our 
planet over billions of years. From crowdsourcing, mobile app, and web apps, there is a new trend on 
how citizens and map developers can help to save the world. This talk covers the latest on Citizen 
science and maping, data visualization and challenges where we need your help.

Session type: 30-minute panel discussion

Topics: Development - Location, Social

Abstract
We are under a big biodiversity crisis called the Sixth Extinction, and this time is not due to a 
meteorite, is due to human impact. Around half of the planet’s natural environments had been
converted for human use by 1990. We estimate there is between 10 and 100 million species, but
we have only know about 1.8 million. Considering the peace of destruction of ecosystems and 
habitats is very clear we are destroying biodiversity much faster than we can even start to understand.

But what has this to do with location and geo? Well, everything. Biodiversity and conservation is 
fundamentally mapping. Biodiversity is study doing observations of species on the field, and from 
this primary data (POINTS), the whole domain is constructed. Species distributions, species richness, 
environmental impact assessments… Also for conservation is very much important. Protected Areas are 
POLYGONS that need to be intersected with other sources. Modeling what is going to happen to species
due to climate change is all about models on RASTER data.

And what about Open Data? Biodiversity and conservation is all about sharing data and there is 
millions and millions of observations, picture archives, environmental variables, protected area 
boundaries.

And why this matter to you? Because we need enthusiast mapping developers! We need creative minds to 
help us on:

How to generate more data
How to analyze it faster and better
How to visualize huge amounts of geospatial data
How to share data and results

In this presentation we will show you some of the new ways we are handling these challenges with 
websites like ProtectedPlanet, OldWeather, GBIF and many other projects our community has been doing. 
Hopefully at the end of the talk you will have learnt about managing big datasets of very special 
geospatial data, the one that you really care, your planet.