Skip to content Skip to navigation

Connexions

You are here: Home » Content » The Los Amigos Geographical Information System (GIS)

Navigation

Recently Viewed

This feature requires Javascript to be enabled.
 

The Los Amigos Geographical Information System (GIS)

Module by: John Janovec. E-mail the author

Summary: Overview of the Los Amigos Geographical Information System

The Los Amigos Geographic Information System (GIS)

Table 1
gis10_DEM5_3in.jpg gis08_DEM13_3in.jpg

Mathias Tobler Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences TAMU Spatial Science Laboratory Texas A&M University & John Janovec Botanical Research Institute of Texas Amazon Conservation Association

Overview

Since August 2002, we have been actively working toward a Geographic Information System (GIS) for the Los Amigos Conservation Area. Our objectives have been to:

  • collect and organize available geographic data
  • to show possible use of the system in education, training and research; and
  • present research results through print and digital means of publication.

A geographic metadatabase has been compiled from various sources, including important files for the Los Amigos Conservation Area provided by colleagues at the Amazon Conservation Association, and files for Madre de Dios, Peru, and the American tropics that have been opportunistically collected during the last year. We continue to gather and input general basemaps, satellite images, climatic data, human population data, and more. In October 2002 we added 15-meter resolution Aster imagery and the first author used them to generate a Digital Elevation Model of the Los Amigos Conservation Area (see DEM imagery at left). A 2000 Landsat TM image was then overlaid on the digital elevation model to create a 3D view of the area (see images at left). We also just received our first IKONOS image from Satellite Imaging Inc. (www.spaceimaging.com), which we will use to produce a high-resolution vegetation map of the area.

Due to the scale of data available for the region, the Los Amigos GIS has quickly expanded to encompass the entire geopolitical region of the Department of Madre de Dios, Peru, and vicinity. This GIS system is currently being used to support studies of the biodiversity in the Los Amigos Conservation Area, but will soon be used for a broadened analysis of the diversity, distribution, collection patterns, and conservation of the plant diversity of Madre de Dios.

Currently, all GIS to Internet presentation is driven by the software HTML Image Mapper offered by Alta 4 (www.alta4.com). Plans for the immediate future are to convert the entire interactive system over to ArcIMS, an internet map server technology by ESRI, while we will continue to use Alta 4 for smaller scale presentations of specific geospatial patterns.

See the Los Amigos GIS Photographic Essay.

Last updated: October 2002. Contact John Janovec at jjanovec@nybg.org.

Content actions

Download module as:

PDF | EPUB (?)

What is an EPUB file?

EPUB is an electronic book format that can be read on a variety of mobile devices.

Downloading to a reading device

For detailed instructions on how to download this content's EPUB to your specific device, click the "(?)" link.

| More downloads ...

Add module to:

My Favorites (?)

'My Favorites' is a special kind of lens which you can use to bookmark modules and collections. 'My Favorites' can only be seen by you, and collections saved in 'My Favorites' can remember the last module you were on. You need an account to use 'My Favorites'.

| A lens I own (?)

Definition of a lens

Lenses

A lens is a custom view of the content in the repository. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see content through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

What is in a lens?

Lens makers point to materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

Who can create a lens?

Any individual member, a community, or a respected organization.

What are tags? tag icon

Tags are descriptors added by lens makers to help label content, attaching a vocabulary that is meaningful in the context of the lens.

| External bookmarks