Internet Gateway for Delivering Biodiversity Data ESRI User Conference July 2005

Field inventory & data recording Data management and analysis Conservation expertise and analysis Information access and delivery Decision support systems Guiding Conservation Action Scientific standards and methods Connecting Science with Conservation

NatureServe Information Products - Today  NatureServe Explorer An online, searchable database of conservation information on more than 50,000 North American species and ecological communities  InfoNatura Extensive conservation information on the birds, mammals, and amphibians of Latin America  Global Amphibian Assessment An online, searchable database of the world's 5,743 known species of amphibians  Digital Range Maps For all birds and mammals of the Western Hemisphere, available as downloadable ArcView shapefiles  Ecological Systems Of the U.S. and Latin America, available as downloadable Access databases

Evolution of Information Delivery Current  Paper field surveys  Manual data entry Collection Future  Handheld GPS/GIS unit  Automated data capture  Client-server architecture  ArcView 3.X technology  Shapefile data storage  Service Oriented Architecture  ArcGIS technology  Geodatabase Management  Manual taxon. reconciliation  Manual spatial data aggregation  Automated taxon. reconciliation  Automated geodatabase update ExchangeDelivery  Manual custom data process  Summarized location data on Web  Automated web data delivery  Spatially-enabled website

Internet Gateway Why? Improve the availability and use of biological and ecological information for informing conservation and land use decisions Improve interoperability with international biodiversity networks (e.g., GBIF, NBII) Improve the currency and quality of NatureServe data products

NBII GAP Portal GBIF Data Portal Published Services:

Internet Gateway to What?  What is it? Taxonomy & classification of species and natural communities (Elements)  Where is it? Mapped locations of species populations and natural communities (Element Occurrences)  How is it doing? Quality and condition of each element occurrence Conservation status and trend of each element type

What is it?

Where is it? Boreal Toad, Bufo boreas boreas An Element Occurrence (EO) is an area of land and/or water in which a species population or natural community is, or was present.  Identity  Date  Location

How is it doing? NatureServe Conservation Status Ranks GX — Extinct GH — Possibly extinct G1 — Critically imperiled G2 — Imperiled G3 — Vulnerable G4 — Apparently secure G5 — Widespread, abundant and secure Eastern Prairie White- Fringed Orchid, G3 N3 L. Master Wood Stork, G4 N3  N-rank and S-rank equivalents are used at National and Sub-national levels

Internet Gateway How?  Build a menu of map and web services that: Expose selected sets of data (defined by XML schemas) Are directly accessible to other applications Provide a custom user experience  Improve synchronization across Network nodes: Separate record-level data updates from taxonomic reconciliation On-demand data exchanges (change-driven, not time-driven) More automated (XML, web-services-based process)  Share data, control who accesses it, and how they interact with it: Local nodes set access control policies (not one size fits all) Maximize level of access provided by each node

Architecture  Applications Layer – NatureServe Explorer, NatureServe Vista, and other custom applications submit XML- SOAP requests to web services.  Web-Application Services Layer – core functionality is implemented as web services and map services; security services provide authentication and authorization based on data provider policies; this layer interacts with the publishing database to retrieve information in response to user/application queries.  Database Layer – includes Biotics 4 source database, publishing geodatabase, and policy store.

Local DB sub-national element & EO data Local DB sub-national element & EO data Local DB sub-national element & EO data Range-wide Element Data Aggregated EO Data NatureServe Explorer Self-serve, online data exploration & visualization Custom Data Analysis & Delivery Labor Intensive Data Exchange & Taxonomic Reconciliation NatureServe Enterprise Databases Current Data Delivery Framework

Web Service s Web Service s Local DB sub-national element & EO data Public Website User Enterprise Geodatabase range-wide element & aggregated EO data Biotics 4 Web Service s Commercial User Academic Researcher Security Layer (authentication, access control) Custom Application Interfaces Local DB sub-national element & EO data Biotics 4 Enterprise Server Website User Interface NatureServe Explorer Automated Data Exchange & Taxonomic Reconciliation Internet Gateway Conceptual Approach

Access Control Approach  Problem How to deliver the most precise level of spatial resolution to meet clients’ needs while honoring data providers’ access policies?  Our Current Approach Present one public-facing map service to the user Develop multiple map services that present different levels of spatial resolution to the same underlying dataset Redirect users to the appropriate spatial resolution map service based on their access rights

 Example stakeholders that have a vested interest in the outcome of this project: NatureServe Network data providers Academic Researchers Federal Agencies State & Local Government Other Conservation Organizations Industry/Commercial Partners Data Contributors Public Website Users  NatureServe is continuing to document stakeholder needs to determine the products and services the system should support Involving Stakeholders

Example Web Services  Submit species name and retrieve detailed species information, including legal and conservation status  Submit a boundary, and retrieve a yes/no response indicator for threatened and endangered species in that area  Submit a boundary and legal or conservation status, and retrieve a list of the species known to occur in that area

Example Map Services  Submit species name and display all known population occurrences for that species in North America  Submit a species name and a boundary, and display all known population occurrences for that species within the provided area  Select a USGS 7.5’ quad and display all known species occurrences that intersect the quad boundary

Putting it all together Submit Query to Map Service XML Results Formatted XML

Internet Gateway Timeline  Year 1: Data access workshop, November 2004 NatureServe Leadership Conference Establish enterprise geodatabase and DiGIR registry Hold user story workshops to gather requirements for data content and data access  Year 2: (getting underway now) Development iterations begin for candidate releases Web application interface to geodatabase content Web services Data synchronization process and tools  Year 3: Development iterations continue for production releases Implement web services at two member program pilot sites Rollout plan for network-wide implementation

 Project Contacts: Lori Douglas  For More Information:  Get involved: Review XML schema Beta test web services Resources

Financial support is provided by the National Science Foundation Biological Databases and Informatics program (grant # ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant program, through a cooperative agreement with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Acknowledgements