Understanding the Natural World Through Spatial Data

Presentation given at the DataEDGE Conference, May 9, 2014:
http://dataedge.ischool.berkeley.edu/2014/schedule#spatialdata

Collecting and analyzing data about the Earth, its inhabitants, and the ecological processes that tie them all together has been at the forefront of our desire to understand the world around us for many centuries. Natural history museums collect specimens, geographers collect aerial and satellite imagery, and sensor networks collect field measurements — all producing volumes of data that are bound by space, place, and time. But we still have so much more to learn. Drawing correlations between these data sources is key to understanding the complexity of our natural world and projecting how it may change in the future. UC Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility and its partners are developing web applications to help scientists, decision makers, and the general public understand environmental and social issues relating to climate change and biodiversity. I will talk about our Cal-Adapt and Berkeley Ecoinformatics Engine projects as primary examples.

Transcript

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17. http://cal-adapt.org EXPLORING CALIFORNIA CLIMATE CHANGE DATA
18. Developed by UC Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility Kevin Koy, Brian Galey, Shruti Mukhtyar, Falk Schuetzenmeister, Sarah Van Wart,, Matea Marsic, Mark O’Connor, Maggi Kelly A product of the California Energy Commission and the Natural Resources Agency Advisory Committee Members include: Aaron Cuthbertson, California Department of Water Resources Amber Pairis, California Natural Resources Agency Andrew Gunther, Bay Area Ecosystems Climate Change Consortium Bruce Riordan, San Francisco Bay Area Joint Policy Committee Guido Franco, California Energy Commission Jonathan Parfrey, Climate Resolve – Los Angeles La Nae Van Valen, California Department of Transportation Lesley Ewing, California Coastal Commission Nail Maizlish, California Department of Public Health Susan Wilhelm, California Energy Commission Contributors include EXPLORING CALIFORNIA CLIMATE CHANGE DATA
19. http://cal-adapt.org o More than 200 peer reviewed reports on climate change: California-specific studies o Dozens of researchers and organizations o Thousands of data layers California Energy Commission and other State Agencies
20. http://cal-adapt.org Purpose Helping to bridge the gap between the wealth of climate change research and data being produced by California’s scientific community and those who need reliable, easy access to support planning & adaptation. Target audiences include: o General public o Local planners, technicians, & decision makers o Scientific community
21. http://cal-adapt.org Data Variables o Evapotranspiration o Average temperature o Baseflow o Fire o Fractional moisture in the entire soil column o Maximum temperature o Minimum temperature o Net surface radiation o Precipitation o Relative humidity o Runoff o Snow water equivalent o Soil moisture at bottom o Soil moisture at middle o Soil moisture at top o Wind
22. http://cal-adapt.org Highly Temporal Layers Each monthly variable = 14,400 map layers * 150 years * 12 months * 4 models * 2 scenarios Over 230,000 total map layers
23. http://cal-adapt.org Rapid production of interactive outputs
24. http://cal-adapt.org Open Source Architecture o Ubuntu o Apache o PostgreSQL/PostGIS o Django o MapServer o TileCache o Memcached o Google Maps API o jQuery
25. http://cal-adapt.org
26. http://cal-adapt.org “Will help create easy-to-use tools for regional planners, farmers, hospitals, and businesses across the country—and empower America’s communities to prepare themselves for the future.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/03/19/climate-data-initiative-launches-strong-public-and-private-sector-commitments White House Climate Data Initiative Photo by NASA’s Beth Beck, https://twitter.com/bethbeck/status/446577283844042752
27. Image: Pete Oboyski
28. David Liittschwager, National Geographic Mora et al. 2011 PLOS Biology
30. Geolocated specimens Berkeley Natural History Museums Nearly 16 million specimens o Vertebrates: 700,000 specimens (100% digitized) o Plants: 2.2 million specimens (~16%) o Fossils: 6.5 million specimens (<5%) o Insects: 6.5 million specimens (<2.5%)
34. Porretta et al. 2013 Parasites & Vectors
35. Climatic suitability of a Lyme disease vector Porretta et al. 2013 Parasites & Vectors
36. Field station records 100+ years of data collection o Field notes o Species lists o Photos Climate Sensor Arrays o 4 million+ measurements o 48 variables @ 10min increments
37. Soils o 15,000+ samples o Collected 1920s-1970s
38. Pollen Cores Species presence across 150,000 years
39. Wieslander Vegetation Survey 1928-1942 o Hand drawn vegetation maps o Specimens o Sampling Plots o Photos
40. Wieslander Vegetation Survey 1928-1942 o Hand drawn vegetation maps o Specimens o Sampling Plots o Photos
41. 1940 2013 Photo Albert Weislander Photo Joyce Gross Wieslander Vegetation Survey 1928-1942
42. Baselayers o Land Cover o Climate Models o Paleoclimate Models o Topography o Fire o Political and Ecosystem Boundaries
43. Holos Conceptual Model
44. Open Source Web Stack o AWS EC2/S3 o Ubuntu o Pandas/NumPy o TileStache o Celery o Leaflet o PostgreSQL/PostGIS o Django REST framework o Nginx o Memcached
45. API http://ecoengine.berkeley.edu • GET o GeoJSON o XML o Map
46. Application: Sensor Visualization
47. Application: Species Checklist
48. Application: Photo Resurvey Tulare County 2013
50. Holos: Search and Discovery
52. Ray’s Peak 2008 @ @