Building National Spatial Data Infrastructures

Conservation web applications: Bringing national conservation databases to your computer

—Mason Croft, UofI - Gap Analysis Program

National conservation databases, including land cover, protected areas, and vertebrate species ranges and distributions, are important conservation tools that you can access from your computer. USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) has developed web viewers for interacting with its national databases, which was challenging due to their size and complexity, but are important for informing conservation. Data can be queried via the web or downloaded. The land cover viewer presents the GAP National Land Cover Data at 3 nested hierarchical levels and detailed descriptions of each land cover type. Your favorite protected area can be located using the protected areas viewer, which also provides ownership and protection status information. The vertebrate species viewer, currently under development, displays seasonal ranges and predicted distributions for approximately 2000 species. These online viewers will be demonstrated. With these viewers, GAP strives to inform conservation by creating national conservation databases and bringing them to your computer.