The Great Apes Mapper: developing an online global geo-database and visualization tool for monitoring great ape populations

Citation

Pintea L, Kuehl H, Laporte N, Maisels F & Williamson EA (2008) The Great Apes Mapper: developing an online global geo-database and visualization tool for monitoring great ape populations. 22nd Congress of the International Primatatological Society, 2008, Edinburgh, Uk, 03/08/2008 - 08/08/2008. Primate Eye, 96, p. 314. http://ips.conference-services.net/programme.asp?conferenceID=1080&action=prog_presenters

Abstract
The Great Apes Mapper was initiated in 2005 by The Jane Goodall Institute with support from ESRI, GRASP and the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group. Its geo-database, on-screen mapping, and map-viewer functions based on ArcWeb technology are designed to aid analysis and research efforts being conducted by conservation practitioners and scientists around the world. The Great Apes Mapper uses the highest resolution worldwide satellite imagery mosaic available (orthorectified, color-balanced NaturalVue imagery from MDA Federal Inc. at 15-m resolution) as the main basemap to georeference GIS and satellite imagery data on great ape distribution and habitats. It will serve as a common platform where data from the A.P.E.S. database and any other population estimates can be combined to allow visualization and analysis of great ape distributions and show changes in ape habitats and threats. Registered and password protected users can input and use their own data in csv, dbf, or shapefile formats. Newly entered data are available to that user strictly for viewing purposes only and not added to the shared geodatabase before approval is obtained via a committee specifically created to oversee the database. Here we present the system design and the institutional framework, and demonstrate functionality using ape populations in Tanzania, Gabon and Cameroon as case studies.

Keywords
remote sensing; GIS; chimpanzees; Tanzania

Notes
Output Type: Meeting Abstract

Journal
Primate Eye: Volume 96