Data Basin Features

Once you've created a map in Data Basin, arranged everything so it looks just the way you want, and saved it -- what can you do next? One of the things you can do is export your map. Previously, exporting was restricted to a PDF document or a ZIP file that contained PNG images of the pages of the PDF document. 

Commenting functionality was recently added to Data Basin. The following screencast gives a brief overview of the commenting functionality and how to use it. 

The Data Basin developers are currently working to allow the import and visualization of time-enabled datasets. This screencast gives a short preview of how users will be able to interact with time-enabled data in the live map viewer. In addition to viewing animations in the map, users will also be able to save animated data as a movie to easily share with others.

I'm a new subscriber to Data Basin working on climate adaptation for The Nature Conservancy's California field program. Part of my position supports a cooperative conservation planning process in the southern Sierra by forecasting potential vegetation responses to future changes in climate. My goal is to help put a face on what climate change may mean for the species and places our group cares most about.

In the entryway to the Conservation Biology Institute offices is a map we printed in 2004 of the Late Seral Forest of the Pacific Northwest, that was displayed in the American Museum of Natural History.

Protected areas are important to each person in their own way.  Be it a special spot, a rare habitat or unique ecosystem, we all have our reasons for caring.  While I care deeply about the intrinsic value of protected areas, I also care about the data that helps us catalog these places.  One of CBI’s recent projects is PAD-US 1.1 (CBI Edition) dataset, a national inventory of protected areas.

This past week, Conservation Biology Institute and Data Basin staff had the opportunity to attend the 2010 ESRI International Users Conference in San Diego California.  In recent years the conservation community participated in the vendor and partner exhibits but was only given sideline space that few attendees had a chance to visit.  This year was different: the Conservation Science and Climate Change Showcase was given generous central space in

One of the most pervasive barriers to conservation effectiveness has always been the lack of capacity in our community for easily sharing, interpreting, and visualizing complex ecological information, and our stories have suffered for it. In subsidizing the development of Data Basin™, our primary goal was to help Wilburforce grantees share their data easily and more effectively – to provide the latest technology and help foster more of those aha! moments when maps overlay to illustrate and communicate important threats or opportunities.

On April 21st, CBI and The Nature Conservancy hosted a meeting in Duluth, MN to discuss climate change in northeastern MN and to begin developing scenarios that could be used with a forest simulation model to estimate the effects of climate change on the extensive forests of northeastern MN.