The Full Picture

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• Rapid Land Cover/Ecosystem Mapping Tool: an online tool to
manually interpret satellite imagery for mapping land cover.
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS): a taxonomic
crosswalk to operationally compare, integrate and apply global
biodiversity data sets.
• TerraLook3 expands and broadens the remote sensing user
community by providing a user-selectable collection of satellite
images from three epochs (circa 1975, 1990 and 2000).
The world’s natural history museums are a rich, and by far the main
source of historical biodiversity data that are needed in many fields
of biodiversity research. These data can provide a snapshot of biodi-
versity prior to the time when modern biodiversity monitoring
systems were put in place.
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is promoting
the digitization and availability of such data, as well as datasets
created by citizen scientists. GBIF has developed an information
architecture that enables interoperability among datasets of this type,
which is extensible to observational data and other datasets that
contain scientific names. GBIF currently manages approximately 135
million records of species occurrences. These primary biodiversity
data records can serve both science and society in many ways because
they can be utilized in many different analyses. GBIF’s information
infrastructure can also serve as a basis and example for the devel-
opment of the information infrastructure that will be needed for the
GEO Biodiversity Observation Network. The GBIF Data Portal is
already interoperable with the GEO Web Portal, and the WDCBE is
providing tools that help to validate such historical data, and incor-
porate it into analyses conducted using its other tools.
The GEO Biodiversity Observation Network will also build on the
work and outputs of the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership
(2010 BIP), which was established in direct response to the need for
global biodiversity indicators to track progress toward the 2010
biodiversity target4 in order ‘to achieve by 2010 a significant reduc-
tion of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and
national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the
benefit of all life on earth.’ The 2010 BIP brings together the numer-
ous organizations and agencies working on developing and
communicating biodiversity indicators in support of the 2010 target,
and will facilitate the regular delivery of global biodiversity indica-
tors into the CBD and other relevant fora in order to help track
progress toward the 2010 target. The 2010 BIP will thus play a crucial
role in advancing the data and processes for monitoring global biodi-
versity change within the context of the GEO Biodiversity
Observation Network.
DIVERSITAS and NASA are leading the early planning stages for
the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network. For this purpose,
DIVERSITAS has assembled an expert group of monitoring and
modelling scientists under its bioDISCOVERY Core Project, which
will develop a scientific framework to improve global biodiversity
monitoring. This expert group of leading scientists will develop
the underpinning scientific research and advice on strategic goals
for the Network. Furthermore, since not everything can be moni-
tored, an increased interaction with field experiments and
ecological model development will be sought that will help fill the
knowledge gaps left by incomplete monitoring. Finally, the expert
group will work on how results from long-term monitoring need
to be analysed and presented so as to be useful to data users; e.g.
value judgments going into summary and interpretation need to
be clarified and explicitly stated. This is especially
important for the development of global biodiversity
indicators, as they will be one of the main means by
which information is delivered to decision-makers and
the public. Monitoring results will be interpreted in an
ecosystem context – that is to say that efforts will be
made to compare the current state of an ecosystem to
its potential capacity. For example, an ecological assess-
ment might not just report the measured state of a
depleted fishery over the last five years, but also use
ecological modelling to estimate the possible popula-
tion levels of the fishery if sustainable fishing regimes
had been adopted, so that monitoring results are
embedded in the context of management options of
the respective ecosystem. Combined with economic
calculations, not just the actual, but also the potential
productivity of an ecosystem’s services could be esti-
mated, and thus give stakeholders and decision-makers
robust and rational arguments for weighing alternative
policy options.
The ongoing activities generated by the GEO
Biodiversity Observation Network have already helped
to improve data access, sharing, and use, and to estab-
lish fora for crosscutting development and
interdisciplinary collaboration within the biodiversity
community, thus advancing biodiversity science and
its applications. In the near future, the biodiversity
science community, through the GEO framework, will
increase capacity building, especially in developing
nations, to fill monitoring gaps; develop more tools for
policy making to be used in decision-making, espe-
cially in the light of improved resource management
of marine, freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity
resources and ecosystem services; and develop cross-
links with other GEOSS societal benefit areas, e.g. land
use change, coastal zones, water management and
health; and further integrate monitoring activities and
modelling exercises.
The GEO Biodiversity Observation Network
is made up of many relevant
programmes and networks, for example:BIOTA-AFRICA,
Birdlife International, CBD, Census of Marine Life, CEOS, CI,
DIVERSITAS, GBIF, GTOS, ILTER, IUCN, NASA, NBII, The Nature
Conservancy, UNESCO-MAB, US Geological Survey, WMO and
2010 BIP, to name just a few, plus a host of other of
governmental, non-governmental, private and academic
institutions, organizations and programmes.
For further information:
2010 BIP )
CBD (www.cbd.int)
DIVERSITAS )
GBIF )
The Network is open to any other relevant entity or institution
that wishes to contribute to and benefit from the consortium
of the whole.
The GEO Biodiversity Observation Network
GEOSS C OMPONENTS – OBSERVING S YSTEMS