Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Tuesday, November 18, 2008

OA to geo-coded biodiversity information in the Himalayas

Today's Nepal News has a report on the conference, Linking Geodata with Biodiversity Information in the Himalayas (Kathmandu, November 15-16, 2008).  Excerpt:

A two-day workshop "Linking Geodata with Biodiversity Information in the Himalayas" organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Global Mountain Biodiversity Programme (GMBA) concluded on Sunday (Nov 16) with a call to create a mountain biodiversity information network in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region for mutual benefit and trans boundary cooperation....

ICIMOD and GMBA shared their experiences in developing GIS-enabled biodiversity portals as a gateway for biodiversity information and demonstrated the benefit of geo-referenced biodiversity data for integrated analysis and spatial visualisation of biodiversity information in relation to climate, land use, physiography, and other important parameters. The workshop participants deliberated on ways of improving the biodiversity database at the national and local levels, the need for standardisation and harmonisation for data exchange, and providing a way to facilitate easy and open access to geo-coded biodiversity information....