Leverage iNaturalist observations
The Invasive Vegetation Management solution uses location-based insights to identify and prioritize target areas, precisely track treatment methods, and communicate progress to optimize invasive vegetation management operations. While the solution provides a strong framework for invasive vegetation workflows, additional configuration can help enrich your existing species observations. In this post, we’ll explore how to extend the solution by incorporating iNaturalist observations from the ArcGIS Living Atlas
Managing and inventorying invasive plants across vast landscapes is challenging, it's time and resource intensive to survey areas for new infestations. Leveraging community science resources like iNaturalist observations can help fill those gaps. The iNaturalist Observations layer contains millions of crowd-sourced observations contributed by a global community of naturalists.
These observations include:
- Verified species identifications
- Observation dates and locations
- Supporting media such as photos
- Regular updates with new contributions
Configure the Invasive Vegetation Management Operations Center web map
When you deploy the Invasive Vegetation Management solution, it includes an Invasive Vegetation Operations Center app used by operations staff to create and manage targeted work, respond to observations, and create treatment summary reports.
Start by adding the iNaturalist layer to the Invasive Vegetation Operations Center web map. Because of the dataset’s size, the layer generalizes observations at smaller scales and shows detailed points when zoomed in. Recommended configurations to tailor the layer to your needs include scale-dependent visibility, species filters, and symbology updates. Watch this video to see an example setup.
Configure the Invasive Vegetation Management Observations Dashboard
Once the layer is added to your map, you can incorporate it into the Invasive Vegetation Management Operations Dashboard to provide additional insight alongside organizational observations.
The Operations Dashboard page already includes lists for Watchlist species and All Observations. Start by adding a third for list for iNaturalist layer to enrich observations. Additional configurations including setting map actions to filter the list by map extent and configuring the feature info widget to show the pop-up. This allows staff to quickly assess what species are present in the area and identify patterns that may influence vegetation management strategies. Watch this video to see an example setup.
By incorporating iNaturalist observations, organizations can enrich their existing observations and gain broader visibility into species activity across their management areas. This same approach can be applied to other publicly available datasets, such as Calflora, MISIN, and EDDMapS layers available in ArcGIS Online. Deploy the Invasive Vegetation Management solution to get started, and consider incorporating additional data sources to bring even more insight into your workflows.
Learn more
For more information about the Invasive Vegetation Management solution, check out the following resources:
