1998 Scgis 1st Annual Conference, Lawler Lodge / James Reserve
1998 Scgis First Annual Conference xHistory xConference xScgis x1998
From Convis Timeline history: SCGIS First Annual Meeting Sat-Sun July 24-25 1998,Lawler Lodge, Idyllwild, California. (Followed by the Esri International Conference July 27-31 San Diego CA, Keynoted by: Dr. Carl Steinitz, Harvard University and Dr. Hasso Plattner) No Scgis Keynote, instead started with a welcome & SCGIS Historical Perspectives talk by Charles Convis. Registration was $50 and lodging was $7/night. There were eight 15-minute papers on Sat and six on Sunday, also several short course and workshops, a field trip to Joshua Tree National Park, and an opening reception/potluck on Friday at the Charles Convis house in Redlands.
SCGIS' board of directors: In June the board elects Mike Beltz, Sasha Yumakaev, Eric Treml and Peter Morrison to 3-year terms. At the August 4, 1998, Board Meeting following the conference, a tied election for presidency between Will Allen and Sandra Coveny results in a co-presidency arrangement for the upcoming year. At that board meeting, new board members appointed to the board are Kai Snyder, Gillian Bowser and Christina Casado, and new SCGIS officers are elected as follows: Roberta Pickert is Treasurer, John Mangiamelli as Secretary, Christina Casado as Vice President.
Bob Arenz of the Money-Arenz foundation donates $2k to support the international scholarship program.
July 1998: The first issue of the “Society for Conservation GIS” magazine, Vol 1, no. 1
It includes profiles of our first funded international scholars: Lucy Chege, Salman Ashraf, Dagmar Scholle, David Woods, Olga Lucia Hernandez, Mathias Benhangana
It also includes the first status reports from the first SCGIS Committees including Cultural Diversity, Membership, Standards & Training, Local Chapters, and International.
At that time the SCGIS had about 100 members in 3 countries and 23 states
From the Scgis Annual Report: "After much discussion and work following the 1997 meeting, the name "Society for Conservation GIS" was finally formally agreed upon. We were fornally incorporated under that name thanks to Tim Bechtold in early 1998, and in Summer 1998 was the very first meeting of the newly formed Society for Conservation GIS ." Attendees: 80
SCGIS 1998 Group Photo (click for larger version)
Pictured 1998 SCGIS First Annual Meeting
Roi Evron, Dagmar Scholle, Marco Vinicio Castro, Bob Arenz, Sergey Krasnopeev, John Rhind, Scott Murray, Mike Beltz, Ron White, Steve Beckwitt, James Catlin, Easy, Mike Mertens, Linda Gray, Pete August, Ellen Hines, Ivan Joe, John Mangiameli, Luigi Boitana, Marcia McNiff, Robert Curry, Roger Sayre, Gillian Bowser, Eric Sanderson, Michelle Gudorf, Rixanne Wehren, Alexa McCarrow, Page Else, Christina Casado, Lance Craighead, Roberta Pickert, Lata Iyer, Prashant Hedao, Janice Thomson, Brian Cohen, Bill Martin, Bettina Weber, Will Allen, Mike Kunzman, Mathias Benhangana, Steven Day, Charles Convis, Olga Lucia Hernandez, Pat Halpin, Yolanda Wiersma, Sandra Coveny, Fabio Corsi, Kai Snyder, Kiomi, Lucy Chege, Mahesh Rao
1998 Letter from the President, Gillian Bowser
Letter from the president
"Conservation Of Species Is A Global Issue For All Cultures"
Gillian Bowser, gillian_bowser@nps.gov, January 1998
The International Society for Conservation GIS is a unique collection of people who use GIS to address the conservation of nature. The complexity of today's challenges to the conservation of biological diversity has moved beyond simply asking where a species occurs; we now must predict where we think the species will occur and the potential impact of our actions further down the road. The ability to predict the future well-being of a species or an ecosystem based on today's actions is made possible with the power of GIS and computer modeling.
The Society was originally founded to foster communication and data exchange among GIS users in the conservation field. There is an increasing challenge to produce maps that convey the importance preserving a species' habitat or protecting a corridor used by migrating individuals. As parks, preserves, and wildlife corridors are pressured by urban growth, industrial requirements, or visitor uses, the importance of accurate maps grows. Predictive models have become common-place, and the standard PC with web access and a Pentium microprocessor can explore GIS and produce maps.
Maps 'speak' with ease across cultural lines and in many languages. A map of Russian
landuse or restoration can help a forester in Montana understand habitat dynamics. A
map of population growth in Latin America defines conservation strategies for North
American migratory birds. In other words, the growing conservation community is now
global and a society that fosters the exchange of ideas in any culture can strengthen conservation efforts worldwide. The goal of the International Society for Conservation GIS is to create that global communication on conservation issues and promote the exchange of ideas and data.
I am excited about the potential of the Society and the amazing array of professionals who are currently members. I see representatives from diverse organizations including non-profits such as the Conservation Fund, and the National Wildlife Federation among others; federal agencies including the National Park Service and the US Geological Survey; and local groups like the Sitka Conservation Fund. I find that my frustration as a federal employee with data access, communication, and data hoarding, is shared with people from non-profits. Conversely, I see the non-profits learning the barriers federal employees face. Such communication across agency, private sector, and non-profit boundaries is so important to GIS, considering the global implications for conservation.
1998 SCGIS Conference - FINAL AGENDA
ALL EVENTS (WITH EXCEPTION OF FRIDAY POTLUCK DINNER) TO BE HELD AT LAWLER
LODGE, IDYLLWILD, CA
Friday, July 24th
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Potluck Dinner & ridepooling at Charles Convis’s House
Plane arrivals who need rides, please phone 909-792-6840 from the airport,
which will give us an ongoing chance to handle last minute emergencies like
missed rides, delayed flights, and last minute strandees. It really helps and
from Ontario it’s a cheap call.
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Dinner at Lawler Lodge
Saturday, July 25th
7:30 am - 8:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:00 am Welcome/SCGIS Historical Perspective (Charles Convis)
9:00 am – 11:50 am Short Presentations
9:00 - 9:15 Paul Zwick: GIS in Crisis: the Florida Experience (FL, USA)
9:20 - 9:35 Mahesh Rao: Application of GIS in Related Studies on Amphibian
Populations in Central Oklahoma (SW USA)
9:40- 9:55 Mathias Behangana: The Distribution Of Medium And Large-Size
Mammals of Uganda: Using GIS Modeling As A Management Tool (Africa)
10:00 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 10:45 Thomas Hoctor et al.: A GIS-based Landscape Approach for the
Identification of a Statewide Integrated Conservation System in Florida (FL,
USA)
10:50 - 11:05 Lucy Chege: Using GIS for Managing Human – Elephant Conflict in
Kenya (Africa)
11:10 - 11:25 Olga Hernandez: Analysis of the Coverage of the National
Protected Areas System in Colombia and Priorities Definition for Conservation
Using Arc/Info & ArcView (South America)
11:30 - 11:45 Salman Ashraf: Resource mapping of Hazarganji-Chilant National
Park and the Suleiman Range Pine Forest, a Rare Ecosystem in a Semi-Arid Zone;
as well as Mapping of the Protected Areas of Pakistan (Pakistan)
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM Lunch
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM Workshops
2:30 – 3:25 Marcia McNiff – Developing and Using Metadata
3:30 – 4:25 Pat Halpin - GIS as a Tool for Scientific Research
4:30 PM - 6:30 PM Free Time
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Dinner
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM Conservation GIS Poster Session and Social
Sunday, July 26th
7:30 am - 8:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am – 12:00 pm SHORT COURSE/ SHORT PRESENTATIONS
Short course:
8:30 am – 11:30 am Advanced GIS Techniques: Working with Spatial Analyst
Paul Zwick (limited availability)
Concurrent short presentations:
9: 00 - 9:20 Ellen Hines: Using a Geographic Information System to Estimate
the Possible Effects of Map Error on the Delineation of Habitat for the
California Spotted Owl in Southern California (Pacific NW, USA)
9:20 - 9:35 David Woods: GIS in Decision Making for Resource Allocation (S.
Africa)
9:40- 9:55 Page Else: User Documentation and Metadata (Pacific NW, USA)
10:00 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 10:45 Dagmar Scholle: Integrative Landscape Classification (Germany)
10:50 - 11:05 L. Boitini: African Mammals Databank (AMD): A databank for the
conservation and management of the African mammals (S. Africa)
11:10 - 11:25 Eric Sanderson: Tidal Saltmarshes (New York, USA)
11:30 - 11:45 TBA
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Lunch - Discussion Groups - Topics TBA
Standards and Training – facilitator: Will Allen
GPS: Discussion and Field Demonstration – Michael Kunzmann
GIS Data Accuracy: Challenges of Low Quality Public Sector Data – Peter
Morrison
Other topics TBD (please e-mail ideas to cheryl@arcana.com)
2:15 pm - 3:45 pm Annual SCGIS Membership Meeting (break included)
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Election of new board members
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm Closing Dinner/Bonfire
Monday, July 27th
7:30 am - 8:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am - 11:00 am Clean up of Lawler Lodge
SCGIS Board Meeting:
Tuesday Evening, 7-9pm, San Diego Convention Center. Room TBA
II. Joshua Tree Field Trip Information
Please contact Gillian Bowser at gillian_bowser@nps.gov for more information.
Bring field gear, loads of water, sun screen, and good humor.
Schedule
7:00 am Pickup in Redlands at Charles Convis’s House (see directions to
potluck above), drive to Joshua Tree (1.5 hours) with stops for coffee and
snacks at the Park Center
Stop at Indian Cove and radio track tortoises to demo GPS and GIS model used
for tortoise distribution model.
12:00 pm Park Headquarters, demo of tortoise habitat model, demo of tortoise
data on computer system, and demo of all of Joshua Tree's data and access
capacities. If requested, demo of DOIAVADS (job search engine for Department
of Interior).
4:30 pm Depart for Redlands
6:30 pm Arrive at potluck at Charles Convis’s House
We will have two vehicles to shuttle folks to the park. Each person will have
to sign a simple VIP (Volunteer In Park) form to ride in the government
vehicles.
SCGIS 1998 Scholarship Program YEAR 1 Status Report (From SCGIS Newsletter Vol 1 #1 1998 by C. Convis)
First International Scholarships are a success!
The SCGIS International Committee was very active in its first year, raising $2000 from the Arenz Foundation and the SCGIS to cover our infant international scholarship program. Starting by word-of-mouth in late 1997, members of the committee wrote support letters, invitations and endorsements to help nearly 20 conservation scientists overseas apply for local funding and support. Of that number 3 were able to raise all of their travel funds and only needed housing and registration grants. Our $2000 fund was then distributed as matching grants to another 3 scientists who were able to find partial funding.
Allowing 6 conservationists to come to the USA for GIS training and conferences is modest compared to all who need help, but it is a hopeful start for what is a completely new international program.
We hope to increase our funding for the 1998 grants so if you are a donor and you are interested in a well-managed international conservation grant program please let us know!
The deadline to apply for grants for 1999 is December 31, 1998. To obtain application information, please send email to the SCGIS International Committee listed on the last page.
Profiles of the First Grantees 1998
Lucy Chege, African Conservation Centre, Kenya ($850 Grant)
Lucy Chege, African Conservation Centre P.O.BOX 62844 NAIROBI Kenya
Paper TItle: "Studies of Elephant-Human relations in Amboseli Park"
" Data available in KWS shows that elephants kill more people per yearthan all the other wildlife species put together "
(PHOTO: Lucy Chege working on maps of Amboseli National Park in 1995. c. convis)
“Through an integrated multi-disciplinary approach to conservation, ACC aims to link science to conservation and conservation to people. We realize and understand that we are not dealing with wildlife in isolation but with cultures in transition and that issues such as land use, economics, community welfare and political will are at least as important in conservation as a scientific understanding of ecology.
I graduated with a B.Sc. from University of Nairobi in 1990 majoring in Statistics and a minor in Computer Science and joined ACC (then Wildlife Conservation International) as a data analyst. After working for one year, I started developing programs to analyse various ecological indices from the wildlife and vegetation data collected in the field projects. “
“The greatest scientific problem for me initially was to fully understand the ecological indices that are required so as to write programs to process the field data and interpret the same. Being from a purely maths background, some of the stuff did not make sense and I had to read ecological books to understand it fully. The most exciting thing has been to fully be part of analysing and the implementation of the results from the analysis.”
“My greatest GIS challenge has been to model different scenarios so as to make appropriate management conservation decisions. I have not overcome this hurdle but hope to do so with further training and experience.”
“My professional goal is to be able to fully utilise GIS technology to model patterns of wildlife movement in comparison to changing environmental factors like rainfall, habitat etc. and to analyse the various forms of conflict that exist in the region eg. Human-wildlife conflict and biodiversity-wildlife conflcit and to provide viable solutions for the same. “
Salman Ashraf, World Wildlife Fund Pakistan, ($770 Grant)
Mr. Salman Ashraf (GIS Officer) WWF-Pakistan PO Box 5180 Ferozpure Road Lahore, Pakistan
studies focusing on resource mapping of Hazarganji-Chilant National Park and the Suleiman Range Pine Forest, a rare ecosystem in a semi-arid zone, as well as mapping of the Protected Areas of Pakistan
Paper Title: "Resource mapping of Hazarganji-Chilant National Park and the Suleiman Range “At preliminary stage, WWF-Pakistan is developing some basic databases of protected areas and wetlands of Pakistan, (which is more than 10%of total land). In the later stage, our plan is to start detailed environmental mapping so that we can get the basic information of available habitat in these protected areas where this study would be first of its kind in the country. In the start, we are facing serious problems as national level geographic database is missing."
Dagmar Scholl, Ecology Center Kiel, (Housing/Fees Grant)
The whole and its parts: some considerations on and examples for integrative landscape classification
“Within the most (if not all) research projects dedicated to spatial investigation, a need for proper and useful classification and delineation of spatial units exists. However, with the increased awareness about the importance of multidisciplinary or ecosystem-based approaches, a lot of uncertainty still exists as to how appropriate mapping units could be derived. Yet, some very interesting concepts have recently been developed”
Olga Lucia Hernandez Manrique, World Wildlife Fund Colombia ($380 Grant)
Analysis of the Coverage of the National Protected Areas System in Colombia and definition of priorities for conservation using Arc/Info
(Map of the Vegetation of Columbia, by WWF Columbia) “Colombia has approximately 114 million hectares of which only 7,8% are legally protected. The indigenous territories occupy 23,2% and some of these are within areas defined as national natural parks. Most of the protected areas of the country are very separated one of the other. The Andean region, where 70% of the country's population lives, is strongly affected by anthropic intervention. Nevertheless, this area contains important remnants of dry forests, Andean and subandean ecosystems and páramo vegetation, that could be connected by means of biological corridors, to make the its conservation more effective. “
Mathias Behangana, Uganda, (Housing/Fees grant)
Mr. Mathias Behangana Makerere University Institute of Environment and Natural Resources PO Box 7298 Kampala, Uganda
MAP: distribution of Medium and Large size mammals in Uganda
PAPER: "The Distribution Of Medium And Large-Size Mammals Of Uganda, Using Gis Modelling As A Management Tool
The present knowledge of many biological and ecological parameters of many animal species does not allow for a reliable assessment of their conservation status along with the requirements of
modern conservation biology. In particular, the fragmentation patterns, caused by habitat encroachment by human activities, is key factor of conservation threats...
(PHOTO RIGHT: Karamoja Herdsmen where a cheetah skin was found in Jan 1997 proving their reexpansion into an area where they were thought to be extinct. Photo: M. Benhangana)
(PHOTO RIGHT: Afro-Alpine vegetation on Mt. Elgon, Udanda in Jan, 1997. Photo: M. Benhangana)
David Woods, Natal Parks South Africa, (Housing/Fees grant)
(Photo: Mother and baby elephant in Masai Mara,Kenya, by C. Convis)
Paper Title: "GIS in Decision Making for Resource Allocation"
OTHER SCGIS 1998 Scholars
John Waithaka
Kenya Wildlife Service
P.O.BOX 40241
NAIROBI
Kenya
studies of Elephant-Human relations in Amboseli Park
Mr. Ashok Kumar, Vice President
Wildlife Protection Society of India
Thapar house
124 Janpath
New Delhi
110001
India
Carlos Alberto de Mattos Scaramuzza
Conservation and Landscape Ecology Lab
General Ecology Department
Biology Institute-University of Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dagmar Scholle
Ecology Center Kiel
Schauenburger Str. 112
24118 Kiel
Germany
Bettina Weber
University at Kaiserslautern
Department of Biology, Allgemeine Botanik
Postfach 3049
67653 Kaiserslautern
Germany
studies focusing on the correlation of distribution patterns of saxicolous lichens with climatic factors and air quality
