Alexandra Loshkareva, Russia
Alexandra Loshkareva, Deputy Head of the department “Cartography and GIS
xRemote xEducation xPlan xCartography xVegetation xWildlife xProtected Area x2013Talk x2013Scholar xTalk2013 xScholar2013 xRussia xeurope
(Photo: Alexandra studying reindeer in the Kola Penninsula)
2013 Conference Paper:
"Information Center for Environment Problems"
Presenter(s): *Alexandra Loshkareva, Transparent World
The objective of this project is to provision an operational information and resource GIS and remote sensing support on current nature protection issues of public importance, to increase transparency and openness in the field of environmental problems and violations, promoting human rights in the sphere of the environment. Informing target groups about ecological problems using GIS and remote sensing technologies, dialog with stakeholders, making analysis and conclusions of the different environmental problems, creating a public cartographical information resource of the environmental problems in Russia, writing articles about violations of using environmental resources and natural environment problems. As a result of this work I will present some examples of solved problems.
2013 Scholar Profile:
.email address: aloshkareva at transparentworld dot ru
title or role in the organization: Deputy Head of the department “Cartography and GIS
*-Organization name: Non-profit Partnership "Transparent World"
*-Organization full street address (in your local format): 5/22 Ulitsa Rossolimo, Building 1, Moscow, Russia 119021
*-Organization full mailing address, if different:
*-Country: Russia
*-Work phone with country and area code: +007 (495) 739-73-85 ext. 140
*-Work fax with country and area code: +007 (495) 739-73-85 ext. 140
*-Main email: picea2k at gmail.com
*-Organization Web site URL if any: http://transparentworld.ru/ru/
I’ve been working in Transparent World for 4 years, 3,5 years of my work I was a specialist of cartography and geoinformatic. I made paper and web maps, web-services, map illustrations into the books and so on. So, I worked with most of projects, which were realized in our company, because the result of all of them was maps. So, it was 
very useful for me, because I improved my GIS and cartographical skills a lot. I prepared spatial analyzis of the data, calculated statistics and so on. Now, I'm a head of a department "Information center". The objective of my current work is to provision an operational information and resource GIS and Remote sensing support on current nature protection issues of public importance, to Increase transparency and openness in the field of environmental problems and violations, promoting human rights in the sphere of the environment. We are informing target groups about ecological problems through using GIS and Remote Sensing technologies, dialog with stakeholders, making analysis and conclusions of the different environmental problems, creating a public cartographical information resource of the environmental problems in Russia, writing articles about violations of using environmental resources and natural environment problems. So, this time I make all of these steps - finding a problem, verifying it by satellite images, making map or simple illustration, writing an article and informing target groups. It seems to look like I don't need using GIS a lot, but is not really so. With this new position I start to use GIS in completely other way - I need to do everything very fast, correct and well designed.
(PHOTO: Alexandra at Kirovsk in Murmansk region of Russia)
I have a master degree in cartography and geoinformatics. My master’s degree work was has been devoted to interpretation of vegetation cover by satellite images, and making vegetation map on the basis of this investigation. Also during study I took part in a huge amount of field work expeditions (Kronotskij national Reserve (Kamchatka peninsula), Lazovskiy national Reserve (Primorskiy kraj), Kavkazskij national Reserve (Krasnodarskij kraj, Caucasus mount.), Denezhkin kamen’ (Sverdlovskaja obl., Ural mountains), National park Russkij Sever (Vologodskaja obl.), Archangelskaja obl. (expedition in honor of the M.V.Lomonosov 300th anniversary) and a lot of time in Khibiny and Lovozery mount., and in the north part of the Kola peninsula. As a result of these expeditions, I made different maps of these regions (thematic maps with different approaches, which are depend on the interesting of the specialists in that place). When I was a 2nd year student I made my projects in graphical programs – Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw, also used Adobe Photoshop. Then, I made all my maps in ArcGIS (9.1-10.0). Some examples of my expedition maps are in attaches. These maps are rather simple to do in technical way, but they are not so easy by there content.
In my master degree work I investigated methodology of interpretation Landsat images on the basis of using height-resolution images (Quick Bird). I used ERDAS Imagine program and a little bit ENVI. During my work in “Transparent world” I did a lot of different things, with using GIS technologies. I made web-services with different environmental information (http://gis.transparentworld.ru/en/russiaks/, http://gis.transparentworld.ru/en/angara/, http://gis.transparentworld.ru/primorie-fire/ and others), Also, I took part in the producing maps in the Atlas in the book “GAP-Analysis in the northern-western part of European Russia (based on Landsat imagery)” and map “Federal protected areas in Russia”, which was produced in 3 different scales (they are big, wall maps). More over I’m taking part in the project BPAN (Barents protected areas network) and make some geospatial analysis with environmental GIS-data.
Now, I’m head of the department “Information center”, and I’m using GIS and remote sensing technologies to operational solutions for incoming requests from non-governmental organizations (for example: logging in the national reserves, illegal building of a roads, pipelines, fires, flooding and so on).
*-How are you currently learning GIS? While my studying in University most important people for me in context of geoinformatics studying were: I.Lourie - Head of Cartography and Geoinformatic Department (specialist in the Geoinformatic), O.Tutubalina – my co-scientific adviser (specialist in the remote sensing), N.Alexeenko (specialist in cartography), H.Tommervik (specialist in the remote sensing from Norway) and many others. So, I hope, that my knowing of GIS is not only practical, but fundamental.
Also, during my study I worked in company “Data+” one year, this company is distributor of Esri products in Russia (that time exclusive distributor) – so, the practice way of using GIS I studied there. I finished two programs of ArcGIS 9.3.1 studying (second and third stages). Also, staff of the company improve my skills in GIS a lot.
During my work in “Transparent world” I became a really advanced GIS user. I need to improve my skills by myself and with help of my colleagues (J.Zencevich, D.Aksenov, E.Esipova and 
E.Tsybikova) to solve nonstandard tasks very fast. It is really great experience, and all this tasks made me feel comfortable in using GIS now. I can make maps, web-services, make spatial analysis and many other things. Most of my skills I took in practice way – when I need to do smth, I just try to find a way to do it by myself, or asking my colleagues about my problem.
Also, I have a friend, who made for me a lot in my studying GIS. He always helps me, when I can’t to do something in ArcGIS. He's name is A.Novichihin, certificated ArcGIS teacher, he is my group mate, also worked in Data+ with me and now he works in Skolkovo (Russian “Silicon valley”) as a GIS specialist.
MAP: Cultural Heritage Map of the Kurostrovskij area (click for Full Resolution)
There two main branches of my work – to analyze an environmental with different parameters and to illustrate my results in the very nice and accurate way. Most of our projects are very big by there territory, that’s why I need an opportunity to do most of my maps in an automatic way. But at the same time, due to my fundamental education, I want to see them in the classic cartography design. It is really very important for me, but now I need to find a compromise with the speed and quality, I need to know much more about automatically map layout in ArcGIS to make my maps faster in the same quality. Also, I want to know much more about ArcGIS on-line services, how to publish my project (in the technical way, because earlier, it did our programmer, but now I want to do it by myself). Our team already use ESRI Server Products (ArcIMS and ArcGIS Server) and it showed quite good results as a disseminator of information and information storage. But neither of us is specialist in Server products and we feel that do not use all the possibilities of this soft-ware. That's why it is very important for me and my Organization to take advance training in ArcGIS Server. Another approach of my work – is the analysis of the combination of different layers (forest maps, anthropogenic places (road network, cities and so on), protected areas, geology, elevation and others). We tried to make connectivity analysis of the territory to make sure, that our protected areas network is sufficient to protect our nature, and if not – to make a recommendation, what places are needed to be protected in future.
MAP: Map for children's ecology education program
“Transparent world” is a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that was established in 2000. Its mission is to democratize access to satellite information and to promote its integration into non-military decision-making. It has proofed experiences in producing and publishing forest-related maps making difference in the real world (such as old-growth logging moratorium in Karelia announced since 1996 and still supported by a number of leading international and Russian forest companies following the map produced by the same team of people; maps of intact forest landscapes used by IKEA as attachments to the contract with suppliers; or high-conservation value forests mapping for a number of FSC-certified forest areas).
The aim of the project has been the development of a remote sensing technique for illegal logging monitoring based on high resolution satellite images. A number of areas in Primorski Kray, Russian Far East, selected for monitoring by our partners from WWF in Vladivostok and other NGOs working in the region. Later the monitoring was expanded to other Russian regions, including Siberia, Caucasus, and the Russian North-west.
- Identification and Mapping of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF)
Transparent World has completed a number of HCVF projects involving method development, work with satellite images and in the field to locate such areas, creating maps and innovative ways of displaying them including on the Internet, negotiations with stakeholders based on these maps, and a range of partnerships with users including government forest authorities, forest companies, certification systems, and NGOs, both in Russia and abroad.
The TW team is a world leader in the HCVF area. The project of a global scale was mapping of intact forest landscapes (IFL). This type of HCVF is critically important for biodiversity protection at a landscape level and mitigating global climate change. Global maps of IFL created using unified criteria provide an overlook over state of such forests globally (www.intactforests.org). Many stakeholders use our maps of IFL in practice – they are referenced in the FSC standards for Russia and Canada and have met with interest by FAO for inclusion in the global Forest Resources Assessment.
- Web services as a tool to analyze and monitor threats to valuable nature areas
Aspiring to make our monitoring results available for general public through the Internet, we have began to develop online applications to create and support cartographic web-services focused on a range of environmental issues:
- HCVF of Primorsky Kray
- Intact Forests of Karelia
- Oil and Gas Threats to Arctic Ecosystems: The Barents Sea Ecoregion and Yamal, and The Okhotsk Sea Ecoregion
- Russian protected areas
The web services include spatial data visualized on the background of satellite images or topographic maps, linked with text description of the problem. They include data on ecosystems and threats to them. This information was either produced by TW or provided by partners (to mobilize existing information and place it in the public domain is a major overarching objective of TW). Near-real-time monitoring data were obtained by processing satellite imagery.
- Producing a map of Federal protecting areas in Russia
We prepared 3 wall maps in different scale, this maps shows all Federal protected areas in Russia. It is the most actual and detail map of Protected areas in Russia these time. We collect data of PA’s in different formats from our Ministry of Environment (list of coordinates in different projections, maps and schemes, text describes and other). We integrated all of them in the unique format, create base map and as a result have an accurate map of PA’s in Russia.
- BPAN (Barents protected area network) protected areas fragmentation and connectivity analysis
connectivity analysis of the territory, analysis of protected areas network in the Barents Region
