Supporting Red List assessments with GeoCAT

Justin Moat & Steven Bachman / GIS Unit - RBG Kew / GIS@kew.org / @KewGIS

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

A beautiful garden - and we also do science...

Global seed bank – 10% banked so far

The Kew ‘naming machine’Hundreds of new species described every year - thousands named

IUCN Sampled Red List Index – CBD 2010

The Red list –

Population reduction

Restricted geographic

range

Small population

size and decline

Very small and

restricted population

Quantitative analysis

Quantitative thresholds

Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii) Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)

The Red List is biased towards better known groups...

Plants on the Red list

-2011

Introducing GeoCAT -

Video

http://vimeo.com/22739331

Why we developed GeoCAT:

- Geospatial aspects of assessments were challenging- GIS - steep learning curve - Dependence on proprietary software- Difficulty with data gathering and processing- Lack of transparency - Isolated working practices – no collaboration- Difficult to replicate analysis- Few tools available - slow progress with Red Listing

The Red List community needs:

- rapid analysis- repeatable analysis – audit trail- data driven - from multiple sources- collaborative research and analysis- powerful, but easy to use tools- Open! and free to use

check it out... www.geocat.kew.org

Screencast demo:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyVHLQy8F_0

Future development...

- Assessments in the cloud- More data sources e.g. iNaturalist, Scratchpads, BRAHMS- Integration with IUCN Red List systems- Batch processing - Species distribution models- More spatial queries- Better integration with GBIF e.g. error feedback

Already being used worldwide

Recently used in South Korea with the IUCN Korean Plant Specialist Group

... and IUCN IndoChina plants assessment with Missouri Botanic Garden

Created and supported by:

Thank you