GIS Sana Sini - Malaysia Geoportal

MappingSpecies2BULETIN GEOSPATIAL Sektor Awam Edisi 2/2010marine organisms which can be found inMalaysia; Flora of Peninsular Malaysia Online(FPM: http://www.tfbc.frim.gov.my), a searchableflora that includes ancillary data such as habit,habitat, taxonomic synonymy, distribution withinPeninsular Malaysia and Singapore. There areagriculturally focused databases such as AgrobIS(http://agrobis.mardi.gov.my/), an informationsystem developed by MARDI to provide thepublic direct access to data of more than 40,000accessions of Plant Genetic Resource for Foodand Agriculture (PGRFA) which includes fruits,rice, vegetables, and medicinal plants. The systemalso consists of information on 2,500 isolatesof microbial genetic resources and about 30,000specimens of arthropods. The Department ofAgriculture is also developing AgricultureInformation System Geodatabase Portal (AgrIS)http://www.agris.doa.gov.my, a Web-basedsystem integrates agricultural data in all theStates of Malaysia into a single unified systemwhere one can access up-to-date informationabout soil, rainfall, pests, land use etc. AgrISis currently in development and is expected tobe launched in May 2010. There are smallerinstitutional, state and research group databasessuch as Johor Biodiversity Databasehttp://www.jbiotech.gov.my/jbiodi/, Amphibian andReptiles of Peninsular Malaysia Database http://www.amphibia.my and Malaysian IndigenousMicrobial Online Database System (MIMODS)that consists of a collection of data on indigenousmicroorganisms isolated by MalaysianMicrobiologists (http://www.bioinformatik.um.edu.my). However, such commendable effort isdis-proportionate to the existing untappedbiodiversity data and the present researchcommunity in Malaysia. Among the 14 contributinginstitutions in the Global Biodiversity InformationFacility (GBIF: www.gbif.org), there are nodatabases originating from Malaysia. This isfurther compounded in the Malaysian biodiversityscene as there is a conspicuous absence of GISenabled biodiversity databases catering for thescientific community.GIS IN BIODIVERSITYCurrently, biodiversity information is accessiblethrough the web through global databasessuch as Global Biodiversity Information Facility(GBIF), Fishbase, Encyclopedia of Life (EOL),Zipcode-Zoo and Biodiversity Heritage Library(BHL) (Gwinn et al., 2009). These databases aredesigned to deliver taxonomic information aboutorganisms, providing a broad taxonomic scopeand are maintained in large distributed federatedrelational databases. Although it is deceptivelyeasy to access raw information, it is difficult tovisualise the spatial data within these datasets.Earlier versions of these databases that originatedfrom flat file sources are usually not robustand lack much functionality that is required toinfer geospatial trends and pattern. Initially,queries were limited to basic keyword basedsearch focusing on descriptive taxonomic data.Earlier versions of these databases originatedfrom flat file sources are usually not robust andlack much functionality that is required to infergeospatial trends and pattern.The more recent additions such as GBIF-Mappingand Analysis Portal Application (GBIF-MAPA)(Flemons et al., 2007), Australian VirtualHerbarium (AVH), ASEAN Centre of Biodiversity(ACB), Israel Biodiversity Information System(BioGIS) or related tools (GBD-Explorer,Bio-Geomancer (Guralnick et al., 2006) Diva-GIS(http://www.diva-gis.org) have been enhanced byincorporating geographical, spatial and temporalvisualisation capabilities. Following the adage“a picture is worth a thousand words” the useof GIS will add a geographical dimension to thedatabase thus providing a novel perspective tothe data using the integration of information inspatial overlays or geographical “picture” foranalysis and interpretation, and visualisation. GISwill create a unique reference base (geographiclocation and maps), i.e. natural vegetation, soil,land use, topography, hydrology that enablesbiodiversity data to be combined and analysedto produce novel associations betweenenvironmental features and relationshipsbetween different species. Using GIS willfacilitate visualizing the relationship betweenspecies and geographical locations, inter andintra species locations and their relationshipsand examining distribution characteristics ofspecies (Oberlies et al., 2009).CHALLENGESBuilding online GIS web services to supportbiodiversity mapping has many majordevelopmental challenges and we attempt toelaborate the crucial ones that need to beanswered.Retrospective GeoreferencingA retrospective georeference is a conceptwhere the textual descriptions of places wheredata and specimens were collected (localitydescriptions such as “Sungai Johor, KampungTeluk Intan, etc”) are converted into theircorresponding geographic coordinates - especiallyfrom legacy or archival data that are descriptive innature This will create quantitative map