Results of a Needs Assessment Survey of the Global Invasive Species Information Network

Biodiversity Information Standards-Taxonomic Databases

Working Group

17 September 2007Annie Simpson, Jim Graham, Michael

Browne, Hannu Saarenmaa, Elizabeth Sellers Contact email: asimpson@usgs.gov

Successful species info sharing needs

DATA STANDARDS Controlled terminology – thesauri Standardized database fields Definition and standardization of the

“Invasive Species Profile” Registries or other service discovery

mechanisms

(IAS) Species Profile Data Standard

NBII/ISSG collaboration for a schema for the Global Invasive Species Database

Funding from CBD secretariat to Michael Browne for further development of the IAS-PS Powerful yet simple Useful in diverse realms for diverse taxa Adaptable to regional or other specific

needs

IAS = invasive alien species

NBII =National Biological Info Infrastructure

CBD = Convention on Biological Diversity

IAS-PS = Invasive Alien Species Profile Schema

ISSG = Invasive Species Specialist Group

GISIN Information System

Herbariums MuseumsInvasive

DatabasesInspectionDatabases

Portals Modelers Search Engines

Users

Consumers(Clients)

End-Users(Public)

Providers(of Data)

Based on graphic by Jim Graham

GISIN Portal GISIN RegistryGISIN system(Web services)

User Needs Analyses Requested Use Case Scenarios

(posted here)http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/InvasiveSpecies/UserScenariosAndUseCases

Ran Needs Assessment Survey, administered Dec ‘06 - Feb ‘07 by the Keystone Center

Needs Assessment Distribution

Aliens-L Listserv GISIN Listserv ASEAN invasive species meeting

participants TDWG ISIS members Friends of all the above

Needs Assessment Respondents

137 respondents from 41 countries Vast majority identified themselves as

both providers and consumers of IAS data

Information they provide: Spatial/temporal info (77%) Profiles/species pages (65%) Checklist info (59%)

IAS = Invasive Alien Species

Spatial/temporal info sought Date of observation (91%) Name or type of location (83%) Spatial coordinates (75%)

Species profile info sought Life history/ecology Habitat

descriptions Impacts Geographic range Pathway info images

Management info Descriptions References Requirements/

tolerances

Info unique to invasive species science

Respondents search by… To filter or search for

spatial/temporal information, species profiles, and checklist information, virtually all respondents (93-96%) use scientific name.

Knowledge gaps Level of web services their organization

provides and/or uses (50% don’t know) What existing protocols are appropriate

for IAS info management (80% don’t know)

What schemas or grammars are acceptable to copy or extend for the proposed system (75% don’t know)

IAS = Invasive Alien Species

Preferred Internet framework Many said ‘none, make it seamless

and web-based’ ASP (57%) Java (51%) PHP (39%) PHP = PHP Hypertext Preprocessor; open source and

designed for producing dynamic Web pages

“Open source” cross-platform language based on C & C++

ASP = Active Server Pages; proprietary; Microsoft’s server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages

Summary Standards are required for effective

invasive species information sharing In biodiversity science, some standards

have been too complex for adoption by many users

GEO, NBII, NASA, I3N, GISIN, and TDWG are working toward capacity building and broad agreement on simpler standards

GEO = Group on Earth Observations NBII =US National Biological Information

Infrastructure NASA = US National Aeronautics & Space

Administration I3N = Invasives Information Network of the

Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network GISIN = Global Invasive Species Information

Network

Reference Documents Results of Needs Assessment Survey:

http://www.gisinetwork.org Current version of the schema:

http://gentoo.cs.umb.edu/svn/GISIN/ Technical documentation:

http://monsoon.nrel.colostate.edu/cwis438/websites/GISINDirectory/

Wiki to discuss the schema and tech docs:http://wiki.tdwg.org/InvasiveSpecies