Mapping Tool

[Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr.]

A free system to consider is DIVA-GIS produced by the Centro Internacional
de la Papa in Peru.  Go to the following URL to read about and download
the software:

http://www.cipotato.org/diva/

"DIVA-GIS is a free geographic information system (GIS) software. You can
use it to make maps  of species distribution data, and analyze these data
using grids. DIVA-GIS was specifically developed for use with genebank data 
such as available through national or international genebank
documentation systems and SINGER. 

With DIVA you can:

1. Make maps of the sites where a plant or animal species was observed
(and perhaps collected), or of characters of these observations;

2. Make grid maps of the distribution of biological diversity (e.g.,
species richness; Shannon index); and identify areas that have complementary 
levels of diversity;

3. Extract climate data for accession points, and predict the presence of
species, for the current climate or the climate of the future."

Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr.
USDA, Agricultural Research Service
Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory
Room 304, Building 011A, BARC-West
Beltsville, Maryland 20705-2350 USA
Voice telephone: 301-504-9447
FAX: 301-504-5810
Internet: jkirkbri at asrr.arsusda.gov


On Wed, 7 May 2003, Jan-Peter Frahm wrote:

> Hundreds of amateur botanists and also zoologists in Europe are "mapping" species records, however, the facilities to display these records on maps are poor, at least to my knowledge. It would be, however, nice to display these records on the computer, for publications as well to get an impression of the known distribution. GIS programs are expensive and difficult to operate. There are also possibilities to publish such maps on the internet (Open GIS). There are also many Map Viewers, which can - again to my knowledge - only display maps which were prepared before with GIS programs. There are also some programms, which were developed for special purposes, but work only with special maps and special data, but are not an open system. Is there any mapping tool (a home edition), which can read lat-long data from a database and display the coordinates as dots on a map (similar to the map viewers displaying the herbarium records of some herbaria), and which can be provided for free or at a reasonable price?
> Jan-Peter Frahm
> Botanisches Institut der Universität
> Meckenheimer Allee 170
> 53115 Bonn
> Tel. 0228/732121
> Fax: 0228/736542
> www.bryologie.uni-bonn.de
>