GEOINFORMATICS AND NATURE PARKS

Introduction: Google Earth blazes the trail

This paper describes the potential that geoinformatics can have in a mutually beneficial symbiosis with nature parks, to provide location-based up-to date information for park visitors based on decentralized data- and knowledge repositories.

Geoinfomatics-based applications like GoogleEarth have become a commodity for society during the last years. They have been readily accepted both by laypersons and in academia. In this paper we highlight how similar geoinformatics-driven approaches can be applied for nature parks. This enables the communication the best available scientific understanding about global change processes on a local scale to park visitors, based on new community databases and services and to apply new technology for local and regional applications Nature Parks: Potential and Challenge

Geology forms the foundation of any park's ecosystem. It sets the stage and provides context for the natural and historic local heritage. Therefore the acknowledgement and communication of the geologic setting is central to any nature park concept. Some Nature Parks in Europe are members of the European Geoparks Network and of the Global Geoparks Network supported by UNESCO.  These territories have an obligatory, strong focus on the protection and communication of geolocial and cultural heritage in order to achieve sustainable regional development.  The following quote by Mike Soukupapplies, associate director of the NPS's Natural Resource Stewardship and Science (cited in Higgins 2007) highlights the current status:

 “Intuitive decision-making might have sufficed in the twentieth century, (but) it certainly will not ensure that the natural systems (the wildlife and the scenery) of national parks will be maintained unimpaired throughout the 21^st century”

Good management requires a sound understanding of the available infrastructure including the scientific aspects. They need to be appropriately communicated to park visitors and academia.

An ongoing dialogue between geoscientists and with park resource management staff is crucial to discuss research needs, projects and grant appeals. This is vital to introduce the means for knowledge management, data access and the representation of the facts and findings.

However, according to Higgins (2007), even within United States System of National Parks, where landscape interpretation was first introduced as a means to communicate nature and science, about 90% of the parks still lack a geoscientist in residence. This indicates the huge potential for contributions from the field of geoinformatics.

Figure 1: Interaction between park visitors, park staff and geoinformatics advisors.

  Geo-Naturpark Bergstraße-Odenwald

We present the Geo-Naturpark Bergstraße-Odenwald, Germany as a real-world scenario to depict the potential benefits of the application of geoinformatics for NatureParks/Geoparks. The park covers the Odenwald-range between from Frankfurt (Main) to Heidelberg. It stretches from the Rhine Valley to the winelands of Franconia. The park was the first Nature Park in Germany to achieve Geopark-Status on the national , , European and Global Level. The park promotes “protection by usage”, preservation of heritage and knowledge and the empowering of local enterprises (i.e. sustainable tourism) under the crosscutting objective of sustainable regional development. Real-world examples for the potential impact of Geoinformatics

Apart from basic management tasks such as visitor statistics and trail management which can be supported by off the shelf solutions, geoinformatics can help to open fields of research and communication which otherwise could not be addressed with the available  resources. We provide two examples: Contemporary Regional Geology – a challenge

Lots of regional field expertise and knowledge (i.e. small scale geology) needs to be stored, managed and communicated within a Geopark. In the case of Bergstraße-Odenwald, this is a significant challenge, as the whole area is divided in maps provided by three different geologic state services of Hessia, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

The implementation of geoinformatics software mash-ups for the integration of the growing number of Geo Data Infrastructures (GDI) on both state and regional level could be tackled similar to the efforts reported by Baru (2008). Despite the improvements in data access, the issue of data actuality remains. For the Geopark area, most of the available geologic data was charted more than a century ago. It will be a challenge for the future to integrate crowd-sourced contemporary observations into a regional geo-repository  by means similar to (Ramm and Topf 2008). Telling stories from data queries

From the perspective of geoinformatics, the provision of query results to the recipient is the last step in a  process chain, ending with the production of mapping products. Yet from the Geopark perspective, the challenge to communicate scientific facts just begins at this stage. For “in the field” communication, computer independent products  are still preferable for interaction with the visitors (relying on vision, touch, smell, etc). Also, the challenge to communicate the findings in a barrier-free manner needs to be addressed (Ludwig 2004).

For this, the availability of dedicated Web Processing Services (WPS) will help to enable the on-demand production of geo-pedagogic derivates like conventional maps, GPS-tracks, multi-thematic lenticular products or even jigsaw-puzzles (Figure 2).

 

Conclusion

Recent developments in geoinformatics can make a significant contribution, by enabling access to local spatial data repositories by services like Sensor Observation (SOS) and Web Processing (WPS) for both park staff and visitors and the on-demand creation of adequate map-related products (see figure 2). The use of Free and Open Source (FOSS) tools enables access to geoinformatics software without siginifcant financial investments.

Research results shared through park interpretive staff and interest groups will enhance the experience for all park visitors. It helps to communicate the recent state of scientific understanding to the general public.

Figure 2. Communicating the role of earth observation product: Using a 3D-Jigsaw puzzle (Geocubes) to COmmunicate Remote Senisng Products.

    References Cited

Baru C. (2008):  Mediating Among GeoSciML Resources, EGU Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 10, EGU2008-A-11390, 2008

 

Higgins, B. (2007), Geoscience Research in U.S. National Parks, Eos Trans. AGU, 88(21), 226

Ludwig T. (2004): Kurshandbuch Natur- und Kulturinterpretation, http://www.interp.de

Ramm F., Topf J. (2008): Open Street Map – Die freie Weltkarte nutzen und gestalten, Lehmann Media