ALA: a five year journey

It seems appropriate to reflect on where the Atlas of Living Australia has got to after five years of development.

schedule Date & time
11 Dec 2013 3:00pm
person Speaker
Lee Belbin - Blatant Fabrications Pty Ltd (TAS)

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Description

It seems appropriate to reflect on where the Atlas of Living Australia has got to after five years of development.

The 'Atlas' has achieved much, yet like any research project, issues remain. The infrastructure is certainly in place. There is a well designed system with a large volume of well connected data, over 40 million records for starters. The system is modular, extensible and is based around web services - which means that most Atlas functions are easily available via a simple URL. This strategy has enabled the Atlas to deliver easily customisale portals (views) for others and for others to incorporate Atlas functions in their sites. The Atlas users range from primary school students to post graduate research. The spatial portal adds a broad range of environmental data (400+ 'layers') and a goodly range of tools and options that demonstrate what can be done with integrated data.

Not everything has gone to plan and issues remain to be addressed. A better National Species List backbone is needed: taxonomy is always an issue! More species interaction information and an effective library for Atlas access via R would be useful. And more tools, more data (Queensland and Victoria - please!), a standard for maintaining annotations/changes and more effective links with other NCRIS partners iMOS and TERN are also a priority. These issues are accknowledged and feedback is always encouraged. The good news is the Atlas continues to develop thanks to support from CSIRO and DoE.
 
Lee Belbin is a spatial ecologist responsible for building the infrastructure (the spatial portal) for the Atlas. His presentation will cover all the above, along with some demonstrations of novel and new features. He would also like this time to be an opportunity for discussion, during or afterwards with the audience - the key users of the Atlas.

Location

ANU | Evolution, Ecology & Genetics Seminar Room | Gould Building (Bldg 116)