Spatial Technology for Biodiversity Conservation: India Biodiversity Portal

Overview

Geographical Ecology is central to biodiversity conservation. Species and their distribution are dynamic, related to other biotic and abiotic spatial variables of soil, climate, and human anthropogenic variables.

The India Biodiversity Portal (IBP) strives to continuously assemble a rich set of spatial layers related to species and their distribution in a collaborative and participative manner, build tools for visualization and analysis and provide free and open access to these spatial layers as open data to encourage open science and foster evidence-based conservation and development planning.

Launched in 2008 and continuously evolving, the IBP directly relates to the Sustainable Development Goal 15 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development devoted to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.

To mainstream biodiversity in society, the IBP has been trying to address a large spectrum of stakeholders, understanding their requirements, and responding to their needs. Geographical and map interfaces are intuitive to humans, and with a visual interface, they can reach and appeal to a broad audience, regardless of expertise, education, language, or socioeconomic status.

Vision: To document every species in India along with its position in the ‘tree of life’ and its geographical distribution in the Indian subcontinent.

Objectives

y Build open access, validated and national Spatio-temporal repository of the biodiversity of India. y Curate and aggregate other spatial layers on biotic, abiotic, and anthropogenic factors. y Integrate APIs with other open spatial datasets and present them with species distributions. y Build participatory and collaborative interfaces to contribute and aggregate spatial datasets. y Build map and chart-based visualization and analysis tools with the data on the portal. y Provide open access to spatial data on IBP under FAIR principles.

Stakeholders Involved

Central and State Governments, the National Knowledge Commission of the Government of India, institutions like the Foundation for Ecological Security, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, and the Alternate Law Forum, scientific and student communities, citizens, amateur naturalists, conservation activists, international governments, and organisations.

Solution and Implementation

IBP was conceived as a map-centric portal aggregating various themes and layers on a web map interface. Although the national policy on access to maps was very restrictive at that time, the backing of like-minded institutions facilitated IBP to boldly assemble many spatial layers essential for planning and conservation and publish them on a web mapping application.

Central to the implementation plan of the IBP is a data model that is flexible and will scale with different data types that need to be warehoused on the portal. All data is referenced along two axes, a spatial axis representing the geographical location where the data is referenced; and a taxonomic axis represented by the position of the species in the ‘tree of life’.

Spatial technologies have expanded over the last few years with many tools and techniques and features for warehousing, visualization, and analysis of spatial data. The portal tracks spatial technologies and attempts to integrate them into the portal. Biodiversity observations on IBP also carry a temporal element for tracking changes in species distribution over time and understanding migratory patterns.