USFWS Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Funded by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), this open-source, online geospatial viewing system will be used for habitat imagery/data file cataloging, access, integration and distribution in support of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) as part of the FWS Habitat projects. In effect, the system SharedGeo is developing will become GLRI’s online visualization tool that units of government, NGO’s, research community and public can use to visually understand and plan restoration activities in a way that maximizes the environmental and financial effectiveness of restoration decisions. Initial data inputs for this system will be provided under companion grants awarded to the U of M – Twin Cities, St. Mary’s University, Michigan Tech Research Institute, and Ducks Unlimited. As the project matures, SharedGeo intends to add data from numerous other researchers at a wide variety of locations in states and provinces surrounding the Great Lakes, many of whom are focused on wildlife habitat characterization and change detection in that habitat/climate.
Currently, SharedGeo’s development efforts are focused on systems for distribution of 10′s of terabytes of imagery and remote sensing data (including lidar and radar) to support the research community, as well as innovative approaches for acquisition, publication and query of related information.
Visit SharedGeo’s Great Lakes Restoration background page if you would like to know more.
SharedGeo’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative site for USFWS collaborative partners is expected to open in early November 2011.
