Dawn J. Wright (editor) - GIS for Science, Volume 3: Maps for Saving the Planet (GIS for Science, 3)

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Christian Harder and Dawn J. Wright, eds.; GIS for Science: Maps for Saving the Planet, Volume 3; DOI: https://doi.org/10.17128/9781589486713
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019936340
e-ISBN 9781589486720

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All images courtesy of Esri except as noted.

Developmental editing by Mark Henry; Technology Showcase editing by Keith Mann; Copyediting by Joe DeLillo. Cover design and map by John Nelson.

On the cover: This vibrant representation of our planet paints on its surface the World Ecological Land Unitsa segmentation of distinct bioclimate, landform, lithology, and land cover that forms the basic components of terrestrial ecosystem structure. Hillshading was derived from GEBCO 2020 elevation and bathymetric data. It was created in ArcGIS Pro. The aesthetic was inherited from the Half-Earth globe, designed by John Nelson of Esri and Estefana Casal of Vizzuality, with the goal of invoking the sense that our shared planet is something beautiful and charming and worthy of sound stewardship.

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See this book come alive at
GISforScience.com

By Jack Dangermond, founder and president, Esri and Dawn J. Wright, chief scientist, Esri

Sciencethat wonderful endeavor in which someone investigates a question or a problem using reliable, verifiable methods and shares the resulthas always been about increasing our understanding of the world. Early on, we applied geographic information systems (GIS) to scienceto biology, ecology, economics, or any of the other social sciences. It wasnt until about 1993, when Michael Goodchild coined the term GIScience, that the world began to realize that GIS is a science in its own right. Today, we call this The Science of Where. GIS incorporates sciences such as geology, geography, health and human science, data science, computer science, statistics, geovisual analytics, decision science, and much more. It integrates these disciplines into a kind of metascience, providing a framework for applying science to almost everything, merging the rigor of the scientific method with the technologies of GIS. The study of where things happen, it turns out, has great relevance.

We live in a world that faces more and more challenges. Even as a global pandemic continues to ravage human lives, the natural world remains under siege, with a global rate of species extinction that, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), is at least tens to hundreds of times higher than at any time during the past 10 million years, and accelerating. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, most African countries have reported reduced monitoring of the illegal wildlife trade. The protection of endangered species, conservation education, and anti-poaching operations also have faltered. Conversely, so few people understand how deterioration in the natural world can serve to light the fire of a new pandemic. Biodiversitythe variety of life on Earth from microscopic genes to entire ecosystemsis currently not a focus of the global response to factors threatening the lives and livelihoods of all creatures and organisms. As the venerable naturalist Edward O. Wilson has warned: The only hope for the species still living is a human effort commensurate with the magnitude of the problem.

Part of this human effort is a global mobilization to identify and map the species that are at risk and not already safeguarded. This effort involves action maps, as The Nature Conservancy calls them, to show us where things are, and what we should protect, build, and invest in. These action maps can help us decide what to do in the face of trade-offs between wild grasslands and mineral exploration, or between transportation infrastructure and wildlife, etc. Such action maps are now well within our grasp as we continue to undergo a massive digital transformation. This transformation enables a science that increasingly helps us measure and analyze things and predict what will happen next. Just as important, science helps us design, evaluate, and ultimately weave all these pieces together in a protective fabric across the planet.