- LINKS, GIS DATA, AND INFORMATION
- MELANESIA
- Links
- Shapefiles
- GRID format
- GeoTIFFs
- Papers
- Presentations
- Maps
- BY COUNTRY
- Fiji
- New Caledonia
- Papua (Indonesian province of)
- Papua New Guinea
- Solomon Islands
- Vanuatu
About this website
This website provides information about climate change with a focus on Melanesia through its searchable bibliography and data that can be used within geographic information software to analyze, map, and display the information contained in the bibliography, papers, and presentations found here. Taken together, the information, data, and links of this website provide key components for an environmental information system focused on the issues of climate change in Melanesia.
What is an Environmental Information System?
An environmental information system (EIS) is an information system organized around a central problem related to an environmental issue or question and has three main components to it:
- Component 1 - Data and information. Data and information relevant to the environmental problem or question that the system addresses is collected and organized in an accessible format. The information and data may be in the form of reports, articles, papers, maps, database tables, spreadsheets, spatial data layers (e.g. GIS compatible data layers), etc.
- Component 3 – Tools and methods. Besides including data and information, an EIS also includes tools and methods for data and information analysis. Tools may include software (geographic information systems (GIS) to spatially analyze data layers, remote sensing software to analyze satellite imagery, statistical software for analyzing quantitative data, etc.) and methods may include information on different methodology for analyzing the different types of data and information resident in the system.
- Component 3 – People. Knowledgeable users with different expertise (or individuals with multiple expertise) are an integral part of the system. It is the users who analyze the data and information to respond to and answer the environmental questions being asked.
The intersection of these three components is where the EIS is found.
(Source: Leisz, Giang, Rasmussen (2007) EIS Manual – Background for Collaboratively Designing, Developing, and Implementing a Pilot EIS. USEPAM Project. Hanoi Agricultural University / University of Copenhagen.)
The data, links, and information on this website supports the development of an EIS structured around the intersection of the issues of climate change and biodiversity in Melanesia. All of the information available through the searchable bibliography and the links on the website are related to either climate change or biodiversity with a specific geographical focus of Melanesia. Downloadable spatial data for Melanesia is provided in shapefile format, ArcInfo GRID format, TIF and GeoTIFF format, and as maps. If the user does not already have GIS software, in order to view the data and do basic overlay analysis, the user can download ESRI’s ArcExplorer from the link provided on the shapefile, GRID, GeoTIFF, and Maps search results pages. Free statistical software that can be used to analyze some of the quantitative data that is available via this website can be downloaded at “Free Statistics” (http://freestatistics.altervista.org/en/stat.php). If the user is interested in reading more on EIS, the following websites have examples of EIS or more information on EIS:
- Environmental Information System – ENVIS: India (http://envis.nic.in/)
- Environmental Information Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (http://www.worldbank.org/afr/findings/english/find128.htm)
- An Environmental Information System for the Upper Mississippi and Lower Missouri River Basins (http://eros.usgs.gov/sast/)
- The Great Lakes Regional Environmental Information System (http://www.columbia.edu/~rw187/awmagl.html)
We hope that interested users will make use of the resources presented here and use the data to build their own, standalone, environmental information system.
This website will be periodically updated as more data and information become available. If you would like to contribute data or information for upload to this site, or if you have any feedback, please contact:
steve.leisz@bishopmuseum.org
