Biodiversity Conservation in Western Ghats, India: Capacity

Building in Harnessing Geospatial Data Management.

S Narendra Prasad
OSGeo-India,Hyderabad

SÁ F
 About OSGeo India

• A registered not for profit society to promote Free/Open source GIS tools and
publicly available Geodata.

• Advocacy of and promoting Localized GIS.

• Act as a bridge between various groups like Developers, Application Users,

NGOs and Government departments

• Mentor various FOSS GIS projects by providing resources such as technical

guidance, webspace etc.

• Capacity building in FOSS geospatial applications in various thematic areas.

 OSGeo-India activities

• Workshops and Training sessions

(for a wide range of personnel ranging from PA mangers to Computer science students/teachers including
Geoinformatics/geology/geography/civil engineering students and teachers)

• Others such as personnel from R&D institutions and Universities

• Special Lectures

• Demonstrations

• Communication:

• Networking Local Communities related to geo-issues

• FOSS 4 G Biannual National conferences

 Past Initiatives on Western Ghats

• Bringing together available spatial data on Ecosystems,

habitats and species

• Extensive use of available open data -esp satellite imagery

• First time use of Open source spatial tools from desktop and
web environments for the entire Western Ghats range

• Extensive stakeholder interactions based on Web GIS

outputs and including APIs for GE
Kerala and Tamilnadu
ESA Prioritization
(Upper Region)
Kerala and Tamilnadu
ESA Prioritization
(Lower Region)
02072013 8
02072013 9
02072013 10
Why SDI for Western Ghats Biodiversity?

Global Biodiversity Hotspot

WGEEP
HLWG
 Rationale
• Why need geospatial data for conservation?
• What is the need for capacity building ?
• What role open source geospatial technology has?
• How has the modern ICT tech innovations help biodiversity
conservation?
• How does it percolate to the stakeholders?
• Do we have wherewithall to adopt the state of art spatial tech
tools to aid conservation?
• Are there long term sustainabilty and utility values in these
efforts?
 Ongoing Initatives on Western Ghats

• Preliminary attempt in Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative for

aggregation,value addition, updation and crowd sourcing of Biodiversity
Spatial data for Western Ghats

• Crowd sourcing- long term sustainability of deployment of Free and Open

source Geospatial technologies

• Is perhaps the only cost effective means to initiate and strengthen BSDI for
Western Ghats and other ecosystems
BASE LAYERS
WG-FIRE LOCATIONS
ENDEMIC SPECIES
• Demonstrate and build consensus on how a Biodiversity Spatial
Data Infrastructure for Western Ghats can help stakeholders.

• Knowledge sharing of best practices – building linkages and

learning from one-another across Western Ghats range states

• Capacity building in geospatial biodiversity data management by

using Open Source based mobile/tab based Geospatial Apps .
 Expected Outcomes

Enhanced capacity to understand and utilize geospatial platforms for

data collection, its scientific analysis for sustainable development
planning in Western Ghats

Training of Trainers (Tots) in FOSS 4 G applications across Western

Ghat range states

An Open source based web portal containing the training materials

along with open data .

Expand collaboration with various line agencies and other stakeholders

such as SBBs, Academia and NGOs
THANKS