A Geospatial Platform to Connect Birders with Migration and ConservationMelanie Smith, Erika Knight, Lotem Taylor, Connor Bailey, John Mahoney, National Audubon Society, Daniel Huffman, somethingaboutmaps, Jill Deppe, National Audubon Society
The newly released Bird Migration Explorer integrates migration tracking data, connectivity data, and bird distribution models to deliver innovative visualizations for 460 North American species. The Explorer includes annual migration animations; connections maps that show people where their local birds go; and maps illustrating exposure to conservation challenges as birds migrate across the hemisphere. Through a combination of ArcGIS Online and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript, the Explorer delivers engaging interactive maps that bring migratory journeys of birds to life, while linking users to conservation actions to help their local birds throughout the hemisphere.
Mapping conservation challenges for North America’s migratory birdsLotem Taylor, Melanie Smith, Nat Seavy, Giselle Vandrick, Erika Knight, Connor Bailey, Jill Deppe, National Audubon Society
To protect migratory birds, a better understanding of where, when, and how extensively they coincide with threats is needed. To this end, we mapped potential threat exposure for nearly 450 migratory species, combining eBird’s Status and Trends abundance with 17 anthropogenic drivers of landscape change in weekly time steps over the course of the year. We summarized our results in bivariate hexagon-binned maps to represent both total abundance and proportion of birds exposed to threats, and surfaced these maps in an interactive online platform made widely available to the public for education and conservation purposes. By understanding where and when human activities may impact birds, we can better inform solutions to protect them.
"Maps in court" - Indigenous maps, alternative narratives and land defense in the Ecuadorian AmazonAliya Ryan, Digital Democracy, Oswando Nenquimo, Alianza Ceibo
The Waorani indigenous people have rights to 1 million hectares of richly biodiverse Ecuadorian Amazon, their ancestral territory which they depend upon for their subsistence and culture. However recently the Government opened up this land to new oil developments, threatening the Waorani way of life. From 2015-2018 the Waorani used new software, Mapeo, to create territory maps of this land. These were included in a landmark legal case in 2019 which they won, forcing the Government to remove the oil block. Opi Nenquimo, (Waorani Mapping Lead) and Aliya Ryan (Digital Democracy) will discuss this work, challenges involved in indigenous cartography and new developments in digital mapping that support the translation of alternative narratives.
Tenant Power: Supporting Tenant Organizing Through Interactive MappingEric Robsky Huntley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
How can interactive mapping not only characterize but intervene in oppressive systems that obfuscate in favor of the powerful? To take one particular case: what can mappers do about the fact that, despite the many successes of the open data movement, it is extremely difficult to identify, let alone challenge, large landlords and relatively straightforward to abuse and displace tenants? Building on recent cross-disciplinary interest in projects that 'study up', this presentation will share Tenant Power, a platform that came out of a recent activist mapping project in Greater Boston. It supports tenant organizing by allowing tenants to, at the bare minimum, know who owns their building and what other properties they might own in the region.
Rates & Fees Apply: An Exploratory Map of 2018 Kentucky County Phone Rates From JailRebecca Ramsey, University of Kentucky
Incarceration facilities are notorious for placing barriers in communication between the incarcerated and the general population. In 2014 the Federal Communications Commission placed caps on the rates and fees imposed by federal prisons for phone calls after being aggressively challenged by progressive movements toward prison reform. These caps, however, do not apply to local State and County operated incarceration facilities. To explore Kentucky’s County Phone Rates, and provide a tool for further progressive incarceration reform, Rebecca created an interactive web map with a touch of geo-journalism. In this presentation Rebecca will review the map itself, the historical steps leading to the current state of affairs, how much of Kentucky’s population feels this impact, and what steps are necessary to begin a conversation about change going forward.
This session is co-moderated by Mary Beth Cunha (in-person) & Molly O'Halloran (remote/Slack)
Slack channel:
#nacis2021-session-conservationadvocacy
