ESRI Conservation Program Resources:

Sustainable Development

(ECP and CTSP members, sites of interest for mapping/GIS, scholarly papers and ESRI Conference Proceedings, and sites with public conservation and GIS data for downloading) (Under Construction)

(Legend: CTSP sites are coded "c" plus the year of the grant, (cs=software, cm=mac), ECP grantees are coded "e". Many groups, especially newer grantees, do not yet have their own sites and are colored green. Other new groups may be described or supported by other sites)

The Alaska Institute for Sustainable Recreation and Tourism, Juneau AK cm96. (Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association, P.O. Box 22827, Juneau, Alaska 99802-2827 (907) 463-3038 - FAX: (907) 463-3280 awrta@alaska.net ) "The Alaska Institute for Sustainable Recreation and Tourism (AISRT) funds research and educational projects that support sustainable use of Alaska's natural resources by the tourism industry and recreation users."

Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, Arkville NY cs97 ..(Route 28, Arkville, NY, 12406 . tel:(914) 586-2611 fax:914-586-3044 mailto:cccd@catskillcenter.org GIS contact: Helen Budrock ) "The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development is a member-supported, not-for-profit regional conservation and advocacy organization serving the six-county Catskill Mountain region of New York State. The Catskill Center advocates environmental quality, encourages economic and cultural development, assists in environmental planning, and works to build a strong constituency for the protection of the irreplaceable resources of the Catskills." After receiving their CTSP software grant, they got $26,000 from a local foundation to buy hardware and build their GIS lab. GIS STATUS 10-99: "In all, we obtained approximately 50 data coverages/themes (many, many more if you count by individual county, topographic quad, or other unit area). Many of these coverages we further selected, clipped, merged, or otherwise refined to fit our area of interest....A significant amount of time was spent organizing the data into various files, and then setting it up in useful ways in the GIS. General views were made for statewide data, Catskill regional data, data by Catskill county, NYC Watershed data, Catskill Forest Preserve data, demographic data, etc....The first significant GIS application to be worked on, was the creation of digital maps for our "Virtual Farmer's Market" web site project. The Virtual Farmer's Market is an Internet site designed to increase people's awareness of Catskill agriculture, and help provide an outlet and increase the market for farm products in the region. Farms throughout the Catskills volunteered to have information about their farms listed in the database and advertised on the site. The GIS was used to create county-by-county maps of participating farm locations. The maps were labeled with prominent villages and roads, and were made as aesthetically appealing as possible for display on the Internet....Eventually we also want to create an "electronic atlas" of the region which will be available on the Internet." Among their other PROGRAMS are Environmental Education, Streamwatch, Watershed Youth Summit, Land and Water Conservation: "identify, monitor, and respond to environmental issues pertaining to the Catskill region, and to take pro-active steps toward the preservation of naturally sensitive, ecologically important, or aesthetically or recreationally critical lands and waters in the Catskill region. " Community Outreach & Planning Assistance Program : "We recently created a hands-on program of technical assistance to community residents interested in making a difference in the future of their communities. Dubbed the Community Empowerment Initiative, this grass roots pilot project leads residents through a facilitated planning process that includes leadership development training, community visioning, and the creation and implementation of local projects geared toward community revitalization. "

The Earth Council, Costa Rica . (Secretariat: San José, Costa Rica Executive Director: Maximo Kalaw email:earthnet@terra.ecouncil.ac.cr . See also: Earth Council Institute—Canada (Hosted by IISD) 255 Consumer's Road, Suite 401 North York, Ontario, Canada M2J 5B6 Telephone: 1 (416) 498-3150 Fax: 1 (416) 498-7296) "In Rio, both governments and citizens elaborated a framework for guiding the world community towards a more secure, sustainable and equitable future. In the final analysis, however, the results of the Earth Summit will depend on what governments do to follow-up and carry out its agreements, with the active participation of civil society. The Earth Council was established to support and lend impetus to this process, as part of its broader objective of ‘Making Sustainability Work'. "

Eastern Maine Development Corporation (EMDC), Me e99 . (One Cumberland Place, Suite 300, Bangor, ME, 04401 GIS Contact: John Holden, Community Economic Development Specialist, Data Center & GIS Manager, tel:207-942-6389 email:jholden@emdc.org ) "Our role, as a nonprofit regional planning and development agency, is to help deliver GIS technology to the communities and businesses we serve....As a result of our recent proactive GIS activity, we are getting a lot of interest in using GIS in local communities, particularly in our coastal areas. We are proposing to initiate a participatory GIS (PPGIS) program in our coastal communities. The focus of this PPGIS will be to work with local fishers, marine scientists, and marine regulators to identify the most suitable locations for marine aquaculture activity. More generally, we are getting much more interest in help communities who do not have GIS to prepare GIS products to help with their local land use planning (e.g., shoreland zoning) "

Ecologically Sustainable Development, Elizabethtown NY cm96 .(P.O. Box 848, 2 Church St., ELIZABETHTOWN, NY 12932 tel:518-873-3200 Fax:518-873-2686 Email:esd@igc.org . or . adkdan@igc.org . Robert C. Glennon, CEO . GIS Contact: Daniel Plumley ) "ESD has headed specific demonstration sustainable development projects in Russia funded by the United States Agency for International Development. These include: model regional sustainable development for a wildlife refuge; community redevelopment for ecotourism; sustainable forest management and manufacturing; model farms based on sustainable agriculture; historic district redevelopment; model sustainable development for a natural anthropological reserve; model sustainable development combining anthropological, park and wildlife resources; and technical assistance to implement the Comprehensive Program of Land Use Policies of the Lake Baikal Region through institution building....ESD's original goal for the start-up GIS program was to bring equipment and software in-house in order to be able to perform GIS analysis in the United States complementary to our overseas pilot GIS programs in the Lake Baikal region. Development of in-house GIS capability in the United States would also benefit ESD's sustainable development work in northeast China (the Chinese portion of the Ussuri drainage), Lake Hovsgol and northern Mongolia (the Mongolian portion of the Lake Baikal drainage), as well as potential projects in Nicaragua and elsewhere....In July 1996, using GIS compact disk ARCINFO and ArcView data derived from ESD program work in the Baikal region (readable, presented and reviewed by ESD staff on the CTSP Grant equipment), ESD and the Buryat Regional Department on Lake Baikal presented our joint GIS land use planning project involving the Selenga River delta, a RAMSAR Convention-designated wetland of international importance, and a critical waterfowl and fisheries spawning habitat on the eastern side of Lake Baikal in the Republic of Buryatia, to the Gore- Chernomyrdin Commission at a meeting held in Moscow. Both Vice President Gore and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin commented most positively on the value of the work in assessing environmental constraints and options...Notable too was the completion of ESD's Ussuri\Wusuli River Watershed Project which among other things developed a GIS- derived ARCINFO sustainable land use plan for the last remaining Siberian tiger habitat in the Russian Far East and northeastern China.

Global Network of Environment and Technology, Va . (Global Environment and Technology Foundation, 7010 Little River Turnpike, Suite 300 Annandale, Virginia 22003 tel:703-750-6401 mailto:getf@getf.org . . NEVADA OFFICE: 5250 South Virginia Street, Suite 295., Reno, Nevada 89502 tel:775-827-4040 . Tom Harvey, Founder) GNET Project: "The Global Network of Environment & Technology (GNET®) contains information resources on environmental news, innovative environmental technologies, government environmental technology programs, contracting opportunities, market assessments, market information, current events and other material of interest to the environmental technology community...The site made possible by a cooperative agreement from the Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) and the Department of Energy Office of Science and Technology (OST). " .EARTHMAP Network . Proposal: "The international community's ability to respond to a wide range of environmental, sustainable development, and humanitarian concerns is at a crossroads. Never before have scientists collected so much data on environmental variables, but also never before have we faced such a rapid pace of profound ecological, economic, societal, and political change. Never before have we had the array of technical tools--from satellites to portable computers--for earth science analysis, but never before have we been deluged with so much disparate and redundant bits of data that we have trouble comprehending the information available, its quality, and its relevance, or even communicating with those working on a particular issue or in a particular place. Never before have we had such a broad based international commitment to tackle transnational environmental problems--from oil spills to drought--but also never before have we had such a multitude of life-threatening humanitarian crises. While these dilemmas will be with us permanently, the international community can help rationalize and systematize environmental and sustainable development data collection and analysis by building and sharing an easily accessible, spatially accurate, digitized base map of the earth's features. No such common geospatial reference base exists, despite very expensive investments in remote sensing technology and cartographic production. A digitized "global map"--built up over time and with varying scales in different places depending on the data generated from specific projects--would enhance local and regional decision making on a broad range of sustainable development-related problems. It would encourages the integration of text, tabular, and spatial data and provide a common platform for earth science data research. Finally, it would stimulate internationally the pragmatic, cost effective application of earth observation satellite data and geographic information systems (GIS) technology, particularly in poor countries where the most difficult resource management decisions must be made" LINKS .

FAO Sustainable Dimensions (Sustainable Development Dept) . ( (FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy Tel.: +39.0657051 Fax: +39.0657053152 ) "Recognizing the need to take a more holistic and strategic approach to development support and poverty alleviation, FAO established its Sustainable Development Department in January 1995. The new department serves as a global reference centre for knowledge and advice on biophysical, biological, socio-economic and social dimensions of sustainable development. " SECTIONS: People, Institutions, Knowledge, Environment . Must See: Global Climate Maps, with free download of 53 georeferenced maps .

FAO Sustainable Development GIS: (Sustainable Development Dept. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. email: Agromet@fao.org ) (Mr. Henri Carsalade Assistant Director-General Sustainable Development Department tel: (+39 6) 57051 fax: (+39 6) 570 53064 e-mail: Henri.Carsalade@fao.org ) The SD dept. "serves as a global reference centre for knowledge and advice on biophysical, biological, socio-economic and social dimensions of sustainable development.... providing a series of 53 global climate maps (including Koppen maps) in geo-referenced digital format, plus the image display and analysis program WinDisp (for Windows), for free downloading. Tools are provided to extract statistics from images by polygons, to compare differences, convert formats, and export images to ASCII grids and the GIS software IDRISI. The maps and colour palettes, zipped by type, plus WinDisp, are available now from SDRN's FTP site . Refer to the READ.ME files for additional technical details." SEE: Geographic Information Systems in Sustainable Development: " Most sustainable development decisions are inherently multidisciplinary or cross-sectoral, because they require trade-offs between conflicting goals of different sectors. However, most natural resource development agencies are single-sector oriented. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology can help establish cross-sectoral communication - by providing not only very powerful tools for storage and analysis of multisectoral spatial and statistical data, but also by integrating databases of different sectors in the same format, structure and map projection in the GIS system. The importance of this integrated approach to development and management of natural resources have been emphasised in many international fora on sustainable development. " . see also: FAO Global Climate Maps: see also: FAO World Soil Resouces Map "The World Soil Resources Map was produced by the Soil Resources Management and Conservation Service (AGLS) of the FAO Land and Water Development Division (AGL)." see also: FAO Global Land Cover Land Use Classification Program. see also: FAO/UNESCO Digital Soil Map of the World (1:5,000,000 scale)

FAO World Agricultural Information Centre Project . (FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy Tel.: +39.0657051 Fax: +39.0657053152 ) The East African Regional Biodiversity Project is the first GEF project to become operational in Africa...There is a focus on coordination, awareness, research and training activities; with emphasis on biodiversity in the wetlands and forest sectors. . Current Agricultural Research Information System (CARIS) . Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS)

FAO Global Plant Protection Information System (FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy Tel.: +39.0657051 Fax: +39.0657053152 . email:plantinfo@fao.org, GPPIS Supervisor.Tony Putter, mailto:tony.putter@fao.org fax:+39 6 57056347)

ISAR: Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia, Washington , DC e92 . (1601 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 301, Washington, DC 20009 tel:202-387-3034 Fax: 202-667-3291 Contact: Eliza K. Klose, Executive Director, E-mail:postmaster@isar.org . alternate url )" In the post-Soviet era ISAR's mission is to support local initiatives and empower local citizens seeking to create a more just and sustainable society. ISAR is guided in its work by the belief that meeting the social and ecological challenges of today depends on more equitable distribution of resources, open access to information and greater cooperation among groups and individuals. "

ID21, UK . () . "This is the ID21 Development Research reporting service, a selection of the latest and best UK-based development research. This new online service offers hundreds of summaries of problem-solving work on critical development dilemmas around the world.... Hosted by the Institute of Development Studies, the initiative is known as ID21 - or Information for Development in the 21st Century. Its key feature is a searchable online collection of short, one-page (500-word) digests of the latest social and economic research studies across 30 key topic fields. "

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Canada: . (161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 0Y4 Telephone: 1 (204) 958-7700 Fax: 1 (204) 958-7710 E-mail: info@iisd.ca . Geneva Office: Mark Halle, Le Viaduc CH-1271, Givrins, Switzerland, Tel:41-22 369-3754 Fax:41-22 369-3758 Email:mark.halle@iprolink.ch) . "IISD's mission is to promote sustainable development in decision making internationally and within Canada...For development to be sustainable it must integrate environmental stewardship, economic development and the well-being of all people—not just for today but for countless generations to come. " See also: Measurement and Indicators for Sustainable Development : "The transition to sustainable development requires changed behavior and practice in business, government and everyday life. Such progress requires that we understand and be able to measure the effects of policies and actions on the economy, the environment and people's well being. This concern about assessing progress towards sustainable development has fueled a growing international interest in measurement techniques. Measurement, as an indispensable tool to make the concept of sustainable development operational, helps decision-makers and the public to conceptualize objectives, evaluate alternatives, make policy choices, and adjust policies as well as objectives based on actual performance. ". . SEARCH .

Island Resources Foundation, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands c95 . (6292 Estate Nazareth #100, St. Thomas, VI 00802-1104, tel:340/775-6225 Fax: 340/779-2022 email:etowle@irf.org . GIS Contact: Bruce Potter, IRF, 1718 "P" Street NW Suite T-4, Washington, DC 20036, tel:202/265-9712 fax:202/232-0748 email:bpotter@irf.org ) "Island Resources Foundation is a private, non-profit organization based at Red Hook in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, dedicated to solving the environmental problems of development in small tropical islands....Increasing access to environmental information, and especially increasing the use of environmental information in the planning and management of development of small tropical islands is a central objective of Island Resources...Island Resources Foundation believes Geographic Information Systems are essential tools for the interpretation and display of environmental information necessary for planning and management of small tropical islands. Virgin Islands Conservation Data Center: A guide to help users to find out what spatial Features the CDC has in its Geographic Information System. See: Environmental Information and Geographic Information Systems with downloadable data libraries. "Island Resources Foundation believes Geographic Information Systems are essential tools for the interpretation and display of environmental information necessary for planning and management of small tropical islands. The Foundation is working with a group of GIS Users in the Virgin Islands to share information and ideas about GIS applications in the Territory. " See also: ECMAP: The Eastern Caribbean Mapping Cooperative . Don't miss A Sermon on Information Imperialism: "We are seriously concerned about finding ways to encourage and promote the posting of information on the Internet by and about the Caribbean. There are minor technical problems to establishing "servers" for such archiving or electronic libraries, but more critical is the need to think of ways to break down what Franklin McDonald calls the "culture of secrecy....In both of the examples given above, the Internet can contribute either to improved decision-making--because of the ability to marshal more information at almost no cost--or to distorted decisions, if the networks are systematically biased in the information they present. This is "information imperialism," especially if all of the information affecting St. Kitts' bond ratings, or St. Lucia's sub-division planning, comes only from continental or developed country sources...."

Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, Ky e95 . (433 Chestnut Street, Berea, KY 40403 Tel:(606) 986-2373 Fax:(606) 986-1299 GIS Contact: Shepard McAninch Ecologist/Director GIS Lab , email:smcaninch@maced.org ) "MACED provides opportunities and resources to help citizens build sustainable, healthy, equitable, democratic and prosperous communities in Kentucky and Central Appalachia." GIS PROJECTS: "MACED developed the Forest Resource Model (FRM) to provide citizens, landowners and government with stronger decision-making. The FRM expands our understanding of the forest resource at the local, regional, state and national levels. Many decisions and attempts to influence policies are based on insufficient and anecdotal information. We make business decisions about forest products companies with this inadequate information. The FRM is an attempt to begin the process of providing better information about the forest resource. The model is Geographic Information System (GIS) based and through organizations like MACED citizens can have access to modeling capability that allows them to test their own assumptions about the local forest resource. see also FRM Online Maps . . see Investing in Kentucky's Future for another example of their recent GIS work .

The Mountain Institute, Franklin WV c95 . (see under ECP International)

National Center for Appropriate Technology, Mt . (3040 Continental Drive, Butte, Montana 59702 tel:(406) 494-4572 Toll free 1-800-275-6228 (ASK-NCAT) Fax:(406) 494-2905 E-mail: info@ncat.org ) "NCAT/ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas) began investigating use of GIS systems in 1995, when an NCAT staffperson wrote a white paper about potential GIS use in our organization. At that time, we concluded that although it was an attractive technology, the costs outweighed the benefits. Since then, GIS software and hardware have become more inexpensive and datasets more available. In late 1997, NCAT/ATTRA made a commitment to begin implementing a GIS system. We have discussed our plans with GIS experts and have made contacts with two organizations (not including CTSP) that will provide assistance implementing our GIS plans."

Rogue Institute for Ecology and Economy, Ashland OR c97 . (762 A Street, Ashland, OR 97520 USA tel:(541)482-6031 fax:482-8581 email: info@rogueinstitute.org) "The Institute was founded in 1989 to bring together ecology and economy in ways that strengthen communities. The attempt to pit jobs against the environment was threatening both communities and their landscapes. Rather than buy into this misleading debate, we began working at the local level, within communities, to show that healthy economies and healthy environments are fundamentally linked." GIS STATUS: "Probably the largest factor in the direction of our GIS program is that it is very directed by our projects. This means that the amount of time spent on GIS tasks is dictated by funding for specific projects...We think it is important to realize how GIS with a windows interface quickly became a bit of a "fad" and everyone wanted one, even if they didn't know what they were going to do with it. In some ways we fell into this trap because we had project ideas for which we thought we were going to use GIS that did not manifest. We quickly identified other uses, but it is still a slow process for us to incorporate GIS into our daily project work. (i.e.): Ecosystem Workforce Training Partnership (EWTP): In this program, retraining crews of displaced timber workers learn ecosystem management skills applicable to today's jobs in local forests. Specific jobs range from stream restoration and thinning to assessment tasks and mapping. For one project in 1998, crews were responsible for mapping out some soil types, plant associations, and basic physical characteristics for two forestry units. The final requirements in the contract asked for maps of the data. The Forest Service expected hand drawn maps. Using our GIS system, however, we were able to create maps that completely exceeded the Forest Service's expectations." .. also see their GIS work in Landowner Stewardship Project — a collaborative approach to ecosystem management: " in this project we worked with neighboring private landowners to help them develop forest management plans that complimented each other. The intent was to help them see their property as a part of the larger landscape and use this awareness to guide their land management decision making processes. GIS maps were a valuable tool for several elements of this project. Maps helped landowners see where their lands and their neighbors had similar components that needed parallel management regimes. It also helped them make decisions as we could show them specifically where on their property we were recommending activities. In January of 1999 we will begin a similar project in the Upper Rogue watershed of southern Oregon. We have already talked to Jackson County about a CD-ROM they recently published with applicable data to help us make similar maps for this new area." .

Rural Advancement Foundation Intl., Pittsboro NC c96 . (Hope Shand, 118 E Main St. Room 211, Carrboro NC 27510-2300 USA, Tel: (919) 960-5223 Fax: (919) 960-5224 Email:hope@rafi.org ) "RAFI is an international non-governmental organisation headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) with an affiliate office in Pittsboro, North Carolina (US). RAFI is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity, and to the socially responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies." Check out their SEED MAP. .Don't miss their extensive papers and discussions on genetic engineering and the new "terminator" and "traitor" technologies which render developing country crop plants sterile after one harvest. .SEARCH .

The Sustainable Development Institute, Wa . (3121 South Street NW, Washington, DC 20007 tel:(202) 338-1017 email:susdev@igc.org ) "Founded in 1993, SDI specializes in communications about environmental aspects of economic development in coastal and tropical forest regions." . Atlantic Coastwatch Newsletter: "A pithy newsletter about environmentally mindful forms of economic development along the Atlantic seaboard - from the Gulf of Maine to the eastern Caribbean. Published every two months, with news of people, places, issues, problems and solutions." Community Forestry Project "The project highlights positive examples of communities as custodians protecting forests from destruction and degradation. Examples and recommendations are presented to global policy making bodies, aid donors and lenders, and the public."

UNESCO CSI: Environment and Development in Coastal Regions and in Small Islands. (email:csi.webmaster@unesco.org) "UNESCO endeavour launched in January 1996. Its goal is to assist Member States towards environmentally-sound, socially-equitable and culturally-appropriate development in coastal regions and in small islands. CSI contributes to the advancement of pertinent knowledge, the integrated application of research findings and capacity-building in transdisciplinarity. It serves as a platform for cross-sectoral, cooperative action.

GIS for Sustainable Urban Development in China (1995 Abstract, Lan Yunchao, School of Urban Studies WTUSM 39 Loyu Road Wuhan China 430070 Telephone: 08627-7815571-450 Fax: 086-27-7814185)...This paper presents the new objectives of town planning for sustainable urban development and suggests the methods of creating the indicators and their criteria.

Managing Nationwide Resources and Environmental Data with ArcInfo in China (1995 Abstract, Xiaochun Di, Institute of Geography Chinese Academy of Sciences Building 917 Beishatan, Beijiao Beijing 100101 CHINA Telephone: 861-491-4240 Fax: 861-831-6545) ...Therefore, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has established the Nationwide Resources and Environmental Database (NRED) with ArcInfo.

A Metastructure of the Environmental Management Information System in the Republic of Croatia (1995 Abstract, Nenad Mikulic, Zdravko Krakar, Republic of Croatia Ministry of Civil Engineering & Environmental Protection 41000 Zagreb Avenija Vukovar 78 Fax: (+385 1) 537 203) ...Respecting the significance of the national environmental management issue, the Ministry of Civil Engineering and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Croatia has initiated a programme the intention of which is to provide guidelines for establishing a methodology of environmental management and a proper information system serving this specific function at the national level.

Use of ArcInfo, GRASS, ERDAS, and SAS to Create ASCII Files and ArcInfo Point Coverages For The Integrated Midwest Biomass Resource Analysis Project (1995 Paper, Pat Scarbrough-Luther, Bryan Coffey, Oak Ridge National Laboratory P.O. Box 2008 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6407 Telephone: (615) 241-3960 Fax: (615) 574-4665 E-mail: pz3@ornl.gov)...The objectives of the Integrated Midwest Biomass Resource Analysis project are to characterize and quantify the potential supply of biomass from energy crops in an 11 state area. Energy crops are crops such as switch grass or poplar trees grown to produce fuels. The purpose of this paper is to describe how large amounts of spatial data from various sources and in various formats were prepared, input, transferred between and manipulated in several software packages including ArcInfo, GRASS, ERDAS and SAS to create files describing the concurrence and spatial location of land use and soils.

African Data Distribution Service .

All text by the respective organizations/authors, January 2, 1997

Web layout & design: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. January 2, 1996