Esri, the mapping technology partner of the Half-Earth Project, has launched GIS for Science Volume 3 – Maps for Saving the Planet, featuring a foreword by E.O. Wilson and a chapter on the Half-Earth Project. In times for the 2021 Esri User Conference, Esri has consolidated all of the content developed in partnership with the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation on a convenient online portal as well at GISforScience.com. GIS for Science Vol. 3 is edited by Dawn Wright and Christian Harder. Dawn Wright is Chief Scientist at Esri and an American geographer and oceanographer. She is a leading authority in the application of geographic information system technology to the field of ocean and coastal science and played a key role in creating the first GIS data model for the oceans. Wright is also a member of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Board of Directors. Christian Harder is an editor with Esri.
In a clarion call-to-action to use geography, mapping, and biology to save the planet, Jack Dangermond, President and Founder of ESRI and Dawn write, “…so few people understand how the deterioration in the natural world can serve to light the fire of a new pandemic. Biodiversity–the variety of life on earth- from microscopic genes to entire ecosystems–is currently not a focus of the global response to factors threatening the lives and livelihoods of all creatures and organisms.”
The current Half-Earth Project Map is powered by ArcGIS, and Esri cartographers, programmers, and scientists, alongside designers from Vizzuality, have helped the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation bring best-in-class technology and thinking to the map’s user-centered design.
“As biologists learn more and more about the biology of Earth’s present-day fauna and flora, they will also create an even stronger armamentarium of scientific and practical geography.” – E.O. Wilson
Chapter 3. Mapping Half-Earth is written by D. Scott Rinnan, Yale University; Greta C. Vega, Estefania Casal, Camellia Williams, Vizzuality; Joel R. Johnson and Chris Heltne, E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
Learn how to get your copy of GIS for Science here. Register and attend the virtual Esri User Conference July 12 – 15 to watch presentations by Jack Dangermond and Dawn Wright, and to receive a complimentary e-book.
