Towards a collaborative, global infrastructure for biodiversity assessment

Towards a collaborative, global infrastructure for biodiversity assessment

Biodiversity data are rapidly becoming available over the Internet in common formats that promote sharing and exchange. Currently, these data are somewhat problematic, primarily with regard to geographic and taxonomic accuracy, for use in ecological research, natural resources management and conservation decision-making. However, web-based georeferencing tools that utilize best practices and ga...

Towards Collaborative Robots for Infrastructure Security Applications

We discuss techniques towards using collaborative robots for infrastructure security applications. A vast number of critical facilities, including power plants, military bases, water plants, air fields, and so forth, must be protected against unauthorized intruders. A team of mobile robots working cooperatively can alleviate human resources and improve effectiveness from human fatigue and bored...

Towards a global biological information infrastructure

This paper analyzes the problems of working with large, mixed-origin taxonomic databases.The analyses were based in an example of a database that included more than 50 000specimens of Papilionidae and Pieridae butterflies of Mexico, obtained from ca. twentydifferent museums. The major problems and errors present in this database were classified aserrors of structure, consistency...

Towards a Federated Infrastructure for the Global Data Pipeline

Towards the global monitoring of biodiversity change.

Governments have set the ambitious target of reducing biodiversity loss by the year 2010. The scientific community now faces the challenge of assessing the progress made towards this target and beyond. Here, we review current monitoring efforts and propose a global biodiversity monitoring network to complement and enhance these efforts. The network would develop a global sampling programme for ...