Geospatial Open Source Hosting of Agriculture, Resource & Environmental Data for Discovery and Decision Making
Announcements
Presentation of GEOSHARE and HUBZero in the Africa Agriculture GIS Week 2013 (AddisAbaba, Ethiopia, March 11-15 2013):
GEOSHARE and HUBZero: an open platform for spatial data development and analysis, Nelson B. Villoria, March 13th, 2013.
Data
Geoshare facilitates remote collaboration for improving geospatial data.
Try IData, and learn how to upload, share, process and archive raster and vector data-sets.
Tools
Researchers can upload and share their scientific tools to share within the community. Try Pegasus: a global crop model. Click the launch button, and start computing.
Build your own tool in your favoraite coding language in our DIY area to use your own tools on Geoshare.
Motivation for GEOSHARE
Context
Agriculture presents a trilemma. On the one hand, increased food production per capita over the last few decades has lifted millions of people out of starvation In addition, agriculture can provide renewable energy feedstocks as well as opportunities for low cost greenhouse gas abatement.
However, agricultural expansion and intensification have also driven global environmental degradation in recent decades, and its future productivity is threatened by climate change.
Defining the Challenge
Can these three forces be reconciled as we look to the future?
What are the data requirements for making informed investment, regulatory and policy decisions in the context of this trilemma?
How can we ensure that the information used to make such decisions is valid and fit for the job at hand?
The Problem
Most spatial datasets are regional or national, not global; while many of the problems are global in scope;
are not practically accessible;
require specialized IT knowledge; and
are incompatible.
The Proposed Solution
Develop a consistent, open-source, spatially explicit global data set, along with regional companions on agriculture, resources, and the environment that is maintained by a network of research nodes.
