Making the Small More Visible

Ecosystem Associates is a small consultancy located on the San Francisco Peninsula of California in the region known as ‘Silicon Valley’. As individuals with strong backgrounds and experience in ecology and biology, Diane Renshaw and I became involved in the nascent environmental-analysis field in the mid-1970s. Back then we were helping public and private clients navigate the opportunities and regulations established by the US Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and other federal, state and local legislation. Additional training and experience in photogrammetry, computer science, mathematics and modelling allowed me to join the computer revolution of the 1980s and 1990s, when I worked in systems engineering, sensor integration, automated data acquisition and a var-iety of scientific applications. During this time the renowned and public-spirited Kenn Gardels introduced me to the group that would ultimately become the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

In the spring of 2000 Ecosystem Associates joined the OGC as a member. Today we consult together as a unique combination of disciplines at the intersection of ecological science, environmental analysis and geospatial technology. We collaborate with and convene project teams of associates with specialities as diverse as endangered-amphibian survey, land-use planning and innovative sensor hardware development. Tools based on OGC standards are making it simpler and less costly than ever before to gather and process sufficient information for increasingly thorough and refined environmental analyses. The ability to combine data originating from very many disciplines using a unified model for their spatial content is of immense benefit. Not least in understanding the complexities of atmospheric change, deforestation, habitat loss, elimination of spatial barriers to the incursion of invasive species, the spread of pathogenic organisms and other crucial issues.

The close association of Ecosystem Associates with the OGC has raised our visibility and the value we bring to a growing number of clients with an interest in environment and ecology. For example, we are collaborating with the Ecosystem Science and Technology Branch (ECOSAT) at the NASA Ames Research Center, whose cross-cutting research-and-development programme in sensor development and automated data acquisition from ground and airborne systems is being used to support wildfire detection and fire fighting. We are also assisting the biodiversity informatics community, exemplified by the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (www.tdwg.org) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.gbif.org), in their efforts to integrate their models for biocollections data with OGC technology, advancing the prospects of a truly worldwide, historical database of species distribution.

Finally, the OGC is reminiscent of the early days of the Silicon Valley computer revolution. Intellectual energy and the spirit of innovation abound, and with the proper focus a very small company or even a single individual can make a substantial contribution. There remains a wide gap between what is known and what needs to be done to resolve the many urgent problems affecting our environment. We welcome your ideas and your assistance.