Biodiversity and Ecosystem Informatics: The Eco Flight Simulator: Visualizing landscape patterns, ecosystem processes and biodiversity information using flight simulator technology

BDEI：生态飞行模拟器：使用飞行模拟器技术可视化景观模式、生态系统过程和生物多样性信息摘要本提案开发了生态飞行模拟器，该系统用于可视化景观模式、生态系统过程和生物多样性数据。许多州和联邦机构目前正在通过航空照片和卫星图像收集大量空间数据，这些数据可用于查看景观(生境的分布和位置、生境碎片的大小、政治和生态系统边界之间的关系)、生态系统过程分析(水循环、养分循环、污染移动)和生物多样性问题(生境类型、入侵物种种群、物种相互作用等)。在大多数情况下，这些数据目前都是使用地理信息系统软件以地图的形式呈现的。视图是静态的，显示的数据也是静态的(但请参阅美国地质调查局的国家地图倡议)。然而，飞行模拟器技术最初是为军事开发的，现在在娱乐业很常见，它提供了一种更好的可视化技术--用户定义的鸟瞰风景，其中可以包括环境的时空复杂性。使用现成的标准硬件、开源软件和公共领域数据，开发了海洋(缅因湾的Stellwagen Bank国家海洋保护区)和陆地飞行模拟(马萨诸塞州埃塞克斯县的Ipswich和ParkerRiver分水岭)(一个模拟器)，以新的方式呈现环境信息。

EIA-0131924Stevenson, RobertUniversity of Massachusetts - Boston.BDEI: The Eco Flight Simulator: Visualizing landscape patterns, ecosystem processes and biodiveresity information using flight simulator technologySummaryThis proposal develops the Eco Flight Simulator a system for visualizing landscape patterns,ecosystem processes and biodiversity data. Many state and federal agencies are currentlygathering large amounts of spatial data via aerial photographs and satellite imagery that can beused for seeing the landscape (distribution and location of habitats, size of habitat fragments, therelationships among political and ecosystem boundaries), the analysis of ecosystem processes(water cycling, nutrient cycling, pollution movement) and biodiversity issues (habitat types,population of invasive species, species interactions, etc.). For the most part these data arecurrently presented in the form of maps using GIS software. The view is static and the datadisplayed are static (but see the USGS's National Map Initiative). However, flight simulatortechnologies, developed first for the military and now common in the entertainment industry,offer a much better visualization technology - a user defined birds eye view of the landscapethat can include the spatio-temporal complexity of the environment. Using standard off the shelfhardware, open source software and public domain data, marine (Stellwagen Bank NationalMarine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Maine) and terrestrial flight simulations (Ipswich and ParkerRiver Watersheds of Essex County Massachusetts) (one simulator) are developed that presentenvironmental information in new ways.