Improving GEOLocate to Better Serve Biodiversity Informatics

“这个奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。”杜兰大学的一个研究小组获得了开发地理定位的奖励，这是一种软件工具，用于将纬度和经度坐标分配到对科学收集地点(地理参考)的文本描述中。世界各地有数以亿计的博物馆标本和观察的历史记录，用自然语言描述位置，但不是纬度或经度。地理参考是处理收藏事件数据的关键步骤，这一过程始于将收藏记录数字化，然后是数据的数据库和联网，最终使研究人员能够访问自然历史博物馆的大量标本和数据资源。地理参考使以前收集事件的数据显示在数字地图上，使研究人员能够可视化科学收集活动的空间和时间强度，检查物种分布，并开发物种栖息地使用的预测模型。它允许研究人员使用自然历史数据来解决重要的科学和社会需求，如生物多样性的原因和影响、保护、环境恢复和应对全球气候变化。地理定位工具包因其地理空间准确性、自动化和校正功能而在自然历史收集界获得广泛接受。在这个项目中，该小组正在对Geolocate工具包进行重大改进，包括1)增强其用于自然语言处理和地点描述地理配准的Web服务；2)改进Geolocate？S核心算法，以实现更高效和准确的地理配准；3)将不确定性计算集成到工具中；4)部署用于Geolocate的默认Web地图服务；5)用Java完全重写桌面软件，利用用于地理配准的Web服务和用于可视化的Web地图服务；6)将新的地理定位用户界面组件集成到特定生物集合数据管理系统中；7)加强用户支持和培训；8)在迁移到新的基于互联网的客户端后，逐步淘汰桌面版的Geolocate。Geolocate的拟议改进不仅将加强从现有电子收集记录和新数字化记录中获取地理坐标数据；它还将支持自然历史收集数据的下一代研究用途，通过远程分布式服务提供所有服务。该项目将包括学生参与，为下一代科学家提供实践经验。有关该项目的更多信息，请访问http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/.。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."A team of researchers at Tulane University has been granted an award to develop GEOLocate, a software tool for assigning latitude and longitude coordinates to text descriptions of locations where scientific collections were made (Georeferencing). There are hundreds of millions of historical records of museum specimens and observations world-wide with natural language descriptions of location but not latitude or longitude. Georeferencing is a critical step in the processing of collection event data, a process that starts with digitizing collection records, continues with databasing and networking the data, and ultimately gives researchers access to the vast specimen and data resources of natural history museums. Georeferencing allows data from previous collection events to be displayed on digital maps, permitting researchers to visualize the spatial and temporal intensity of scientific collecting activity, examine species distributions, and developing predictive models of species habitat use. It allows researchers to use natural history data to address important scientific and societal needs such as biodiversity causes and effects, conservation, environmental restoration, and preparing for global climate change. The GEOLocate tool kit has gained wide acceptance in the natural history collection community because of its geospatial accuracy, automation and correction features. In this project, the team is making critical advancements of the GEOLocate toolkit, including 1) enhancing its web services for natural language processing and georeferencing of locality descriptions; 2) improving GEOLocate?s core algorithm for more efficient and accurate georeferencing; 3) integrating uncertainty calculations into the tool; 4) deploying default web mapping services for use in GEOLocate; 5) completely rewriting the desktop software in Java, utilizing web services for georeferencing and web mapping services for visualization; 6) integrating new GEOLocate user interface components into the Specify biological collections data management system; 7) enhancing user support & training; and 8) gradually phasing out the desktop version of GEOLocate following migration to the new Internet-based client. The proposed advancements to GEOLocate will not only enhance the capture of geo-coordinate data from existing electronic collection records and newly digitized records; it will support the next generation of research use of natural history collection data, performing all of its services via remote distributed services. The project will include student participation to give practical experience to the next generation of scientists. Additional information about the project can be found at http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/.