Collaborative Research: Digitization TCN: The Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis: Achieving a greater scientific understanding of our urban world

鉴于我们这个星球的未来日益城市化，透彻了解城市地区的生物过程对包括人类在内的地球居民的持续生存是必要的。理解的第一步是了解在现在和过去，城市中什么繁荣，什么生存，什么消亡。中大西洋大都市（MAM）项目通过观察维管植物开始这项研究，并将来自11个机构的大约70万份植物标本数字化，包括公立和私立大学、州政府机构、植物园、博物馆和植物园，这些机构位于纽约市到华盛顿特区的城市走廊上。作为美国最大、最古老、人口最多的城市走廊，该地区及其植物群为城市化研究提供了独特的机会。特别是考虑到它丰富的植物标本馆收藏，包括过去400年收集的标本。在这项工作中动员的数据将帮助我们更好地科学地理解城市生活系统，这是城市规划者、恢复生态学家、环境工程师、（景观）建筑师和从事创造更可持续和更好设计的城市的保护主义者的关键需求，包括我们城市地区的人工和修复的自然环境。MAM项目中每个标本的数字化将产生高分辨率图像，收集元数据的数据库记录和地理参考点，所有这些都将在网上公开提供。在已经取得成功的区域项目的基础上，MAM项目将与学校、大学、植物俱乐部和公众合作，集中资源数据库工作，并招募公民科学家帮助在线建立城市植物区系，这不仅提高了数字化效率，而且还提供了教育和研究机会。MAM项目还包括Symbiota数据清理和标准化方面的新进展，这将加快数字化标本数据在研究中的使用，以及新的报告功能，这将推进数字化工作流程和项目管理。该奖项是国家生物馆藏数字化资源的一部分，通过推进生物馆藏数字化计划，该奖项产生的所有数据将通过国家资源（iDigBio.org）提供。

In light of the increasingly urban future of our planet, a thorough understanding of the biological processes at work in urban areas is necessary for the continued survival of Earth's inhabitants, including humans. The first step in that understanding is to know what thrives, survives, or perishes in cities, now and in the past. The Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis (MAM) Project begins this study by looking at vascular plants, with the digitization of roughly 700,000 herbarium specimens from eleven institutions, including public and private universities, state agencies, arboreta, museums, and botanic gardens, in the urban corridor from New York City to Washington, D.C. As the largest, oldest, and most populated urban corridor in the U.S., this area and its flora present a unique opportunity for the study of urbanization, particularly given its rich herbarium collections, containing specimens collected over the last 400 years. The data mobilized in this effort will help us achieve a better scientific understanding of living urban systems, a critical need for urban planners, restoration ecologists, environmental engineers, (landscape) architects, and conservationists engaged in creating more sustainable and better designed cities, including the constructed and restored natural environments of our urban areas.Digitization of each specimen in the MAM Project will result in a high resolution image, a databased record of collection metadata, and a georeferenced point, all of which will be made publicly available online. Building on already successful regional programs, the MAM Project will partner with schools, universities, botanical clubs, and the general public to crowd source databasing efforts and to recruit citizen scientists to help build urban floras online, enabling not only increased digitization efficiency, but educational and research opportunities as well. The MAM Project also includes new developments for data cleaning and standardization in Symbiota, which will expedite the use of digitized specimen data for research, and new reporting features which will advance digitization workflow and project management. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program, and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (iDigBio.org).