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越来越城市化，彻底了解城市地区的生物过程对于包括人类在内的地球居民的持续生存是必要的。理解这一点的第一步是了解城市中现在和过去的繁荣、生存或消亡。中大西洋大都市（MAM）项目从观察维管植物开始这项研究，对来自11个机构的大约70万个植物标本馆标本进行了数字化，这些机构包括公立和私立大学、州政府机构、树木园、博物馆和植物园，位于从纽约市到华盛顿，华盛顿特区的城市走廊。这一地区及其植物群为研究城市化提供了一个独特的机会，特别是考虑到其丰富的植物标本馆收藏，其中包括过去400年来收集的标本。在这一努力中调动的数据将帮助我们更好地科学地理解生活的城市系统，这是城市规划者，恢复生态学家，环境工程师，（景观）建筑师和环保主义者致力于创造更可持续和更好的设计城市，包括我们城市地区的建设和恢复的自然环境。MAM项目中每个标本的数字化将产生很高的分辨率图像、藏品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，开展众包数据库工作，并招募公民科学家帮助在线建立城市植物区系，不仅提高数字化效率，还提供教育和研究机会。MAM项目还包括共生生物群数据清理和标准化的新发展，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。该奖项是作为国家资源的一部分，通过推进生物收藏品数字化计划的生物收藏品数字化，从这个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).