Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève
Unity of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing
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Unity of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing
(resp.: Dr Nicolas WYLER)
This unity collects together infrastructures (hard- and software) necessary for the exploitation of tools such as Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) (servers, workstations, printers, digitalizing table, etc.).
At present the choice went on products of the range ESRI Corp. (ArcGIS), and more particularly of Clark Labs (IDRISI) for the treatment of images, as well as of R (NOTCH - PROJECT) for the spatial analyses.
GIS is mainly used for the production of the distribution maps necessary for the various flora projects underway in the CJBG (Flora of the Alps, Flora of Corsica, Flora of Paraguay, African Plant database). This tool is also exploited for the realization vegetation maps which contain information that is extremely important for studies in tropical environments (Ivory Coast, Madagascar, ...). These vegetation maps are realized on the basis of satellite pictures or of aerial photos.
The integration of GIS with databases, as well as potentialities of the spatial / statistical analyses, allows us, for example, to estimate natural habitats and their evolution. In addition, these tools offer the possibility of analysing the distribution of the biological diversity (examples: Analysis of the landscape and floristic richness, study of the biology of the populations of Aster amellus L., forested fragmentation in Ivory Coast).
At the level of the City of Geneva, this Laboratory is integrated into the program of the System of Information of the Territory of the City of Geneva, partner of the "Système d'Informations du Territoire Genevois" (SITG). In this context, this technology is exploited daily within the framework of the project "Patrimoine Vert: Un Système d'Informations de la biodiversité régionale".