GIS Training Workshops for Latin American Conservation Professionals: 

1 September, 2001 - 31 August, 2002

Geographic Information System processing (GIS) is a critical tool for conservationists not only because it enables them to respond quickly and more effectively to threats to wildlife and natural areas, but also to plan proactively for their protection, use, and long-term viability. Through an ongoing project with the International Affairs office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we recently completed training workshops of 2 groups of wildlife and reserve managers in the basics of GIS, as well as the development and completion of the debut of the CAMRIS GIS for Windows program.

The recent changes in CAMRIS's base operating system platform from DOS to Windows has been a challenge for its developers.  Nevertheless, the project has continued to train reserve managers, researchers, and future resource management professionals in the basics of GIS and other spatial data analysis tools, and now we are able to use the new edition of the program. From what we have seen during this period, we expect the new Windows edition of the CAMRIS program will facilitate the learning of these basic tools and the communication of geographic data in project documents and presentations.

 

THE LATEST GIS BASIC TRAINING WORKSHOPS:

A. Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica 

At OTS's La Selva Biological Station in northeastern Costa Rica, we trained a group of 27 participants, principally reserve management specialists working either in the field or in their respective government protected areas agencies. The participants represented 11 Latin American countries and are specializing in various aspects of park management. This 4-day course served as a module in OTS's annual Tropical Protected Areas Management (MAST) course.

Given the very large number of participants, their wide range of computer and GIS capabilities, and limited computer resources, we focused on applied exercises designed to show the students how GIS can be used in their professional work, specifically in reserve management. For example, in a planning exercise, we assigned hypothetical reserve sites to participant groups for which the participants were asked to overlap various types of data and determine conservation priorities based on the available information.

Two more advanced exercises introduced participants to measurement options, raster images and analysis tools, such as buffering, that helped them identify areas of high biological importance and areas appropriate for core protection zones.

A field exercise showed participants how to use a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit to determine their current locations and plot routes. Several routes around the main La Selva campus were plotted by participant groups and their point locations and data observations were entered into the computer and analyzed in CAMRIS. Participants also gained experience with data bases for GIS use and converting spreadsheet data into point data and line in the GIS. 

B. Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica 

In Heredia, Costa Rica, we trained a group of 17 masters students at the Wildlife Management program, the first group to use the new CAMRIS Windows program.   The participants represented 9 Latin American countries, and approximately half of the participants had used GIS previously. These students spanned 3 course years and a range of conservation and research interests, including research on tapirs, peccaries, and howler monkeys.

While we faced a few troubles with the new program's debut, most of these were resolved and, using the new program, participants:

* learned the basic formats, structure, and potential of Geographic Information Systems through lecture, discussion and hands-on practice in pairs and small groups; 

* completed new 7 basic GIS exercises that focused on understanding GIS format and structure, manipulating program viewpoints and typical GIS tools, modifying map objects and groups of objects, entering new digital data from paper maps, geographically referencing digital data, and formatting maps for printing; 

* carried out a field exercise to obtain readings from GPS, compass and measuring tape, along with corresponding "observational data" along transects around the university.  They entered these data into MS-Excel, digitized basic features of the university landscape, and then combined Excel tables with their digital maps.
Students commented on the ease of entering the GPS data into the new CAMRIS program and that this exercise helped them think about how GIS can be used in their fieldwork and how databases can be structured to facilitate their combination with GIS maps. 

Discussion sessions were brief but served as important overviews and explanation of features. Instructors gave introductory presentations on the basics of mapping and GIS and on the application of GIS to conservation and planning.  We also reviewed the database merging and analysis features of the new program, and at the end of the course, students and instructors discussed the new program, features that were particularly helpful, and those that would benefit from improvement or modification.

Both the DOS-based and the Windows-based courses included the following segments: 

1. Presentations by participants of their work and their knowledge of computers and GIS 

2. Introduction: GIS structure and application to conservation 

3. Basic GIS concepts: changing viewpoints, working in layers, and georeferencing 

4. Basic tools of the CAMRIS software 

5. Editing and manipulating existing geographic data 

6. Entering new data: using paper maps, the keyboard, and point coordinate files in spreadsheet format 

7. Formatting, preparing, and printing maps 

8. General discussions on GIS as a conservation tool 

9. Basic GIS analyses: overlapping layers, combining data with map elements 

10. Discussion on applying GIS to projects or research studies.

Throughout each workshop, instructors met continuously with each group of two or three students to complement the workbook and assist the students at various points in each basic exercise.

 

C. Universidad La Serena, Chile

In La Serena, Chile, 17 university and government environmental officials attended a basic GIS training.  Of the 17 participants, 4 were students and the rest government officials working in environmental departments.

All participants were from Chile’s IV Region, but only a few had used GIS previously.  Therefore, the course focused on presenting the basics of GIS, answering questions on entering their different types of  data, incorporating GPS readings (which a number of students requested), and sorting by class data values.

Given the students’ wide range of GIS experience, we added 2 additional presentations - Gustavo Reati reviewed the important basics and ecologically-relevant applications of GIS to conservation and CAMRIS developer Glenn Ford discussed the application of GIS and a related data logging mapping tool for marine birds and mammals.  Approximately half of the students were marine biologists, so the instructors used marine mammal and bird case studies to describe the application of some advanced GIS analyses to marine research and conservation.

During this workshop, our host, Elier Tabilo, had to leave the grounds of the university to attend to a serious contamination spill that had occurred in the region just before the workshop.   As a result, we addressed how GIS might be applied to assess the impacts of such a spill.  We also discussed how, as part of their response, Elier and his colleagues could map the spill to see which people and resources would be affected.

During this course, the students divided into groups to plot different routes around the computer center and took GPS readings of their courses along with other data that were then mapped and analyzed.  These plots were then discussed by the whole group.

Given the group’s interest in point data and marine biology, we focused on point anlaysis, rather than printing maps.  Also, the single printer and strange setup of the computer lab (the machines were set into the tables, as shown at left, and were not designed for printing to a local printer.  Therefore, this course focused on data merging and sorting, an important GIS tool.  We worked with data sets on cultural and policy issues in the states of Mexico and characteristics of nests of great green macaws in Costa Rica.

For the analysis of the Mexican states, students were provided with the states maps and data, which they merged to determine cultural trends and how those trends might overlap.  Data trends included demographics, number of state/national parks, CAMRIS use,  mariachi numbers, and favorite beer brand.  While only some of these data were real, they allowed the participants to understand both simple data merging and nested data sets (all states with over 1,000,000 people that also contained more than 5 national or state parks) and their use with GIS work.

The participants also used their skills in plotting point data to make a quick map of over 40 macaw nests using the GPS-point data entry tool found in CAMRIS.  They were provided with the GPS readings and were asked to map these points and merge them with the data on the nest trees. This workshop focused on data processing rather than creating and printing maps.

 

II. CAMRIS WINDOWS VERSION DEVELOPMENTS:

A. CAMRIS program The initial Windows version of the CAMRIS program was used in the basic training workshop at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica. Development of this initial version is an ongoing activity, which has reached the first completion level during this grant period. This version boasts the following highlights:

* The group editor, which allows the user to select a group of different map objects from different data layer sources or geometries and edit or save them together. 

* The new page layout feature allows the user to place multiple maps, plus graphics and freely placed text, on a single sheet. 

* The data base merge module, which displays data base tables, combines the current map to a database, highlights map features of particular data values and its corresponding data value in the data sheet, and adds new geographically-derived fields to existing data bases. 

* The Arcview Shape file import and export options, which read and write Arcview Shape files in their own format, without the user having to import, convert, or export them. 

* The data layer Save feature that enables the user to save geographic information of different geometries in a single layer, which will make saving and reloading clear and easy.

B. CAMRIS program documentation To accompany the Windows version of the program, significant documentation- including text for Help module, HTML-based introductory description of vector-based GIS and the CAMRIS program in particular- has been produced over the past year. Two pages from this introduction (the start page first and a description of geo-referencing second) are shown below:

This introduction was designed for individuals interested in learning CAMRIS GIS but unable to attend a training workshop. It incorporates much of the information discussed in the training workshops, including basics and available functions of a GIS, structure of a vector GIS system, important concepts such as data layers and geo-referencing.  The following text box is a sample of the GIS Concepts in HTML format that is being developed to accompany the CAMRIS training manual.

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a useful tool for the display, analysis, storage, and retrieval of information about places on the earth.  

GIS enables conservation planners and managers to:

  • Access and use current, historical and time series information relevant to conservation -- including ecosystem management, watershed assessment, species-recovery programs, and land use planning, as just a few examples.

  • Carry out spatial analyses, database queries, visualization and manipulation of images, and, in some cases, predictive modeling of large, complex datasets.

  • Present maps and results of geographical analyses on the computer screen, on paper, or as a computer file and update them quickly and easily.

You can picture a GIS map as a set of clear acetate (transparency) sheets, each with a different type of geographic or spatial information on it, placed one on top of the other in layers.  

For example, the set of data layers to the left represent important factors in reserve design for an endangered species. 

When you look at such a set in a GIS, you can see all the layers at once.  

The GIS software imitates this action by loading "layers" of information from the same geographic area onto your computer screen so that you can see the various types of information together.

Specifically, there are two basic underlying concepts you must fully grasp to become GIS-literate. The rest of the learning process is primarily a question of mastering the mechanics of selecting the menu options to produce the desired results. The two underlying concepts are:

This introduction also describes the data structures used in GIS and several sample GIS applications.

The images shown here were created using CAMRIS, but the concepts and principles are common to GIS software in general.

The text above shows the basic GIS information in HTML format, and an example of the geo-referencing segment is shown in the second graphic below.

 

III. MAPS

The map below was designed by UNA students in a working group for use with GPS data input and analysis, UNA, July, 2001. Students draw selected buildings through digitizing paper maps and created others through GPS point readings of building corners and other landscape elements, in order to develop a precise campus map.

These four maps of areas in Costa Rica provide a sample of students' work from the UNA workshop. They show a) the slopes of the Osa Peninsula, b) the soil/land types of the Rio Grande Valley, c) the life zones of the northwestern province of Guanacaste, and d) the forest cover and basic land elements of the Tempisque River region.

 
Osa (above), Guanacaste (below) Rio Grande Valley (above), Tempisque (below)

The map at left shows the main campus of the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, delineated and digitized by the students in our course, after taking GPS data on the location of buildings courtyards, and other structures and preparing for use in the CAMRIS GIS. 

 

 

IV. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS IN BASIC TRAINING WORKSHOPS

A. OTS, La Selva, Costa Rica

 

B. Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica (all master's students)

  • Domenica Alarcón, Nicaragua 

  • Abel Alejandro Anzueto, Mexico 

  • Rebeca Chaverri Corrales, Costa Rica 

  • Alejandra Galindo, Colombia 

  • Michael Garcia Rojas, Costa Rica 

  • Julián García Giraldo, Colombia 

  • Claudia Gómez Fuentes, Dominican Republic 

  • Johana Hurtado, Ecuador 

  • Maria Maglianesi, Argentina 

  • Coral Pacheco, Mexico 

  • Laura Porras Murillo, Costa Rica 

  • Federico Rizo-Patrón., Peru 

  • Oscar Ramirez Alán, Costa Rica 

  • Claudia Quan Rodas, Guatemala 

  • Julio Santiago Ríos, Colombia 

  • Rausel Sarmiento Aguilar, Mexico 

  • Juan de Dios Valdez Leal, Mexico

 

C. Universidad La Serena, Chile