Global Marine Protected Areas (MPA)

This DO Project builds connectivity with Google Ocean, opens up the ECOS Social Network for collaboration among International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) MPA scientists, and automates the addition of geo-located MPA media, science, and data into the Google Ocean layer; DO provided data display technology and services will help MPA scientists and managers visualize and compare their data and share these with the public.

Google Ocean MPA Media Content
The proposed DO Google Ocean (now available as a part of Google Earth) content aggregator seeds MPA locations on this display with geo-located media and science news. The Google Earth platform has more than 300 million users, and is now available as a browser plug-in (Windows only at present). This interactive display technology enables public users to browse hundreds of MPA locations to better understand how these are rebuilding ocean biocomplexity.

When a DO Flickr™ Group member geolocates her photograph or video snippet, the DO system will compare the geolocation with the known boundaries of existing MPAs. If the content falls within one of the MPAs the member will be offered the choice of sharing her content on the MPA layer in Google Ocean. If the member agrees, the content is submitted for quality review and approval to be added to the official MPA layer on Google Ocean.

When DO ECOS Network members add information or links to information about any MPA, the system will ask them if they want to share this information through the MPA layer on Google Ocean. If the member agrees, the content is submitted for review and inclusion in the MPA’s descriptor on the Google Ocean layer.

Data Display
The DO MPA Project leverages years of work creating interactive data displays to demonstrate the dynamic changes of fish mass within MPAs. The Project will seed the MPA layer with one hundred such displays, which are built using Adobe Flash™. The Project will publish its data model and recommendations for configuring research data to be displayed through the Flash-based visualization tool. The Project will also extend its inventory of contour-based fish drawings to depict exemplar fish for a broad range of MPAs. This collection of fish drawings will also be made available for others to contribute or to reuse.

The Do MPA Social Network
The proposed ECOS Social Network services will provide Web 2.0 collaboration and media handling tools for MPA scientists world wide. MPA regional coordinators will be able to create their own groups in the ECOS Network, and use these to coordinate activities, vet new media and content, and engage new researchers.