Wildlife Study Design & Analysis

train on water

Eyes on the Forest Sarawak | WWF-Malaysia

The ‘Eyes on the Forest’ Sarawak web application is developed with the joint effort of WWF-Malaysia and WWF-Japan. Emulating the successful ‘Eyes on the Forest’ Sumatra database, this web app intends to provide an undiluted information on the rich diversity of Sarawak’s unique wildlife, forests and land uses as well as increasing the transparency on the threats; deforestation, infrastructure developments and urbanization, as well as its drivers; concessions, agricultural activities and unsupervised resource harvesting.

Identifying where the threats, the drivers and the conservation targets are located will help in making a concrete point at the policy level and push for more boots on the ground to ensure that the protected areas stay protected. The baseline information provided are essential in the prompt intervention for biodiversity protection.

Data collected and consolidated from dispersed public sources and engineered for simple and direct visualization. Values are generated based on verified legislated information provided by stakeholders and state agencies to the Sarawak Conservation Programme (SCP) for WWF-Malaysia.

Developed and maintained by:

Azalea Kamellia

GIS Officer (SCP) | WWF- Malaysia

June 2018 - Present

The devil in the details

I have started to post some videos demonstrating some tools in ArcGIS Pro. Short ones and pretty quick ones which I strived for since I absolutely am frightened with the idea of irritating people with unnecessary voice-over. It has no garnered much response and it's cool with me. Although, the lack of traction does things to my insides, I go back to the real reason I am doing thing, which is to stash the tools that I managed to learn on my own by trials and errors and keep them somewhere I can refer back to it to remember how it works.

Creating maps involves a number of iterative processes made to suit the intended output. Although creating maps itself is a form of art; heavily reliant on target audience's knowledge and aesthetical preference, it is still an inherently democratic science. Thus, knowing the mainstream technology and tools in the industry to express your vision or message is given. So for those just starting out with using geographical information software (GIS) for your final year project or research, this videos are meant for you. The purpose is not to overwhelm you with too many information, or distract you with my narration, but to follow in real-time the process from the start up of the software to the running of tools that generates the information needed.

Knowing fully well that there is an endless variety of GIS software or tools out there, processes that you need to execute to make things happen may vary in name and functionalities. Forget the beef between ArcGIS and QGIS, of which one is the better tool; if it serves your needs, then use it. You're not obliged to pledge loyalty to software or brands although you are encouraged to maintain integrity in your beliefs when it comes to corporate versus open source tools in the industry. Both choices come with their advantages and disadvantages. Yours truly uses QGIS and ArcGIS Pro interchangeably. If it doesn't work in ArcGIS Pro, which I use primarily, I'll jump to using QGIS. It's not a big deal. If it works painlessly, there is no reason to feel bad about using it.

So far, the content I have made emphasizes mostly on ArcGIS Pro or Esri products since using them is how I come to learn more about geology and geography. QGIS was a name I did not learn of in my university years when ArcGIS versions start with the digit 9️⃣, so you can catch my drift.

We can go on and on about theoretical stuff and our smarter pals usually knows what to do when faced with the tools. Unfortunately, I fall in the percentile that needed to land on the job to understand what on earth I am supposed to do. This series of videos are for those who have the same problem as I do and need to see the magic actually happening before knowing what to do. And for the most part, there are so many things to read and try out before you get it right. So hopefully, the demos can kickstart some thoughts or observation in the logic within the software's ecosystem and become more than just a technical power-user.

This week, I touched on some tools that I found helpful when dealing with point vector data, so feel free to check it out 👇🏻

Next week, I'm thinking of exploring some series of point analysis and space time cube is beckoning for me to test it out. Until then, stay cool and drop a word if you need any clarifications on the demos!

Community Empowerment Strategy Dashboard 2021 | WWF-Malaysia

Tool: Operations Dashboard ArcGIS, Survey123 for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online Technique: XLSForm programming, web application development

The northern highland communities of Lun Bawang have been collaborating with WWF-Malaysia under the Sarawak Conservation Programme (SCP) to empower sustainable economies and managing their natural biodiversity through the Community Empowerment Strategy (formerly known as Community Engagement and Education Strategy).

Since 2016, the communities have been actively mapping out their land uses and culturally important locations to delineate their areas of settlement and source of livelihood. Given the close vicinity of their communities to the licensed timber concessions, producing a definitive map is important to preserve and conserve their surrounding natural capitals.

Several outreach has been done and the community mapping effort has been shifted to implement citizen science via the Survey123 for ArcGIS mobile application which is apart of the ArcGIS ecosystem. This enables the local community to collect information despite the lack of network reception and the data can still be synchronized upon availability automatically or manually shared with the field officers.

📌 Availability: Retracted in 2021

mapshaper

Ok. 

I wanna know why have I never heard of this online tool before. Like, what the hell is wrong with the social media? Is something wrong with Twitter or Instagram or something that they never caught on mapshaper? Or was it just me and my hazardous ignorance, yet again?

Have you tried this free nifty online tool that literally simplify crazy complicated shapefile polygons like it’s no one’s business?!

It started with some last minute inspiration on how to collate data from 3 different regions; developed from remote sensing techniques which vary from one another. The common output here is to turn all of them into a vector file; namely shapefile, and start working on the attribute to ease merging of the different shapefile layers.

Once merged, this shapefile is to be published as a hosted feature layer into the ArcGIS Online platform and incorporated into a webmap that serves as a reference data to configure/design a dashboard. What is a dashboard? It's basically an app template in ArcGIS Online that summarizes all the important information in your spatial data. It's a fun app to create, no coding skills required. Check out the gallery here for reference:

Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS Gallery

There are two common ways to publish hosted feature layer into ArcGIS Online platform.

Method 1: Zip up the shapefile and upload it as your content. This will trigger the command inquiring if you would like to publish it as a hosted feature layer. You click 'Yes' and give it a name and et voila! You have successfully publish a hosted feature layer.

Method 2: From an ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Pro, you publish them as feature service (as ArcMap calls them) or web layer (as the its sister ArcGIS Pro calls them). Fill up the details and enabling the function then hit 'Publish' and it will be in the platform should there be no error or conflicting issues.

So, what was the deal with me and mapshaper? 

🛑 A fair warning here and please read these bullet points very carefully:

I need you to remember...I absolve any responsibility of what happens to your data should you misinterpreted the steps I shared. 

Please always  👏🏻  BACK 👏🏻 UP  👏🏻  YOUR 👏🏻 DATA. Don’t even try attempting any tools or procedure that I am sharing without doing so. Please. Cause I am an analyst too and hearing someone else forget to save their data or create a backup is enough to make me die a little inside. 

For this tool, please export out the attribute table of your shapefile because this tool will CHANGE YOUR SHAPEFILE ATTRIBUTES. 

When I was publishing the vector I have cleaned and feature-engineered via ArcGIS Pro...it took so long that I was literally dying inside. I'm not talking about 20 minutes or an hour. It took more than 12 hours and it did not conjure the 'Successfully published' notification as I would've expected from it.

So at around 5.30 am, I randomly type 'simplify shapefily online free'. Lo and behold, there was mapshaper.

All I did was, zip up my polygon, drag it to the homepage and it will bring you to the option of choosing the actions that will be executed while the data is being imported into mapshaper:

detect line intersections

snap vertices

This option will help you to detect the intersections of lines within your vector/shapefile. This can help identify topological error.

The option to snap vertices will snap together points of similar or almost identical coordinate system. But it does not work with TopoJSON formats.

There is something interesting about this options too; you can enter other types of customized options provided by the tool from its command line interface! But hold your horses peeps. I did not explore that because here, we want to fix an issue and we'll focus on that first. I checked both options and import them in.

This will bring the to a page where there you can start configuring options and method to simplify your vector.

To simplify your shapefile, you can have both options to prevent the shape of the polygon being compromised; prevent shape removal, and to utilize the planar Cartesian geometry instead of the usual geoid longitude and latitude; use planar geometry. The implication of the second option is not obvious to me yet since all I wanted was to get the data simplified for easy upload and clean topology, thus, I chose both options to maintain the shape and visibility of all my features despite the highest degree of simplification.

Alike to the options of methodology for simplication in the mainstream software, I can see familiar names:

Douglas-Peuker

Visvalingam / effective area

Visvalingam / weighted area

First and foremost, I had no slightest idea of what these were. Like for real. I used to just go first for the default to understand what sort of output it will bring me. But here, the default; Visvalingam / weighted area, seemed like the best option. What are these methodologies of simplification? There are just algorithms used to help simplify your vectors:

🎯 Douglas-Peucker algorithm decimates a curve composed of line segments to a similar curve with fewer points (Ramer-Douglas-Peucker algorithm, Wikipedia; 2021).

🎯 Visvalingam algorithm is a line simplication operator that works eliminating any less significant points of the line based on effective area concept. That basically means that the triangle formed by each of the line points with two of its immediate neighboring points (Visvalingam Algorithm | aplitop).

🎯 Visvalingam algorithm with weight area is another version of Visvalingam algorithm of subsequent development where an alternative metrics is used and weighted to take into account the shape (Visvalingam & Whelan, 2016).

For reasons I can't even explain, I configured my methodology to utilize the third option and now that I have the time to google it, Thank God I did.

Then, see and play with the magic at the 'Settings' slider where you can adjust and view the simplification made onto the vector! I adjusted it to 5%. The shape retained beautifully. And please bear in mind, this vector was converted from a raster. So, what I really wanted is the simplified version of the cleaned data and to have them uploaded.

Now that you've simplified it, export it into a zipped folder of shapefile and you can use it like any other shapefile after you extracted it.

Remember when I say you have got to export your table of attributes out before you use this tool? Yea...that's the thing. The attribute table will shock you cause it'll be empty. Literally. With only the OBJECTID left. Now, with that attribute table you've backed up, use the 'Join Table' tool in ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap and join the attribute table in without any issues.

Phewh!!

I know that it has alot more functions than this but hey, I'm just getting started. Have you ever done anything more rocket science than I did like 2 days ago, please share it with the rest of us. Cause I gotta say, this thing is cray!! Love it so much.

mapshaper developer, if you're seeing this, I 🤟🏻 you!

UPDATE

I have been asked about the confidentiality of the data. I think this is where you understand the reason behind the fact that they will work even with using just the ‘.shp’ file of the shapefile since _that_ is the vector portion of the shapefile. 

Shapefile is a spatial data format that is actually made up of 4 files; minimum. Each of these files share the same name with different extensions; .prj, .shx, .shp and .dbf. Although I am not familiar with what .shx actually accounts for, the rest of them are pretty straightforward:

.prj: stores the projection information

.dbf: stores the tabulated attributes of each features in the vector file

.shp: stores the shape/vector information of the shapefile. 

So, as the tool indicate, it actually helps with the vector aspect of your data which is crucial in cartography. 

home is where you are

take care

Studying is hard enough when you are fighting the onset of hormonal hurricane of emotions while you're a teenager. Then you have you formative 5 to 6 years of collegiate years where you learn that your idealistic notions of the world is just plain snobbish and that you're one of the many that finds satisfaction in pushing your ideas into other people's head. Doing all that while studying, it was hard too.

Then comes the job hunting, climbing ladders to nowhere from one workplace to another...just drifting. That was the vacation off from studying and just wanting to find stability.

Then one day, you broke your heart at the same time you get an opportunity to a decent work somewhere. You ran. Then it was about understanding this whole new dimension of knowledge that you've fallen in love with. It was like your first love came back to find you and tell you he's back and that he won't leave you alone anymore. So, back to the books you fall into.

So yeah...studying is a rollercoaster of emotions. Learning is a lifelong journey. You're never too old to learn something new. And then phrase where you can't teach old dogs new tricks is just plain inaccurate. You can teach them new tricks and they can do it if they want to. It's the matter of either they want to do it or if their body can still keep up with them.

If you're an older student, I feel you. You feel left behind at times and frustrated because you feel like you can't catch up with things. If you're someone who's starting to work on research studies, it may be a harder state of mind. Because you're almost always on your own lamenting on you're comprehension of theories and questioning if you get whatever you absorbed right. So...it is hard. How do you know that you're alright and that you're not spinning down the road of doomed isolation? You don't. These are some of the glaring things I think are the universal problems among people who, with the courage of a lion, answered the call of hermitage and subject themselves to an occupation so feared that it is deemed over once high school ends; student:

Wardrobe reduction to daily uniform of hoodies/sweaters and jog-pants/sweatpants

It's totally ok. If you're wearing the same one everyday for the rest of the week, you still win. It's practical, it's easy and for hijabsters, the hoodie helps with instant full head cover while you run to receive those stuff you endlessly ordered online. There's nothing to be ashamed off.

💡I say: Shower 🚿. Every. Day. Twice a day is most ideal. Stay fresh and hygienic. If you're not going anywhere nor are you working out in those attire, then you're good. At least for a week. When you shower, you're giving your body a break from the exhausting task of slouching, the heat of your brain going overdrive and your own face breaking out from the stress. So yeah...shower. Wash your face. Brush your teeth. You're gonna be at risk of letting yourself go when you're left alone too comfortable in your own company. If you're an introvert, it feels like heaven but it doesn't mean you should be at the risk of losing out on the joys of prepping yourself to look good once in a while. Regularly make the effort to find decent clothes you'll use to go out on a Saturday window shopping and kick back to relax. On the rare occasion you get a break from your endless paper chasing, Zoom calls and writing, you can use your wardrobe clearing day to match few clothing and have a runway at home yourself or for a date with yourself to the Netflix movie you're gonna watch on your laptop. Who says you can't dress up to do online shopping? That's the only way you'll know that you do not need that new shade of Forencos lipstick you saw the other day. Duh.

Sudden weight gain/loss

I can't say that is unexpected especially if you're the kind who can go long without exercises and the type who munch while you work (which is a bad habit by the way). But sometimes you can't help if especially if you live on your own or have your own living space. Being on your own makes it kind of easy to get off-track about the norm of things; how much have you eaten today...is that your 5th coffee...should you be finishing that leftovers...etc. It is harder if you don't have your own kitchen and rely on packed food or processed ones.

💡I say: I can assure you, it is NOT unusual. This happens often. Each one of us have different eating habits. There isn't a flexible advise to cater this problem. But it helps to think that when you're setting up a study environment, you're setting up a living environment that enable you to be inspired enough for productivity. I make it a point to have food available but at a good distance and exercise attire/equipment nearby. Better yet, wear them. To curb that crazy cravings, I try my best to have my meal on-time; breakfast at 8 am, lunch at 12 pm or 1 pm etc. Eat what you love, but in moderation. Hydrate regularly. It's hard, I know. All the chips🍟 and chocolate chip cookies🍪 and sweetened 3-in-1 lattes☕...I just...well, just remember...in moderation and you're a human. Don't beat yourself up if you eat them anyway.

Back pain, knee pain, frozen shoulder...everything hurts

I have a hard time tearing away from what I am doing for the 20-minutes-work-5-minutes-rest rule but I try my best to maintain good posture. The bad habit of crouching and slouching at desk jobs is a universal problem. At the onset of the pandemic, for the first time in my life, my back felt strained. I panicked and started to seriously stretch myself and found that not only I am killing my back, I was not breathing properly when I am doing my work due to my posture.

💡I say: Don't break the bank trying to buy new furniture or tools because from experience, you end up not actually using them for the purpose you bought them in the first place. Eg. treadmill...you're more likely to hang your clothes or towels there...or super expensive yoga mats. Carpet works just fine too.

Standing desk is deemed to have little to no effects on spinal/muscle health by some studies but I went on ahead and made a make-shift standing desk. I found that I'm more alert when I work standing and breathe better. There was no contest...standing desk is a choice made. My standing table is an old dining table that I turned into my bed where I put my portable laptop desk. So, it also works as a barre that I used to stretch my legs for that mid-splits I've been working on.

These are some of the stuff that plague me daily and how I cope. How about you guys? How do you take care of yourself as someone who willingly serve yourself on a platter to tertiary educational torture to console your ever-thirsty curious mind?

There is a moment where base maps just couldn't or wouldn't cut it. And DEMs are not helping. The beautiful hillshade raster generated from the hillshade tool can't help it if the DEM isn't as crisp as you would want it to be. And to think that I've been hiding into hermitage to learn how to 'soften' and cook visual 'occlusion' to make maps look seamlessly smooth. Cartographers are the MUAs of the satellite image community. 

I have always loved monochromatic maps where the visual is clean, the colors not harsh and easy for me to read. There was not much gig lately at work where map-making is concerned. The last one was back in April for some of our new strategy plans. So, when my pal wanted me to just 'edit' some maps she wanted to use, I can't stop myself with just changing the base map. 

The result isn't as much as I'd like it to be but then, we are catering the population that actually uses this map. Inspired by the beautiful map produced by John M Nelson that he graciously presented at 2019 NACIS; An Absurdly Tall Hiking Map of the Appalachian Trail. What I found is absurd is how little views this presentation have. The simplicity of the map is personally spot-on for me. Similar to Daniel P. Huffman as he confessed in his NACIS 2018 talk; Mapping in Monochrome, I am in favor of monochromatic color scheme. I absolutely loathe chaotic map that looked like my niece's unicorn just barf the 70s color deco all across the screen. Maybe for practical purposes of differentiating values of an attribute is deemed justifiable but surely...we can do better than clashing orange, purple and green together, no? 

So...a request to change some labels turn into a full-on make over. There are some things that I realized while making this map using ArcGIS Pro that I believe any ArcGIS Pro noob should know:

Sizing your symbols in Symbology should ideally be done in the Layout view. Trust me. It'll save you alot of time. 

When making outlines of anything at all, consider using a tone or two lighter than the darkest of colors and make the line thinner than 1 pt. 

Halo do matter for your labels or any textual elements of your map.

Sometimes, making borders for your map is justifiable goose chase. You don't particularly need it. Especially if the map is something you are going to compact together with articles or to be apart of a book etc. 

Using blue all the way might have been something I preferred but they have the different zonations for the rivers, so that plan went out the window. 

And speaking of window...the window for improvement in this map is as big as US and Europe combined. 

[2022] 30 Day Map Challenge -- FAILED

Last year, I participated once again in the 30 Day Map Challenge that was going around in Twitter-ville come November. It is the 3rd attempt at the marathon and 2022 served as a reminder that progressed too despite getting stuck at Day 3 as life caught up with me.

I don't like the idea that I have left the challenge incomplete, again. It was not my priority and I work better with clear goals or visions of expected output. If it does not add to my need to learn something new ...it will be a task bound to head straight to the backburner. Let's resolve to make it a long-term routine instead of a spurt of stress trying to make the deadline.

As a consequence, I am attuning this task into one that actually gives me the benefit out putting into record the techniques and tools I used to make the maps in writing. I believe that will serve more purpose and added value other than visuals. And perhaps, have some stock ready for submission this year instead.

Anyone else participated in this challenge back in November? How did you do and what would you like to do better for the next one? Don't be shy and do drop a word or two.

Don't break the chain peeps! Reblog cause I'm looking for inspiration for my next masterpiece! 🙇🙇🙇

reblog/like if you’re an active studyblr/langblr

I’ve just unfollowed a bunch of inactive blogs, now that I follow ONLY 54 blogs??? pls reblog/like so I can have an active dashboard and new friends hehehe