{"id":334244,"date":"2020-12-01T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T20:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=334244"},"modified":"2020-12-01T06:00:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T20:00:57","slug":"most-complete-digital-atlas-of-fsm-now-available-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/most-complete-digital-atlas-of-fsm-now-available-for-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Most complete digital atlas of FSM now available for free"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Digital Atlas of Micronesia is a newly launched resource featuring a broad range of geospatial information on the islands of Yap, Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Kosrae. It is open to the public to use at islandatlas.org.\u00a0(Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the culmination of a five-year effort to gather a breadth of geospatial data and display it on an interactive digital atlas, the four main islands of the Federated States of Micronesia are now more easily researched than any other island in the Pacific, including Hawaii, Guam, and Fiji.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Digital Atlas of Micronesia launched on Nov. 1 and is a free and available resource for anyone to use at\u00a0https:\/\/islandatlas.org. It currently covers Yap proper, Chuuk Lagoon, Pohnpei, and Kosrae.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The atlas is a collaborative project among Island Research & Education Initiative, or iREi, a nonprofit organization located in Pohnpei; the FSM Department of Environment, Climate Change, and Emergency Management; and the Water and Environmental Research Institute at the University of Guam and was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and the FSM national government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John W. Jenson,\u00a0director of the\u00a0Water and Environmental Research Institute\u00a0at the University of Guam, in 2017. The institute secured funding and provided oversight for the Digital Atlas of Micronesia project.\u00a0(University of Guam)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have gone way above and beyond the initial vision, and we now have, by far, the most comprehensive and versatile \u2018national\u2019 geospatial data repository anywhere in the Pacific Islands,\u201d said Danko Taboro\u0161i, chief editor of the atlas and director of Island Research & Education Initiative. \u201ciREi and WERI created our first digital atlas for Guam in 2009. What we did for the FSM benefited from that experience and loads of new data and improved technologies over the past 10 years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fishermen wanting to know the boundaries of marine preserves, tourists interested in seeing historical and cultural sites, a contractor needing to bury new utility lines, a student needing demographics for a particular set of villages for a project, a diver looking for shipwreck sites, or a biologist wanting to find areas with specific vegetation\u2014it\u2019s all searchable on the digital atlas. Users can customize a map for their purposes and then export or print it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of information contained in this atlas that\u2014if you just have it in text or table form, it\u2019s really hard to comprehend, but if you look at these maps and graphics, they really tell a story,\u201d said Maria Kottermair, a UOG WERI alumna and geographic information specialist who is co-editor of the atlas. \u201cWe discovered and digitized old, hard-to-find maps, information from the population census. \u2026We even located and digitized maps from a number of historical documents and master\u2019s and Ph.D. theses and produced a range of layers representing cultural and historical heritage of the FSM.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The interactive map allows users to select an island, customize the map with various layers, including cultural sites, infrastructure, vegetation cover, and marine preserves, and zoom in to areas of interest.\u00a0(Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The digital atlas features nearly 500 pre-designed static maps, which can be found in the \u201cGallery,\u201d as well as interactive maps for each island with 400 layers that can be toggled on and off. The optional map layers include:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 cultural sites\u00a0
\n\u2022 conservation areas\u00a0
\n\u2022 infrastructure, including quarries, wells and water lines, and building footprints\u00a0
\n\u2022 population demographics\u00a0
\n\u2022 vegetation cover\u00a0
\n\u2022 rainfall and waterflow\u00a0
\n\u2022 reef information\u00a0
\n\u2022 land characteristics, including elevation, slope degree, soil types, and geology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo document this much vetted information in one place\u2014especially for a remote area like Micronesia\u2014is a major feat,\u201d said John W. Jenson, director of the\u00a0Water and Environmental Research Institute\u00a0at the University of Guam, which helped secure the core funding and provided oversight of the project. \u201cThis atlas is an efficient and accessible source of scientifically informed data, and that\u2019s the kind of project WERI is always proud to support.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Geographic information specialist Maria Kottermair,\u00a0left, and\u00a0Danko Taboro\u0161i, director of Island Research & Education Initiative\u00a0based in Pohnpei, served as co-editors of the Digital Atlas of Micronesia, a public website and resource launched on Nov. 1. (Island Research & Education Initiative)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The atlas can be used for a variety of purposes, including sustainable development, effective management of natural resources and infrastructure, emergency response, research, as an education and teaching tool, for general public awareness, and for business as well. It is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a living project, and we intend to keep updating it as new data become available,\u201d Kottermair said. \u201cI encourage everyone to just go to the atlas and explore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team will work next on including the outer islands of the FSM in the atlas and to rebuild Guam\u2019s digital atlas at hydroguam.net, which Kottermair said has been a popular resource but has become outdated.\u00a0(UOG)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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