LOICZ/UNEP REGIONAL SYNTHESIS WORKSHOPS
(link to index page)

3.                  Results and Applications (pdf file)

3.1  Community and Capacity Building

The workshop series has provided an enhanced awareness of the issues and problems of integrating data and information across spatial scales.  A cadre of scientists have had opportunity to apply the LOICZ typology tools and database – and to contribute to the further development of the methodology and approach by contribution of outcomes and identification of additional data requirements.  The discussions and interactions during the workshops have led to further collaboration and utility of the tools and their applications to other local and regional issues beyond the goals of the LOICZ-UNEP project.  For example, New Zealand scientists are developing an estuarine classification system for environmental management purposes.  This requires a finer scale of resolution than the global half-degree scale application of LOICZ.  The Loiczview tool is being used with a separate and detailed database in these developments.  Similarly, the tool and databases are being applied to questions in other parts of the world often augmented with local regional data relevant to the research issues.

Most participants in the workshops had attended earlier and companion workshops addressing biogeochemical budget development in different continental regions of the world.  The network of scientists from the biogeochemical budgets has been active and sustained in the further development of biogeochemical budgets for additional sites – these have been incorporated in the database.  This work continues and the approach is used in formal teaching and training courses in various regions.  The typology workshops have involved additional scientists, particularly those with experience in geoinformatics, and the resultant interactions have led to a number of products exemplified in the attached CD-ROM.  Importantly, the network of scientists continues to collaborate on scaling and typological research beyond the workshops adding to the products for the project and applying the approach to allied problems.  A final global integration workshop for the project is scheduled for late 2001 and is expected to add further impetus to the network and the wider issue of scaling and coastal classification.

3.2. Coastal characterization 

3.2.1.  General

Major progress was made over the course of the three workshops in terms of both coastal characterization itself (typology) and the conceptual and operational tools available for the task.  The strategy of having workshop participants work on and report typology experiments of their own devising produced an eclectic mixture of products and experience.  These are listed and briefly described or discussed in section 3.2.4 below, and in more detail in Appendices IC, IIC, and IIIC.  Most of the contributions were prepared in electronic, browser-viewable form; these are available for review and examination on the CD-ROM accompanying this report, and on the project web site. 

Sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 below briefly summarize the developments in the Web-LoiczView tool and in the typology (now combined with budgets) database.  This is done for two purposes: to document the power of the workshop process in identifying and shaping the necessary developments; and, to provide a context in which to view the participant contributions from the three workshops.  Major changes in both the presentational and analytical tools available over the course of the project, as well as in the variables available for analysis, mean that there are substantial differences in form and content between otherwise similar experiments in the first (Australia-Asia) and the final (Europe-Africa) workshops.  It is a tribute to both the underlying robustness of the approach and the dedication and quality of the workshop participants that this developing framework does not lessen the conceptual and practical significance of the work done in the earlier stages of the development.

3.2.2        Web-LoiczView developments

The major capabilities added to the WLV application over the course of the project were the eigenvector analysis (principal components) package, and the cross-clustering operation (see the CD-ROM or web site tutorial pages for descriptions of these features).  Other developments, however, had comparably significant effects on the ease of use and the products.  These include file management options such as the ability to rename and combine files, enhancements to the tolerance of the application for the formats of uploaded files, and substantial expansion of the labels and information messages provided to the user.

Equally important were the major additions in terms of information available for easy use, capture and download.  The “point identification” function in the cluster visualization was added, as were additional summary statistics in the “information” outputs of the overlay and dual visualization operations.  The extent of data available for download and the ease of doing so were increased, and the ability to save products in conveniently usable format (html, pdf, text) was expanded.

3.2.3        Database developments

Over the course of the project the actual contents of the database were greatly expanded, and ‘debugging’ and refinement improved the utility of the existing contents.  A major effort was devoted to incorporating the river basin variables provided by the University of New Hampshire-BAHC groups; this included not only adapting the model flow and cell structure to the LOICZ system, but also populating the basins with additional variables and working through the ways of presenting and using cumulative basin data projected onto one or a few coastal cells.  Other substantial additions included addition of ocean color (chlorophyll) data, and greatly expanded hydroclimatology data.

User-support tools in the ‘front end’ of the database were developed to provide major improvements in the users ability to review, select, and modify the available data.  Additional cell categories were added to provide truly global coverage, and various options for the arrangement of the variable selection pages were provided.  The major development efforts provided extensive new capabilities for dealing with the data set assembled.  The user can now view summary statistics and a histogram, exclude null values, filter, selectively modify, or transform any of the variables in a data set, and can create a correlation matrix for the entire data set..  These added tools greatly facilitate data selection for clustering.

3.2.4        Workshop typology contributions.