Development of a Computer Tool for Georeferencing Natural History Collection Data

Tulane University, New Orleans LA

Investigators

Abstract

Natural history collections are a resource for research on the taxonomy and systematics of organisms. Specimens and the associated data are now used in studies of ecology, conservation and environmental biology. Much of the museum data lacks geo-referenced collection locations, such as map coordinates or latitude and longitude. It is estimated that the number of specimens in US collections alone exceeds 750 million. Usually, the collection location is recorded as a string of text that describes the location as position along a road and/or distance from a town or other point of reference. Capture map coordinates from these text descriptions is tedious and time consuming. In this activity, a suite of software tools will be developed that will enable the biological collection community to geo-reference quickly all of the locality data associated with their collections. A prototype system, using a pattern-matching algorithm to break down the text string, has been developed. Available place names in a database are associated with latitude and longitude coordinates. When place-name data are missing, a database of other geographically-referenced information is compiled and used. The tools will also include visualization, correction and error estimation features for more precise location and updates to the database.