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Mesoamerican Visualization and Monitoring System

 

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An Enterprise GeoSpatial Architecture and Development of Automated Analysis Methodologies for Central American Carbon Sequestration Analysis

In 2002/2003, NASA, the World Bank, and USAID joined with the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) to develop an advanced decision support system for Mesoamerica named SERVIR, as part of the Mesoamerican Environmental Information System (SIAM).  This partnership combined expertise in space-based observation with the intimate knowledge of local ecosystems.  This system was built for scientists, educators, and policy makers to monitor and forecast ecological changes, respond to natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, and volcanic eruptions), and better understand both natural and human induced effects upon the regional climate.  SERVIR/SIAM intensively utilized current and historic datasets acquired from NASA's constellation of Earth-imaging satellites over the past 30 years for applications such as fire detection, carbon management, and forest cover.  This helped provide a greater understanding of mechanisms driving the past, present, and potential future environment of Mesoamerica.

CAST played a significant role in the SIAM/SERVIR project, with participation in two main components:

1) Develop and install a computational architecture that could ingest and process the massive amounts of satellite image data anticipated (along with other ancillary geospatial data sets) by the project and provide the products to the multiple user community.  This architecture was based on the GeoStor/University of Arkansas Spatial Library object-relational enterprise data management system and became known as MesoStor.  MesoStor became operational in Panama in the fall of 2004 when the hardware and software was installed in the City of Knowledge technology park in Panama, where CAST personnel were on hand to provide training and support.  MesoStor was operational until January 2008 when it was replaced with the SERVIR Data Portal.

2) Develop a suite of automated processing protocols to generate land use, land cover change (LULCC) maps and carbon sequestration estimates throughout the entire Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.  Recent participation in this component is reported in the following article:

Tullis, J.A., J.D. Cothren, D.E. Irwin, C. Yeager, W.F. Limp, J.M. Wilson, B.E. Gorham and S. Ogle, 2007, "Yearly Extraction of Central America's Land Cover for Carbon Flux Monitoring", GIScience and Remote Sensing 44(4):334-355.

 

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