About the Aquatic Conservation Center

• What is the Data Basin Aquatic Center?
• What does the Aquatic Center do?
• Who is the Aquatic Center built for?
• Who contributed and provides datasets to the Protected Areas Center?
  
• Why should you join Data Basin?

What is the Aquatic Conservation Center?

The Aquatic Conservation Center is a component of Data Basin that specializes in creating and disseminating critical datasets, tools, and networks needed to address changes related to freshwater and marine environments and the species that inhabit them. The Data Basin Aquatic Conservation Center allows you to do three primary activities:

• Publish existing aquatic-related datasets and analyses,
• Review new aquatic-related research and impacts from development, climate change, agriculture and other natural and human-influenced drivers,
• Connect with people, datasets, maps, or tools.

The Aquatic Conservation Center is organized around the following building blocks:

The building blocks of the Aquatic Conservation Center are:

• My Workspace: My workspace provides a private area for accessing Data Basin. Users can easily organize content they contributed or found in the system. Users can create and edit personal profiles; manage their account; track creation of datasets, maps, and galleries; and, manage their group activity.
• Datasets: A dataset is a spatially explicit file, currently Arcshape and ArcGrid files.  These can be biological, physical, socioeconomic, (and soon to be imagery) that can be uploaded, downloaded or visualized.
• Maps: Maps are visualized datasets created with easy-to-use tools in Data Basin.  Maps, customized by users, can be kept private, shared with groups, or published for everyone.  Users can critique maps with provided drawing and commenting tools.
• Galleries: Galleries are meaningful collections of datasets and/or maps created by Data Basin users.  Users and organizations can publish galleries (including studies, atlases and books) that others can easily find and use. 
• People: People are members of the Data Basin community.  Users can search profiles to find data providers, potential collaborators or interested audiences. 
• Groups: Groups are user-defined subset of Data Basin users collaborating around a specific topic or issues.  Group members can share, analyze, and discuss datasets and maps.  Data Basin allows for private (closed) and public (by request) groups.
• Centers: Centers are topics or geographies of special interest to Data Basin users.  Users can find specific datasets, maps, galleries, people, groups, and analytical tools under each center.

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What does the Aquatic Conservation Center do?

Data Basin makes it simple to find reliable aquatic datasets and make compelling visualizations. After locating a relevant dataset, combine it with others to create a map with the styles you define. The Aquatic Conservation Center provides the following functionality:

• Extensive documentation for each aquatic dataset or analysis
• Capability to upload your data then share it publically or keep it private
• Ability to download publically available aquatic-related data
• Visualization tools that allow you to combine datasets and make maps
• Searchable profiles of all users including aquatic conservation and biodiversity experts
• Searchable galleries (collections of datasets, maps, analysis, or people)
• Working groups that enable sharing of datasets and maps with specific people
• Provides new data and/or tools related to featured galleries

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Who is the Aquatic Center built for?

The Data Basin Aquatic Center lowers the technical skills usually needed to visualize and create spatial datasets and maps. The data storage, visualization, group sharing, and directories are relatively straight forward to use. The Conservation Biology Institute provides technical support for registered Data Basin users. Now, anyone can visualize how predicted shifts in temperature and precipitation with increasing greenhouse gas emissions might affect stream hydrology, discharge and predicted species distributions. Anyone using the Aquatic Conservation Center can explore how the natural, physical, and cultural worlds may be impacted by changes to aquatic ecosystems. Aquatic Conservation Center users can easily figure out what to do (and do it)!

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Who contributes datasets to the Aquatic Center?

Data Basin works with dozens of institutions, universities, research groups and individuals to provide the highest quality datasets as they become available.  Data contributors are required to add metadata to the datasets that they upload to ensure that the datasets can be correctly cited and understood by users in Data Basin. Data contributors are responsible for ensuring that they are permitted to share the datasets they upload to Data Basin according to the Terms of Service.

Any organization or individual that has made data available for upload to Data Basin is credited with providing the data, even if they were not the ones who uploaded (contributed) the data to Data Basin. Data Basin is actively seeking data partnerships with data-providing organizations to help streamline processing and uploading of their datasets. Please contact us if you need any assistance providing or contributing data (databasin at consbio.org).

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Why should you join Data Basin?

Data Basin is a vibrant, online community. It works because individuals and institutions are willing to share information and expertise to solve problems. By joining Data Basin you are given access to the datasets, maps, and tools. You also get to connect to a broad spectrum of people working on conservation-related efforts. Registering is easy and free. Our system is powered by Environmental Systems Research Institute ArcGIS Online (ESRI), and therefore requires all Data Basin users to obtain an ESRI global account during registration. Each user is given 2 GB of free data storage space by ESRI for their uploaded data. Click "JOIN NOW" to sign up.

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