I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Maps are great. Online maps are super. But you can have too much of a good thing. Like, do we really need to have all these things spread out all over the internet?
- WRI’s Resource Watch, “a dynamic platform that leverages technology, data, and human networks to bring unprecedented transparency about the planet right now.”
- FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform, “an evidence-based, country-led and country-owned initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to accelerate agricultural transformation and sustainable rural development to eradicate poverty (SDG1) and end hunger and all forms of malnutrition (SDG2).”
- Nature Map Explorer, curated by UNEP-WCMC, which “provides a set of integrated global maps on biodiversity and ecosystems services based on the best available scientific data.”
- The Global Habitat Type Map, based on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) habitat classification scheme.
That’s just the ones that have flitted across my screen in the past few months. I’ve lost track, for example, of where CGIAR is on all this spatial data stuff. Working together is hard, I know, and exacts a cost. But would it kill them?