Recently changes were made to some data viewer controls from our website. Furthermore the website was migrated to a new virtual server on Amazon, this will provide a better service to our users, ensuring better connectivity speed.
Changes made to the data viewer (www.terra-i.org/terra-i/data/data-statistics.html) include new buttons on the upper right corner as explained below:
1. Layers button displays a window that allows you to toggle the layers we have available on the map; such as protected areas, indigenous areas. In this section, users now have the option to hide and show the layer of Terra-i data. In addition, the legend of the data is shown.
Layers Section
2. The search button displays a window where you can search in different administrative levels (country departments, protected areas, indigenous areas, ecosystems). This control contains a checkbox to activate the polygon search at countries and departments, for the other levels (protected areas, indigenous areas, ecosystems) markers on the map are displayed, clicking on the polygon or the markers you can do the search. Also within this coordinate search option was included, this option displays a marker on the map showing the position (latitude, longitude) and the address.
Search section
3. The statistics button is activated when a search is performed, and displays a window with dynamic statistical graphics (near real time and annual cover loss). In each graphic is an icon in the top left corner to zoom in on the graph. When zoom is performed at the graphic download icon appears in the top right corner of the chart.
Statistics section
4. The graphic of statistics in near real time has on the right side the legend of the different years as shown in the figure below in the red box. Initially is shown on the graphic the statistics for the last two years. The user can move the mouse over each line on the graphic to display values and toggle the year that you wish to view by clicking on it. When given zoom over the graphic can be made the same events and also download the graphic.
Statistics graphic in real time
5. The color of the polygon to define the limit of the desired area was replaced by brown color. This change was made because the previous color (yellow) caused confusion with the layer of Terra-i detections that begins with this color.
Amazon EC2
The Terra-i website is now hosted on “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale cloud computing easier for developers”. [1]
“Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes, allowing you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change”. [1]
Some of the changes are suggestions of users and others from our team, all seeking to facilitate and improve our users' experience in the use of our data.
References
[1] Amazon Web Services, Inc.,. "AWS | Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) - Scalable Cloud Hosting". https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ , 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
The Terra-i team together with CRS El Salvador under the Raices project carried out a virtual workshop through the teams platform to technicians from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, CARITAS, Universidad El Salvador, CENTA, about the Mapping of land cover using remote sensors and open source tools such as GEE, SEPAL and QGIS- Plugin Semi Automatic Classification.
Near real-time vegetation loss detection in Southwestern Ethiopia: calibration, validation, and implementation of the Terra-i system
The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (the Alliance) conducted a training for local stakeholders on the use of Terra-i as part of the collaboration with the Netherlands Development Organisation – SNV in the Coffee Agroforestry and Forest Enhancement for REDD+ (CAFÉ-REDD) Project.
From May 8-12, 2017, the Terra-i team, together with staff from the DGOTA of Peru's Ministry of Environment, carried out the first field validation of vegetative land cover changes detected during Terra-i monitoring for 2016 and 2017, using the technology UAV. This work was carried out under the framework of the project “Sustainable Amazonian Landscapes”. The team carried out over-flights with a Phantom 3 advanced rotor drone and a fixed-wing Ebee drone in seven townships of Yurimaguas. The objective of this work was to recognize the dynamics of land cover and land use changes in the region while at the same time to validate the accuracy of the detections of forest loss being monitored by Terra-i in Yurimaguas.
The Terra-i team has worked hard on renovating Terra-i’s website since early this year. A set of new features on the website provides interactive contents and facilitates adaptation to the mobile devices of our users. The fresh website was developed using the latest update of an open-source, Java-based web system, Magnolia CMS 5.4.4. This update was customized to add different categories of interaction such as news, vegetation cover changes, and information, among others.
Globally more than 1 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods. Forests play a crucial role in climate regulation, ecosystem services provision and regulation, water supply, carbon storage and many other functions that support biodiversity. Currently the global rate of deforestation is substantial, and there is a growing need for timely, spatially explicit data that flag natural vegetation changes due to human activities.
The latest update of Terra-i has been used with the Co$ting Nature ecosystem services assessment tool to understand the impacts of recent forest loss in Colombia on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
During the 1st and 12th of June 2015, the Terra-i team, together with the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP) and the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (VLIR-UNALM), conducted the second field validation of the data produced by the Terra-I system. This time, the study area was the Yurimaguas district, Alto Amazonas province, Loreto region (Peru). We used information on populated places, main roads, rivers and information on land cover changes detected for 2013, 2014 and 2015 to define the 65 sampling points (or Terra-I pixels) for the validation process (Figure 1).