pestMapper—A internet-based software tool for reporting and mapping biological invasions and other geographical and temporal events

• Published in: Computers and electronics in agriculture 2009-12, Vol.69 (2), p.209-212
• Main Authors: Xia, Yulu, Guru, Shalini, VanKirk, James
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; bioinformatics; Biological and medical sciences; computer software; data analysis; ecological invasion; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; geographical distribution; Internet; Internet resource; introduced species; Invasive species; Mapping; pest management; pestMapper (computer software); Pests; Reporting; temporal variation; thematic maps
• ISSN: 0168-1699; 1872-7107
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compag.2009.08.004

An internet-based Google ® Maps application, pestMapper, is developed for sharing biological events such as invasive species and pest distribution over large geographical areas. This data gathering and mapping tool facilitates reporting, viewing, and providing alerts about important pest occurrences and research activities both regionally and globally. This Google ® application provides reported events dynamically to a Google ® Maps interface with detailed information displayed for each event. Users can make use of various built-in options such as region, event, pest, country, or time to display the map selectively. Alerts can be automatically sent to interested parties when system-specified types of events, such as pest outbreaks, occur. The system also generates web-based alerts for certain pre-defined events. A time slider is available for users to view temporal distributions of a biological event. Data are entered using an online data report component. The software can be modified for many other applications, such as species regional or global distribution mapping.