Launching The San Diego Natural History Museum's Data Hub
A Non-Profit-Educational Partnership to Advance Biodiversity Research
Introduction
The San Diego Society of Natural History is a private non-profit (501(c)(3)) scientific organization founded in 1874 that operates the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM, or The Nat) located in Balboa Park in the City of San Diego, California. The SDNHM’s mission is to:
- Interpret the natural world through research, education, and exhibits;
- Promote understanding of the evolution and diversity of southern California and the peninsula of Baja California; and
- To inspire respect for nature and the environment.
The organization works to achieve this mission through extensive fieldwork to collect past and present scientific specimens (i.e., flora and fauna) and their associated characteristics to share with researchers, students, collaborators, interested community members, and natural resource management agencies on the federal, state, and local levels.
Within The Nat’s extensive research division that includes a range of scientific disciplines, the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias (BRCC) is a major biodiversity repository in Southern California and directs a leading natural sciences research program. The current BRCC staff have over 600 years of collective experience documenting and researching specimens throughout the region.
One of the major challenges they face, however, is the development and integration of modern geospatial workflows to catalog, update, and share spatial data. To address this challenge, SDNHM partnered with the USC Spatial Sciences Institute (SSI) to develop an ArcGIS Hub featuring SDNHM’s existing data and resources to support biodiversity research.
The Nat's Data Hub improves BRCC’s project management and communication, and can serve as a tool for future SDNHM marketing and development teams to communicate BRCC’s work to the public and potential funders. The Hub also fosters intradepartmental collaboration by allowing multiple users within the SDNHM to search, share, and update Hub content.
Hub Function and Design Considerations
The primary purpose of the data hub was to centralize The Nat's GIS data management for both public and internal uses. The Nat desired the following functions from ArcGIS Hubs:
- A customizable layout with a simple user interface
- Public and private sharing of datasets
- Multi-departmental collaboration opportunities
- Clear use of tags for filtering and searching
With these functions in mind, it was vital for the Hub to be as streamlined as possible. Users must be able to quickly search, sort, and open available data through the platform. Additionally, the landing page must have a quick sort function using item tags, with The Nat determining that Department tags would be the most useful to staff.
Explore the Hub
The top of The Nat's Data Hub landing page, featuring a search bar, browse button, and a header with the Museum's logo which links to their main website as well as links to their social media accounts.
The landing page features a smooth scrolling display with content searching features front and center. It also highlights an interactive map created alongside the Hub's launch, which will be discussed later in this StoryMap.
Content filters for a selection of The Nat's scientific departments.
Scrolling down the landing page, users can select a Department tag to filter Hub content by items with that tag. As SDNHM researchers and staff share new data to the Hub, they can assign Department tags equating to all departments involved in the data within the item. An item connected to multiple departments will be displayed when selecting any of the relevant department tags for that item.
Highlights for additional resources and databases available through the SDNHM.
At the bottom of the landing page, there are hyperlinks to many of The Nat's other resources, such as publications, atlases, and special projects. As The Nat continues in their missions of fostering biodiversity research and public education, these resources will be updated and added to for users to stay informed on how The Nat is achieving their mission.
Searching Hub Content
When users search for content on the Hub, there are a plethora of filters including content type and tags to help narrow the search.
For example, the Healthy Canyon Sites dataset is a Feature Service with tags such as Parks, Boundaries, Public Lands, and Open Space. This dataset is part of the Healthy Canyons project which aims to:
- "Fill data gaps for plant and animal species in our urban canyons."
- "Identify conservation threats."
- "Translate data into practical conservation and management recommendations."
- "Improve accessibility of information on local urban canyons."
- "Engage the community to increase connection between people and greenspaces."
Clicking on this item brings the user to an overview of this item's information as well as opens a map to visualize the data. The data displayed on the right are polygons of some of the canyons involved in the Healthy Canyons project.
Visualizations can incorporate pop-ups with attached media files, such as that featured in the image on the right. This increases user engagement and understanding of the data, enhancing their experience on the site and their understanding of The Nat's ongoing projects and research.
The interactive displays enabled by ArcGIS Hubs encourages users to not just view but to explore and investigate the datasets.
The Nat's Data Hub also houses the full details of the item, including its publishing date and, if sharing permissions allow, how to open and download the data.
One major benefit of ArcGIS Hubs sites is its flexible sharing permissions. The Hub's sharing permissions can dictate who can view, download, and edit Hub content. For non-sensitive data ready for public viewing, permissions can be set to allow that. Within the same Hub management, another sensitive dataset can remain viewable only to SDNHM organizational accounts.
The Nat's Data Hub automatically hides any content that the given user is not allowed to view based on that user's account information. The Hub acts as a perfect blend of both public engagement and internal management structures.
Creating the BRCC Projects Geodatabase
While the BRCC has numerous projects throughout the study area, they currently lack the capacity to conduct spatial queries to essential questions, such as:
- How many projects is the BRCC currently working on and where?
- Where has the BRCC focused their work the most?
- Are there understudied areas within the mission region that should be examined?
To address this concern, this partnership also collaborated on a geodatabase for BRCC projects with the end goal of showcasing this data to the public through an interactive map. The geodatabase must include projects in two layers: a polygon layer (internal use) and a polygon centroid layer (public use). The purpose of point centroids is to shield sensitive information, such as the precise polygon boundaries of these project sites, from the public while still allowing for data visualization.
Example page from the BRCC Projects geodatabase data dictionary. Intended for internal use.
The team first discussed the necessary fields and their data quality considerations. The primary quality measure for the geodatabase is a collection of domains which will reduce human error and inconsistencies in inputs, making for easier queries and analysis. Domains protect a geodatabase against input errors such as differing use of spaces, capitalization, spelling mistakes, and word choice.
To ensure the long-term integrity of the geodatabase, this partnership created a data dictionary defining all fields and their input values. This document provides clarity for new researchers and staff who may not know what a given field is meant to represent.
The geodatabase was constructed in ArcGIS Pro and then shared as a hosted feature layer in ArcGIS Online and to the Hub content. The feature layer and geodatabase can be overwritten for all future data updates.
The Interactive BRCC Projects Map
The infrastructure of The Nat's Data Hub and the project's geodatabase allow for streamlined updates and digitization while maintaining system organization and data integrity.
Next Steps
As more projects are digitized to this geodatabase, The Nat will be able to showcase more of their vital work to the public, to fellow researchers, and to potential donors. The Hub provides the SDNHM with a solid infrastructure to build upon their geospatial capabilities and enhance biodiversity research workflows.
For the remainder of this partnership, we hope to:
- Encourage more of The Nat's researchers to add their data to the Hub
- Digitize more BRCC projects to enhance the Interactive BRCC Projects Map
- Provide The Nat's staff with ample resources and guides to make the most of the Hub
- Integrate Field Maps and/or Survey123 field data collection with the Hub
I would like to thank all team members from SSI and the SDNHM for their dedication and hard work throughout this project.
Spatial Sciences Institute: Dr. Darren Ruddell, Dr. Laura Loyola, Dr. Siqin (Sisi) Wang
San Diego Natural History Museum: Jessica Barba, Katie McComas
