Biodiversity Mapping Project
Client: John Confer

John Confer, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, has developed an ambitious plan to map Ithaca College’s rich and diverse plant populations.
With the help of John’s students, his plan calls for dividing the entire campus into a series of squares called “quadrants”, each measuring 30 feet by 30 feet. Each quadrant’s physical location is mapped and staked out by using Global Positioning System technology (GPS). Once the exact location of a quadrant is established, plants within this area can be identified and their position referenced.

After several brainstorming sessions with Professor Confer, ITS developed a web-based application to collect each quadrant’s geographic position as well as a process to enter the name and location for each plant within this area.

The process works like this: First, Professor Confer enters the exact coordinates of a new quadrant into the online mapping system. Next, he assigns students to a specific quadrant. Then, students must first find the staked out location on campus and begin the painstaking process of identifying each plant and their location within the quadrant. With a tape measure, the exact position of each plant specimen is recorded by measuring its distance from the quadrant’s origin, which is its top-left corner. For example, a maple tree might measure 6-feet east by 12-feet south from the quadrant’s origin.

Finally, when the students return from their data-gathering mission, they log into the secure web-based system and enter the name and location of each plant. After a new plant is added, it shows up instantly on the Biodiversity Interactive Map where onlookers can view its location and find out more about that specific plant.

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