LandScope America Map Viewer
A primary feature of LandScope America will be a rich, intuitive and interactive map viewer, fully integrated with the website. Similar in look-and-feel to popular mapping sites such as Google Maps and Yahoo!Maps, the map viewer will combine map navigation with text search and menu-driven navigation and allow users to filter content by geography, keywords and conservation themes.
A powerful and unique function of viewer is its seamless integration with the site’s non-map narrative and media content. The viewer will also serve as the window through which we present maps and content about nature preserves, ecosystems and conservation priorities, instead of focusing on commercially oriented information. This combination will enable you to switch easily from an article about priority areas or development trends in a particular area to a live map depicting the geographic patterns of those themes in that area. The map viewer will also provide you with quick links to stories and multimedia related to the map theme and extent.
As with the consumer web mapping sites, LandScope will provide basic mapping and printing capability, and may also allow users to add features to the map. That said, the LandScope map viewer is not intended to replace professional desktop geographic information systems (GIS). Instead, it is geared toward non-technical users who want to do basic conservation mapping and visualization of conservation data, along with multimedia integration. Future versions of LandScope may include more advanced analysis, map design and data management features, based on your needs and uses of the tools we're currently developing.
- Frank Biasi