MapX, an online platform for managing and visualizing geospatial data on natural resources

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Introducing MapX

MapX philosophy

Highlights

Key MapX Services

MapX knowledge base

MapX key figures

Example MapX products

Scientific papers

Introducing MapX

UNEP/GRID-Geneva and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) have developed MapX, an online platform for managing and visualizing geospatial data on natural resources. Field applications of MapX are varied and include biodiversity planning, chemicals management, climate change, disaster risk reduction, environmental security, extractive industries, land use planning, and renewable energy, but they are not limited to these topics. MapX targets a wide community of users that are primarily UNEP, the Secretariats of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and other UN agencies mandated to collect and use geospatial data in environmental decision making. Civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, academia and citizens complement this set of users. MapX was designed in 2014 and since then continuously improved with wide international stakeholder consultations. MapX is fully integrated into the World Environment Situation Room, which is the UNEP data, information and knowledge platform.

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MapX philosophy

The MapX philosophy is to help stakeholders access and use the best available data in dialogue and decision-making processes. It requires both a technical approach as well a political process and capacity building to ensure ownership, uptake and action. The MapX philosophy in developing a stakeholder solution is based on the practical experiences gained in deploying MapX in a range of different contexts. Core elements include:

  • Problem/solution orientation: start with the problem users wish to solve, not the available data. Ensure solutions are fit for purpose.
  • Build stakeholder capacity: local stakeholders need the capacity to support the solution in the longer term.
  • Measure incentives and impact: understand how improved access to data changes behavioral incentives and leads to improved impact. MapX works to improve transparency by integrating economic, social and environmental factors in the approach. MapX helps users contextualize data and understand the real development impact.
  • Address barriers to uptake: anticipate barriers to data use and work to remove or mitigate them from the outset of an engagement.
  • Process matters: a credible process to define a problem and explore solutions using geospatial information is a critical success factor.
  • Think beyond open data: an effective solution should harness a combination of open data as well as private data held by different stakeholders.
  • Be independent and impartial: MapX is underpinned by UN impartiality. It can act as a trusted data broker. It can also engage directly in sensitive political processes where data impartiality must be maintained.

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Highlights

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Key MapX services

Key features and functions

  • Catalog of best available geospatial data : https://app.mapx.org
  • Cartographic functions for vector (building on vector tiles) as well as raster and tabular data.
  • Real time and near-real time analytics for monitoring environmental processes.
  • Story map builder.
  • Dynamic communication products (e.g., dashboards and story maps) and services to inform action and decision-making.
  • System of isolated workspaces with membership.
  • Gradual user permissions on workspaces, data and functions.
  • Data in public or private mode (depending on users’ requirements), offering secure and authoritative data.
  • Map composer to create, customize and export maps in well-known formats.

Interoperability and standards

  • MapX was built on open-source libraries, but it can exploit many proprietary formats through web services and APIs.
  • Catalog of datasets that are compliant with international standards for geospatial data (Open Geospatial Consortium) and metadata (ISO), some being live streamed from external data repositories.
  • Data streaming is performed automatically using external APIs.
  • MapX API (Software Development Kit – SDK) allowing to embed MapX in external websites, with a complete customization of the data and GUI, e.g., in the fields of disasters risk management, biodiversity planning, and air quality monitoring
  • Sharing of data layers and story maps on social media.
  • Graphical user interface in the six UN official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
  • UN official international and administrative boundaries, first subnational level and country names.

Infrastructure

  • Cloud-based, fast & light application.
  • Optimized for low bandwidth environments.
  • Docker system, able to auto-grow up in case of workload.

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MapX knowledge base

  • MapX training material is available in English, French and Spanish. The material is composed of the following items: background ; platform overview ; MapX fundamentals ; how to create views ; system architecture ; understanding and using MapX key features ; developing and using dashboards ; developing story maps ; reporting a bug on GitHub.
  • MapX also offers a complete Wiki and a GitHub repository where anyone can report issues, bugs and propose ideas for new feature development.

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MapX key figures

MapX has collaborated with 30 scientific projects, covering all environmental topics, operating at 4 geographical scales (global, regional, national –73 countries are covered—and local) and supporting 6 International Conventions. MapX is interoperable with dozens of data repositories and platforms. It offers a free access to 1’700 public datasets. 3’300 users have registered on the platform and can access more data and features than public users. MapX has a bug reporting platform with 750 issues (around 80-90% of them being fixed & closed).

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Examples MapX products

Climate change and Air quality

  • Dissemination, in the form of geospatial datasets, of some outputs of the Swiss Data Cube initiative, which provides Earth Observation (EO) analysis ready data (ARD) for monitoring the environment of Switzerland in space and time.
  • Key geospatial datasets showcasing the hidden risk of countries, for seven perils (earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, riverine floods, hydrological droughts, and tropical cyclones - wind and storm surge), considering the effects of climate change.

Disasters and conflicts

Extractives

  • Story map showcasing how remote sensing techniques can support artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) policy development, implementation and evaluation.
  • Dissemination, in the form of geospatial datasets, one story map and one scientific paper, of the outputs of the CopX project, piloted in Colombia, addressing the challenge of increasing transparency and equalization of information at mining sites using Copernicus satellite imagery.
  • In collaboration with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), MapX was piloted in DR Congo to help mainstream transparency in government systems and improve stakeholder access to financial information from EITI reports linked to the location of specific mining concessions. Where possible, financial information was also related to socio-economic and environmental performance indicators to support overall performance monitoring of the sector.
  • Key geospatial datasets supporting the prioritization, implementation and monitoring of clean-up activities in Ogoniland, Nigeria, in the frame of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).
  • Geospatial datasets supporting developing countries in managing information related to mercury use and reduction in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector.
  • Connection of MapX with the data cube technology to develop different pilots for monitoring land degradation by mineral resources extraction.

Ocean, seas and coasts

Pollution

  • Geospatial datasets supporting country reporting to the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), e.g., in Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Senegal, and Tanzania.
  • In August 2006, the ship Probo Koala dumped 528 cubic metres of toxic waste around the port of Abdijan, Côte d'Ivoire. MapX supported spatial data management for the independent environmental audit.
  • System of interactive and updatable environmental profiles for the analysis of environmental situations and performances of countries around the world. Covering eight environmental pillars, including Pollution, this online tool, building on MapX, aims to provide information on key national policies and actions, and offers a single-entry point to hundreds of geospatial and statistical datasets.

Risk

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Scientific papers

MapX has contributed to various research projects and publications in international peer-reviewed journals:

  • Lehmann A., Giuliani P., Jarvis I., Serral I., Maso J., Lacroix P., Gilliams S., Giuliani G. Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Essential Variables (EVs) report, 2023. GEO community activity report: Mainstreaming EVs across GEO. Geneva, 75 pp. WWW
  • Moomen A., Lacroix P., Benvenuti A., Planque M., Piller T., Davis K., Miranda M., Ibrahim E., Giuliani G. (2022). Assessing the Applications of Earth Observation data for Monitoring artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Developing Countries. Remote Sensing 14(3), 2971. WWW
  • Lehmann A., Mazzetti P., Santoro M., Nativi S., Maso J., Serral I., Spengler D., Niamir A., Lacroix P., Ambrosone M., McCallum I., Kussul N., Patias P., Rodila D., Ray N., Giuliani G. (2022). Essential earth observation variables for high-level multi-scale indicators and policies. Environmental Science and Policy 131:105-117. WWW
  • Poussin C., Massot A., Ginzler C., Weber D., Chatenoux B., Lacroix P., Piller T., Nguyen L., Giuliani G. (2021) Drying conditions in Switzerland - Indication from a 35-year Landsat time-series analysis of vegetation water content estimates to support SDGs. Big Earth Data X(X):XX. WWW
  • Ibrahim E., Jingyi J., Lema L., Barnabé P., Giuliani G., Lacroix P., Pirard E. (2021). Cloud and cloud-shadow detection for applications in mapping small-scale mining in Colombia using Sentinel-2 imagery. Remote Sensing 13(4):736. WWW
  • Ibrahim E., Lema L., Barnabé P., Lacroix P., Pirard E. (2020). Small-scale surface mining of gold placers: detection, mapping and temporal analysis through the use of free satellite imagery. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 93:102194. WWW
  • Giuliani G., Piller T., Chatenoux B., Moser F., Lacroix P. (2020). Data Cube on Demand (DCOD): Generating Earth Observation Data Cube Anywhere in the World. International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation 87:102035. WWW
  • Lacroix P., Moser F., Benvenuti A., Piller T., Jensen D., Petersen I., Planque M., Ray N. (2019). MapX: an open geospatial platform to manage, analyse and visualise data on natural resources and the environment, SoftwareX, 9:77-84. WWW
  • Atibu E., Lacroix P., Sivalingam P., Ray N., Giuliani G., Mulaji C., Otamonga J.P., Mpiana P., Slaveykova V., Poté J. (2018) High contamination in the areas surrounding abandoned mines and mining activities: an impact assessment of the Dilala, Luilu and Mpingiri rivers, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chemosphere,191: 1008-1020. WWW
  • Ray N., Lacroix P., Giuliani G., Upla P., Rajabifard A., Jensen D. (2016). Open Spatial Data Infrastructures for the Sustainable Development of the Extractives Sector: Promises and Challenges. Ed. Coleman D., Rajabifard A., Crompvoets J. Spatial Enablement in a Smart World. GSDI Association press, 53-69. WWW

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