[Qgis-community-team] new case study for QGIS site: QGIS/GRASS IN BIOGEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH

[Otto Dassau]

Hi Giovanni,

we currently have a few case studies we want to add and yours is very
welcome as well! Once you have added the "missing" things Tim wrote below I
can add it to the website.

thanks a lot
 Otto 

Am Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:37:04 +0200
schrieb Tim Sutton <tim at linfiniti.com>:

> Hi Giovanni
> 
> I'm not sure if anyone else has responded to this yet. It would make a
> great addition to the site. My only request would be that she include
> a few images of output from her research, and a personal 'headshot'
> photo as we have done with the other case study on the site.
> 
> We can then go ahead and add it.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Tim
> 
> On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Giovanni Manghi
> <giovanni.manghi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have just received from my friend Marcia Barbosa a text that
> > would fill nicely as a new case study for the QGIS web site. Here it
> > is (I have also a couple of pictures that are too heavy to attach, sak
> > directly to me):
> >
> >
> > "QGIS/GRASS IN BIOGEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
> >
> > I started applying GIS to my work in biogeography about 10 years ago.
> > Through my graduate internship, PhD work and two other research jobs,
> > I used the proprietary software packages that were available and used
> > at my workplaces – mainly CartaLinx, Idrisi, ArcView and ArcGIS. But I
> > found it rather annoying that we were constantly dealing with license
> > renewal issues, and that I could not use the software away from the
> > workplace unless I acquired my own license.
> >
> > It crossed my mind on several occasions that switching to free
> > software would spare me those problems. However, there was prejudice
> > against the analytical capabilities of free software, and even after I
> > heard about the potential of GRASS, I was still reluctant because I
> > thought it would be too difficult to learn. I was also afraid it would
> > be cumbersome to migrate all the maps and analyses that I had done so
> > far.
> >
> > At the beginning of my post-doc in 2008, I finally gave it an
> > opportunity and took a training course on Quantum GIS and GRASS. It
> > was probably the best decision of my professional life! I found that
> > QGIS provided a very intuitive interface for GRASS, that they
> > complemented each other perfectly, and they provided all the
> > analytical capabilities I needed.
> >
> > I started using both programs immediately after the course. Not only
> > did I begin all my new GIS work with QGIS/GRASS [e.g. 1,2], but I also
> > did follow-up analyses on previous works that I had done with
> > commercial software. For example, I had built models of otter [3] and
> > desman [4] distribution in the Iberian Peninsula. After switching to
> > QGIS-GRASS, I analysed how those models behaved when downscaled to a
> > finer resolution [5]. Another previous work on biogeographic
> > relationships between Iberian lynx and rabbit [6] had a follow-up
> > after I switched to QGIS-GRASS [7]. Not only did I not have any
> > problems with the migration of the data and previous results: I also
> > found it much easier to do the things I wanted to do with the new
> > software, and was able to do extra analyses which I could not have
> > done with the programs I used before.
> >
> > All in all, switching to Quantum GIS/GRASS brought me nothing but
> > advantages. I can now work freely at work, at home and on my laptop on
> > the move, without having to worry about software licenses or moving to
> > new institutions. Open-source software covers all my research needs
> > and gives me the freedom I longed for.
> >
> >
> > References
> >
> > [1] Barbosa A.M., Fontaneto D., Marini L. & Pautasso M. (2010) Is the
> > human population a large-scale indicator of the species richness of
> > ground beetles? Animal Conservation, early view. doi:
> > 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2010.00363.x.
> >
> > [2] Fontaneto D., Barbosa A.M., Pautasso M. & Segers H. (submitted)
> > The 'rotiferologist' effect and the drivers of species richness in
> > rotifers.
> >
> > [3] Barbosa, A.M., R. Real, J. Olivero & J.M. Vargas, 2003. Otter
> > (Lutra lutra) distribution modeling at two resolution scales suited to
> > conservation planning in the Iberian Peninsula. Biological
> > Conservation, 114:377-387.
> >
> > [4] Barbosa A.M., Real R. & Vargas J.M. (2009) Transferability of
> > environmental favourability models in geographic space: the case of
> > the Iberian desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) in Portugal and Spain.
> > Ecological Modelling 220: 747-754. doi:
> > 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2008.12.004
> >
> > [5] Barbosa A.M., Real R. & Vargas J.M. (2010) Use of
> > coarse-resolution models of species' distributions to guide local
> > conservation inferences. Conservation Biology, early view. doi:
> > 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01517.x
> >
> > [6] Real R., A. M. Barbosa, A. Rodríguez, F. J. García, J. M. Vargas,
> > L. J. Palomo & M. Delibes, 2008. Conservation biogeography of
> > ecologically-interacting species: the case of the Iberian lynx and the
> > European rabbit. Diversity and Distributions, 15: 390–400. doi:
> > 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00546.x.
> >
> > [7] Barbosa, A.M. & Real, R. (in press) Favourable areas for expansion
> > and reintroduction of Iberian lynx accounting for distribution trends
> > and genetic diversity of the European rabbit. Wildlife Biology in
> > Practice."
> >
> > Author
> > This article was contributed in July 2010 by Dr. A. Márcia Barbosa.
> > She is a post-doctoral researcher at Imperial College London (UK) and
> > the University of Évora (Portugal).
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > cheers
> >
> > -- Giovanni --
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> 
> 
>