Interactive World Forest Map and Tree Cover Change Data

Global Forest Watch’s website lets people explore recent deforestation and fire alerts, analyze historical trends in tree cover loss and gain since 2000, and read the latest reports on tropical forest loss. For each factor that one can look at, one can also do an analysis of a location just by clicking on that area. For example, for tree cover loss in Virginia, the website provides number data in Mha and percentages of the amount of tree coverage between 2010 and 2021, tree cover loss from 2001 to 2021, tree cover gain from 2000 to 2020, and tree cover by type as of 2010. When choosing an area to receive analysis on, you can choose it by political boundaries, terrestrial ecoregions, or river basins. There are also tons of different map layers that one can turn on or off such as burned areas, logging concessions, and biodiversity hotspots. 

This website gives a very wide variety of information around the globe on the world’s forests and tree coverage. It can be useful to many people from students, to researchers, to scientists, and to the general public. It provides the tools for monitoring forests that are accessible and easy to understand for anyone. It gives current information on how our world’s forests are changing. Global Forest Watch is also a great resource for watching for forest fires, illegal deforestation, and any unsustainable activities. Listed on the website are many of the impacts that having this data readily available to the public creates such as the Amazon Conservation Association using this site to stop United Cacao from illegally clearing forests in Peru. 



Hurricane & Tropical Cyclones

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Weather Undergroundprovides a map for hurricanes and tropical cyclones. On this website, one can also find a hurricane archive which gives all the data from previous tropical storms dating back to 1851. For example, listed in the table under archives are things like the year they occurred, number of deaths, damage (in millions), etc. In addition, this site has a tab labeled “hurricane preparedness” where individuals can find resources and other helpful tips and tricks when preparing for an extreme weather event.

I think this website can be very useful when studying the impacts of hurricanes throughout history. I also like that it goes beyond the field of science and provides information on the economic loss involved with extreme storms. Beyond that, it can be strictly educational. People who do not live in areas prone to severe weather events can simply learn about and track them through here. While others who live in areas near the Atlantic coast or the Gulf of Mexico, having a map and satellite imagery showing current events will be very useful in preparation for a storm. Thus, this website can be a useful tool to a wide range of users. I find this website very interesting because I live in Florida, a state heavily impacted by hurricanes. Using the data and live trackers, it might help me be extra safe the next time I inevitably encounter a storm.

Source: https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane 

Keep Bears Wild – AF

Keep Bears Wild is a website created to track bears with GPS collars, bears hit by cars, and bears that are being used as a case study. This is a very site-specific website as it is only tracking bears in the Yosemite Nation Park area. It is beneficial to both park rangers and visitors who want to protect and learn more about these animals.  The website not only provides a map of bears that have been tracked but it also provides a number of strategies and priorities created under the Human-Bear Management Program. Some of these management practices include Education and Outreach, the ‘Red Bear Dead Bear’ project, and Food Storage Practices.

This website is a great tool for learning more about protecting bears, safe practices/what to do if you encounter a bear hiking or camping, and provides insight into bears lives in Yosemite National Park. They play an important part to the ecosystem and have in the past been facing human based deaths as the graph below illustrates. Thankfully these deaths have significantly decreased in recent years showing the importance of advocating and creating environmentally safe management practices and policies.