Part of the current research on the islands of the Soqotran Archipelago makes use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS provides a means of storing and manipulating data about places. It allows data from different sources, such as biological records and remote sensing data, to be integrated and viewed together.

A large proportion of biological data has a geographic component to it. For example, specimens are collected at specific locations and particular habitats may cover set areas. It is important when interpreting such information to be able to see it plotted on a map or in graph form. Geographic data is also important for conservation and monitoring purposes where survey results and changes in land use can be plotted.

The images below illustrate some of the work that is being carried out. If you need an overview of where the islands are please see the location page.

A map of Soqotra coloured to show our current estimate of vegetation cover. Khaki represents Croton Shrubland and the dark green on the Haggier, Montane Mosaic. The white arrow shows the approximate angle of view for the two images below.

These two images show a view of Soqotra from the North West, towards Hadibo, as if you were flying towards the airstrip. The first uses the same vegetation drape (surface colouring) as the map above but the second shows a geological drape. The blue coloured areas are sedimentary rocks (limestones), the red coloured areas are igneous rocks (granites).

It is easy to see how the harder, igneous rocks are more resistant to erosion than the limestones. The vegetation map follows the contours of the land rather that the rock types. This does not accord with observations on the ground and will be examined as the vegetation map is refined. The mountains on Soqotra are quite high (reaching over 1,500m) but for the sake of clarity the heights in these images are approximately double their natural scale.

An important role of the GIS system is to provide support to work on the ground. In order to accomplish this a series of maps have been produced with basic contour infomation and a grid overlay. Two sizes of grid have been used; one at 0.1 degree intervals and one at 0.01 degree intervals (giving approximately 10km and 1km squares respectively). Using this system a GPS reading in digital degrees and easilly be read onto the map. This system was chosen over the use of a UTM grid for which maps aren't available for this region.

These images were made using the MapInfo GIS system. The 3D rending was done using the Vertical Mapper plug-in for MapInfo.