Toolbox Update 7: How To Use Peninsular Malaysia’s First Online Map Of Limestone Hills
For many years, scientists in Project Limestone have been frustrated by the lack of GIS information on limestone hills in Malaysia. Till now, information on localities, shapes and sizes could only be obtained from books and journals, but not anymore…
Thanks to Liew and the team, Rimba has created Peninsular Malaysia’s first online map containing 445 hills. This GIS map can easily be accessed by anyone who has Google Earth. This map is not a final product, but can be constantly improved by anyone who wants to add spatial or biological information on limestone hills. All the methods and data are available for anyone to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute.
With this map, we were finally able to conduct a simple conservation prioritisation exercise for limestone hills based on their size and the degree to which they are isolated and disturbed.
You can find our paper published here in the journal Tropical Conservation Science. Meanwhile, here are videos that explain the methodology, and how to update and use this map!