The development of a GIS atlas of southern African freshwater fish

Abstract

A geographic information systems (GIS) based atlas of southern African freshwater fish has been developed for the SADC countries. The JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology, in collaboration with ALCOM, has developed a database of freshwater fish for this region from museum collection data. The development of advanced computing and GIS technology has increased the scope of atlas projects by facilitating the integration of large amounts of spatial data to produce derived databases for many specific applications. The atlas has been developed from a database of freshwater fish, hydrological, topographical and climatological digital data layers, and has been demonstrated as a tool with multidisciplinary use.


Keywords: freshwater fish; Africa; geographic information systems; biogeography; collection; archive


(Afr J Aqua Sci: 2000 25: 43-48)