Promoting the Protection of Marine Biogeographic Regions

Losses in marine biodiversity are becoming increasingly severe. In order to safeguard marine biodiversity, the Marine Conservation Institute (MCI) wanted a streamlined interface for use in proposing new marine protected areas (MPAs) and making the protection more consistent among marine biogeographic regions (MBRs). The institute also needed a new way to collaborate with its partners to propose new MPAs. The project provided a useful tool —an interactive web GIS application developed using Hypertext Markup Language, Cascading Style Sheets, and JavaScript —for MCI and its partners according to their needs. A geoprocessing service was consumed in the web application to calculate the protection coverage among MBRs. The web application contains four panels to help users share the information about MPAs and MBRs, design a new MPA graphically, and then update the MPA. It gives MPA designers an overview of the current and future protection status of each MBR and helps them propose new MPAs wisely and effectivel