GIS for managing vulnerable environments of the Galapagos-Islands

Over the last decades, the Galapagos Islands have faced a considerable rise in human activities (tourism, population growth and migration, exploitation of natural resources like fishing and agriculture) which has resulted in increased pressure on both, the marine and terrestrial ecological system of the islands. In order to develop a GIS-based information-management system that allows controlling of human interaction with the islands’ environment and adjusting human activities to its limited capacities, a group an international group of GIS-experts under the lead of ZGIS was invited by local authorities and the UNIGIS-partner in Ecuador USFQ to participate in a 7-day workshop at the GAIAS extension of USFQ (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) at San Cristobal Island in February, 2014, that addressed this topic in tight cooperation with local communities and citizen initiatives. For further information about this ongoing initiative please see http://geogalapagos.blogspot.com.