oa Development Of A Qatar National Biodiversity Grid (Qnbg) To Create Biodiversity Atlas In Qatar

Biodiversity Atlas of animals and plants are very popular in many countries and constitute an essential tool for species management and regional planning. Many coordinate systems and spatial resolutions are used depending on the surface area covered in an Atlas. The 10x10Km resolution is considered standard in other Atlases conducted in geographic areas of similar size than Qatar. The standardization of different tools about the spatial distribution of the study objects allows comparing and integrating all data in the same space. This make possible to realize spatial analyses in a single project or in a global project, such as the management of "Sustaining the environment for future generations", which is one of the four pillars of the Qatar National Development Strategy (2011-2016). In order to identify the distribution of animals and proceed with the mapping of biodiversity in Qatar, it is important to assign the names of the squares in the Qatar grid. To do that, we have developed a Qatar National Biodiversity Grid (QNBG), employing a method based in the UTM nomenclature, where each square is codified in alpha-numerical nomenclature considering the QND95 coordinates. 100x100Km square names are designed with two letters, corresponding the first letter to the X axis and the second letter to the Y axis, being "A" when the coordinate is between 0 and 99999, "B" when it is between 100000 and 199999, "C" when it is between 200000 and 299999, and so on. The 10x10 Km squares are named with the letters of the 100x100 Km squares in which is included, and two digits from 0 to 9, which are the second digit of the X coordinate, and the second digit of the Y coordinate. Because this method uses standard squares, it has other useful advantages. For example, it is possible to estimate "hot spots" of high conservation value because of its biodiversity or other important features (e.g., archaeological, geological). This can be done using GIS tools that combine layers with the same resolution and spatial position considering diverse objects of research. Besides, as the squares are based on a standardized Qatar National Datum (QND95) coordinates, it is possible to know in situ in which square we are working, by only using a handheld GPS, previously configured with QND95 datum. In addition, the data obtained in other datum can be converted to the QND95 with a coordinate converser, integrating all data in the Biodiversity Atlas. This abstract is a contribution for the Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference (QF-ARC-2013).