Co-development of 3D visualization for the Far Eastern Himalaya Landscape

The Far Eastern Himalayan Landscape (see Figure 1) is spread across parts of northeast India, northern Myanmar, and northwest Yunnan of China and is among the most biologically diverse areas of the world. The landscape is part of three global biodiversity hotspot areas: the Eastern Himalaya, Indo-Burma, and Mountains of Southwest China. Although divided by political boundaries, the landscape’s features and issues related to conservation and development are transboundary in nature. Effective conservation and sustainable development of the landscape requires strong cross-border cooperation among China, India, and Myanmar.

Since 2009, ICIMOD and its national partners in China, India, and Myanmar have been implementing the Landscape Initiative for Far Eastern Himalaya (HI-LIFE, see Annex 1 for the working area) to promote regional collaboration for conservation and sustainable development using a landscape approach.

Meaningful and effective adoption of transboundary landscape approaches for ecosystem management requires that conservation workers, protected area managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders have a sound understanding of the landscape-level linkages in terms of biophysical conditions, ecosystems, socioeconomics and culture, and related management issues.

In this aspect, visualization of the landscape through maps provides a better understanding of the landscape’s features and connectivity. 2D maps are traditional maps that give a bird’s-eye view. In comparison, 3D maps help visualize the landscape from different angles. They allow for visualization of vertically stacked content and show complex concepts in an easy-to-understand format.

In 2020 and 2021, HI-LIFE plans to develop a set of 3D visualization maps (see Figure 2 & 3 for example) for HI-LIFE’s working area. These maps are aimed at enhancing understanding of the landscape’s linkages. They will be developed using open-access digital elevation models (DEM) and other GIS data. The maps will help government stakeholders (decision makers and protected area managers), academia, and development practitioners to better plan research and management activities. Specifically, the maps can help identify management and information gaps, determine monitoring sites and plots, identify biological corridors, visualize environmental flows, and discuss transboundary issues and collaboration.

To make the 3D maps relevant to our partners in the landscape and potential users beyond the landscape, the HI-LIFE team is conducting a brief survey to understand the usefulness of such maps and users’ requirements.

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