At this satelite-website the Geographic Information System (GIS) of ISES can be found. It is a sophisticated system that  allows users (from the ''front-end'') to add locailities, draw features (polygons, lines, etc.) and place maps in a real-time GIS, based on detailed Google Earth Satelite Imagery. Three layers are present at the moment: 1) Natural serpentine habitats 2) Metallophyte habitats associated with mining 3) Active minerals mining. In order to be able to add features you have to be logged-in at this website (with your ISES-username and password). At the moment only regional coordinators have ''author'' rights, which means that only they are able to add and change features in the GIS.

Please have a look at this instruction on how to add localities to the GIS. It is fairly simple, and if you have done it once you will be able to add large numbers of localities quickly.

1) Adding an article about your locality

First you have to make an article about the locaility you wish to add. This may be very lenghty or just the name of the site, that's up to you. To add an article go to: 'Submit geo content' in the user menu (visible fater logging-in). You will be faced with an article editor. In EDITOR, you the fill in the name of the site at the title line, then put some text in the article (big white space). In the PUBLISHING section lower down you choose the section ('GIS') and the category (continent of your site, for instance 'Europe') from the dropdown tabs. Then leave EVERYTHING AS IS and click 'save' in the top right corner. Your site article is now created.

2) Go to your site article

Secondly, find your article in 'serpentine sites' in the Main menu. By clicking you will see the continents, click on the small yellow pencil icon next to the title. Again the editor will open, but now you are able to click the ''geocontent'' button under the article. By clicking an new pop-up window opens, which shows Google Earth. Navigate to your site (use zooming and panning). Now you can draw a polygon over your site (use the 4th icon from the left). Please don't forget to put a place mark next to it (one is enough, the 3rd icon). You can scroll by using the little hand icon. If you are satisfied, click save in the top right corner. You should be prompted with a window saying that your edit has been saved. Then close the pop-up window (by clicking the cross in the right top corner). and don't forget to save the article (in top right corner), the window then closes and you're done!

3) Check you site on the main GIS by having a look at the world map (Main menu: 'ISES GIS').

For any questions, please send an email to Antony van der Ent or Ryan O'Dell.