A small app to illustrate text-based range refinement of ESA-listed species.
Historically, the range maps used in implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been only county-level resolution. As part of a long-running project to help refine those maps to improve the efficiency of implementing the ESA, CCI developed a method to extract placenames from regulatory documents - here, recovery plans and five-year reviews - and map them alongside GBIF records, where available. This proof-of-concept app illustrates that structured, geographically explicit information can be extracted from existing documents (i.e., unstructured data) to improve maps to help conserve listed species.