Developing Modern User Access Tools for Subsistence Mapping Data Resources

Developing tools that provide data consumers access to subsistence mapping resources is particularly challenging due to the complexity of the underlying data and issues of confidentiality. Subsistence users are highly protective of their hunting areas and in general, communities involved in subsistence mapping projects will not allow their data to be made available in granular form. Researchers have typically created synthesized heat maps (kriging or splining interpolation) that detail subsistence effort across a variety of dimensions such as seasonality, species and population demographic. This approach limits the ultimate use of these resources due to over simplification and relying upon presumptions which are opaque to the data consumer. In partnership with the Alaska Ocean Observing System, Axiom Data Science has developed a modern spatial temporal analytical approach to providing meaningful access to subsistence mapping data. Utilizing a hexagonal binning technique, investigators have developed interactive web based mapping tools which enable data users to arbitrarily filter by dimensional characteristics of underlying subsistence mapping data, extract out meaningful analytics and ensure that individual harvesting effort remains confidential and anonymous. This talk will explore these issues and underlying approach in more detail and demonstrate data access tools which have been developed for the Bering Sea Sub Network and the Northwest Arctic Borough subsistence mapping resources.