BDI: A tool for management and conservation of Iran's biodiversity

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

• Mehdi Elahi ¹
• Jamal Elahi ²
• Mansour Aliabadian ³

¹ Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Ardakan University, P.O. Box 184, Ardakan, Iran

² ENTEZAR software group

³ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

10.22067/ijab.2021.63428.0

Abstract

Biodiversity is one of the key components of environmental sustainability and its conservation is very important. To conserve biodiversity, both its management and measurement management are necessary. Biodiversity measurement means some quantitative value that can be ascribed to the various measurements so these values can be compared. With its geographic and climatic variety, Iran has a valuable biodiversity, which includes about 1130, 25000, and 8000 species of vertebrates, invertebrates and flora, respectively. Due to the large amount of data (occurrence points) and complexity of calculations, utilizing computer programs is essential. We here present BDI v. 1.0.0 (BioDiversity of Iran), a user-friendly software utility which facilitates the biodiversity management and conservation by documenting the data and calculating the most commonly used biodiversity indices and then spatially visualizes the results on a map. While we acknowledge the other computer programs in this field, this software has a high spatial precision and resolution and is able to read and create both graphical and digital data formats. BDI is highly efficient in biodiversity evaluation and conservation priorities of protected areas.

Keywords

• BDI
• Software
• Biodiversity indices
• Iran

Main Subjects

• Ecology
• Systems analysis and Modeling
• Zoogeography

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