Managing Insular Tropical Environment through Data and Knowledge Bases by using Web Services: a case study on Corals and Herbarium of La Réunion Island

Decision-makers who want to manage Insular Tropical Environment more efficiently need to narrow the gap between the production of scientific knowledge in universities or other labs and its pragmatic use by the general public. One key environmental problem is to preserve biodiversity of ecosystems that are under human pressure. As we only protect what we know, a solution is to share expert knowledge about habitats and species on the Web for educating the public about their richness and beauty. Data and knowledge bases are part of a biodiversity information system that we have built to deal with this research enhancement problem, through the ETIC program. They were conceived using Web Services in order that each module communicates its functionalities and information one another and with external systems.