Announcing version 4.3 of the MESA tool
Ragnvald Larsen
Geographer at the Norwegian Environment Agency. My writings are not on behalf of my employer or any other organisations I collaborate with.
After months of development, we're excited to unveil the latest release of the MESA tool: Version 4.3. This update enhances your workflow with improved sensitivity analysis using the renowned MESA method by UNEP-WCMC , providing greater accuracy and flexibility. With the discontinuation of our cloud-based service, MESA is now available as a desktop version, giving you full control over your data and processing.
The journey for the open source desktop version began in December 2023, and since then, it has grown to 6,000 lines of code, reflecting the dedication and innovation of our team. Admittedly we also got some help from ChatGPT. You can read more about the process in a separate article I wrote when we started this journey.
Though MESA is built in Python, we've prepared versions optimized for desktop environments, ensuring a seamless experience. Windows 10 and 11 users can now download the compiled version from Zenodo:
What can you do with the new MESA?
From grid data to processing line-based segments, MESA 4.3 offers a wide range of possibilities. With this version, you can create sensitivity maps following the UNEP-WCMC method, or import your data to generate general asset maps tailored to your needs.
Whether you're developing emergency response support maps or managing land use, MESA is designed to help. For example, during an oil spill, MESA’s sensitivity mapping tools quickly analyze coastal areas, identifying regions most at risk. By layering environmental data, emergency teams can target resources to protect critical ecosystems. In land use management, MESA supports Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) by identifying the ecological sensitivity of land areas, helping minimize environmental impact in development projects.
To help you get started, we've included open test data for Tanzania—featuring assets, geocodes, and lines from GBIF, OpenStreetMap, and more. This data can be imported, processed, and visualized in QGIS, streamlining your sensitivity analysis and enhancing your insights.
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Transforming sensitivity analysis
MESA automates complex GIS processes, eliminating the need for manual calculations and significantly reducing the time and effort involved. Ideal for researchers, environmental planners, and decision-makers, MESA enables you to assess the vulnerability of assets, resources, or infrastructure over large areas with speed and precision. Whether you're analyzing grid data or segmenting line-based features, MESA delivers valuable insights with ease.
Additionally, MESA integrates smoothly with open-source platforms like QGIS, enabling users to visualize results in detailed maps and atlases. This allows for informed decision-making in fields such as urban planning, conservation, and disaster management. MESA also supports open database formats, ensuring compatibility with ArcGIS Pro, so you can set up a database view in that environment as well.
Join us on this journey
As we continue to refine MESA, your feedback is invaluable. Whether you’re new to MESA or have been with us from the start, your insights will shape the tool’s future.
From our side we hope to see some AI-based reporting mechanisms and analysis mechanisms, better options for big data projects and better documentations. Additionally, exploring support for various types of natural capital accounting could be an exciting area for future development.
Contributions
Since its start a lot of people have put their time and effort into shaping both the method, this tool and earlier versions. It is well worth mentioning them, but I think for now I will just focus on the contributing organisations.
Milj?direktoratet UNEP-WCMC Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation EPA Ghana NEMA Ghana
Geographer at the Norwegian Environment Agency. My writings are not on behalf of my employer or any other organisations I collaborate with.
5 个月One of our partners recently completed a vulnerability assessment over 60,000 square kilometers using MESA. The analysis involved 25 layers of asset data and focused on three key environmental pressures: oil spill management, asset loss and degradation, and habitat fragmentation. With a resolution of 100x100 meters(!), each pressure took 80 hours to calculate, totaling almost 10 days of processing. After several code updates, MESA utilized all 48 cores (96 logical cores) of a machine with 256 GB of memory. The resulting was a whooping 20GB Geopackage file. The pressures considered were oil spill management, which involves mapping sensitive resources and prioritizing cleanup efforts, and training staff across sectors; asset loss and degradation, caused by deforestation and ecosystem disruption from oil exploration and extraction; and habitat fragmentation due to roads and pipelines, which block animal movement and reduce genetic diversity, increasing extinction risk. There is potential to improve processing speed and file compression. Visualusation as well. Geopackage, while large, integrates well with QGIS, but other formats may offer more efficient performance. A processing method utilizing the power of GPUs is on the horizon.