An interactive globe and open encyclopedia. Select any location on Earth and surface layered ecological, hydrological, climatic, and sociological data, all in one place.
Explore Eden is a free-to-use public encyclopedia built into the heart of Restoring Eden. It lets users navigate the Earth and query a continuously growing geospatial knowledge base by selecting any location.
Selecting a zone surfaces a multi-domain data panel, pulling together what is known about that place across ecology, climate, soil, water, biodiversity, and human geography. It is designed to answer the question: what is actually here, and what does this land need?
A live browser-based version is available here.
A deeper, integrated version is built into the Restore Eden
environment for use during active design sessions.
Each location query draws from a multi-domain geospatial database populated from open data sources and contributor submissions. Current and planned data layers include:
Species lists, ecoregion classification, biodiversity indices, endangered and invasive species status, forest layer composition, pollinator networks.
Watersheds, river systems, aquifer systems, water resource regions, drainage basins, flood history, drought indices, water quality.
Köppen climate classification, USDA Hardiness Zones, live weather feeds, solar tracking, historical climate data, climate projections.
Topography, elevation, slope, geology, bedrock, soil composition and horizons, erosion risk, wetlands, floodplains.
Population density, food security, economic activity, disaster risk, heritage sites, natural wonders, indigenous territories, peace and conflict indices.
Crop suitability, compatible species, irrigation networks, land tenure, permaculture zones, deforestation and reforestation history.
The Explore Eden knowledge base is populated by GSD-Harvester, a data pipeline that ingests and standardizes geospatial data from public sources including USGS, NASA, GBIF, iNaturalist, IUCN, US Census, WWF, EPA, FAO, USDA, and Plants For A Future. The source code is publicly available; licensing terms apply to commercial and certain non-profit uses.
Gaps in automated data coverage are filled by the Knowledge Input Layer, a contributor-facing interface for domain experts including botanists, ecologists, QGIS specialists, and field researchers to submit structured records directly to the database.
Ecoregion classification draws from three frameworks in parallel: WWF/Olson-Dinerstein, EPA/Omernik (Levels I–IV), and Bailey's Bioregions. Climate classification follows the Köppen system. Species ranges are supported via ecoregion base placement and species-specific shapefile addendums.
Contribute Data or Code →Explore Eden is in active development. The alpha milestone targets a functional interactive globe surfacing multi-domain GSD layers by GPS coordinates, zoom level, and domain filter, with location handoff to Restore Eden operational.
We are looking for developers, ecologists, GIS specialists, and data contributors. If this work interests you, we want to hear from you.