cobweb: citizen observatories web ecology meets the crowd - crona hodges

CIEEM Welsh Section Conference

21st February 2014

Crona Hodges

Research Officer

crh18@aber.ac.uk

http://cobwebproject.eu/

COBWEB

Citizen Observatories Web

Ecology meets the crowd

Structure

• Introduction to COBWEB

• Crowdsourcing projects

• COBWEB case studies

• Important dates

In a nut shell…

• Four year research project; month 16 of 48

• Funded under the European Commission‟s Framework Programme 7 (Grant No: 308513)

• Crowdsource environmental data to aid

decision making

• Understand data quality issues and reduce

uncertainty

Biosphere Reserves

www.biosfferdyfi.org.uk

What are we interested in?

A number of demonstrator mobile

phone applications

Exactly what, deliberately left open and

subject to discussion with stakeholders

Three subject areas:

1. Validating earth

observation products

2. Biological monitoring

3. Flooding

Other crowdsourcing projects

• OPAL: get in touch with nature

Bugs count: Download the Bugs

Count App!

– Browse ID tips, photos, facts, and

submit your Species Quest

observations direct from your

mobile phone.

– Generates valuable scientific data

concerning the state of our

environment.

Other crowdsourcing projects

• iSpot: your place to share nature

- Learn more about wildlife, share your interest

with a friendly community and get help identifying

what you have seen

Other crowdsourcing projects

• Observations map

• Filter by group, taxonomy, habitat, date or tag

Other crowdsourcing projects

• BioBlitz: “…a frantic 24 hour science marathon to identify

and catalogue as many varieties of living species as

possible.”

Other crowdsourcing projects

“Help us take nature's pulse by joining the big butterfly count”

• Over 70,000 hits on the big butterfly count website in 2013

• Smartphone app downloaded 5,500 times for the 2013 survey.

Other crowdsourcing projects

BTO Bird Track App

• Works without a network/WiFi connection

• Add casual records

• Create complete and incomplete BirdTrack lists

• Use maps and GPS to get accurate location fixes

• Download the full British and Irish species list

• Sync all your existing BirdTrack sites

• Verify all sightings against the local BirdTrackthresholds

• Upload everything into your BirdTrack account

• View what species have been seen in your local area over 3, 7 or 14 days

• View local hotspots (~50 miles from device) over 3, 7 or 14 days

• View your year and life lists

• View species you still need this year and life

• Full help within the app

Other crowdsourcing projects

http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/birdtrack/taking-part

Other crowdsourcing projects

• 590,000 people took part

• 8.2 million birds counted

COBWEB case studies

• Dyfi Woodland

• Outward Bound

• Bro Dyfi High School

• AU MSc students

• Tal y Bont „Floodies‟

• Fieldtrip GB

Fieldtrip GB – a bespoke data capture app to support field trips

EDINA – University of Edinburgh

http://fieldtripgb.blogs.edina.ac.uk/

What does it do?

All the key features: Capture information

Images Audio Text Location

High quality background maps

Saved maps for use “offline”

Custom data collection forms

Manual location correction

It’s Free!

http://fieldtripgb.blogs.edina.ac.uk/

COBWEB case studies

Watch this space…

• Month 16 of 48 – still some flexibility

• November 2013: Milestone 2:

– End of design and initial stakeholder

engagement phase. Start implementing

platform

• November 2014: Milestone 3:

– First Welsh demonstrator completed and

ready for testing in the field

crh18@aber.ac.uk @CobwebFP7