Presentation given at the 33rd CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) Workshop, part of the Joint CEN/TC 287 and OGC Workshop which took place on 30th September 2013, Frascati, Italy.
Find out more about the COBWEB Project at:
http://cobwebproject.eu/dissemination/
access management,citizen observatory,cobweb,cobwebfp7,,european union,fp7,geoss,saml
3. 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
6. 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
7. 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.
8. 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
10. Other crowdsourcing projects
• BioBlitz: “…a frantic 24 hour science marathon to identify
and catalogue as many varieties of living species as
possible.”
11. 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.
12. Other crowdsourcing projects
BTO Bird Track App
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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 BirdTrack
thresholds
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
15. COBWEB case studies
• Dyfi Woodland
• Outward Bound
• Bro Dyfi High School
• AU MSc students
• Tal y Bont „Floodies‟
• Fieldtrip GB
16. Fieldtrip GB – a bespoke data
capture app to support field
trips
EDINA – University of Edinburgh
http://fieldtripgb.blogs.edina.ac.uk/
17. 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/
19. 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
Notas do Editor
Concept of citizen science very relevant here and will come back to that a bit later on.
Project partners from UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Greece and GermanyNB Welsh Government are Project Partners here and very much interested in the policy side of things and making sure COBWEB aligns with policy to achieve important and relevant outcomes in that respect.
Work concentrated here in Wales in the Dyfi BR, four BRs in total will be studied.Germany: Wadden See and Hallig IslandsGreece: Mount Olympus & Gorge of SamariaLeft open possibility of expansion to further BRslater in project
The stakeholder engagement side of it drives the user requirements for the software development side of things.Some of the key research questions are: 1. How can crowdsourced environmental data be used to improve decision making2. How can the quality of the data be improved to make it more useful?3. How can crowdsourced data be most effectively combined with existing sources of data
OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) is a partnership led by Imperial College London; it’s a research and education programme about the natural environment. It is developing a wide range of local and national programmes to encourage people from all backgrounds to get back in touch with nature. The project also generates valuable scientific data concerning the state of our environment.By bringing scientists, amateur-experts, local interest groups and the public closer together, lasting relationships are being formed and environmental issues of local and global relevance are being explored.Bugs count…count how many bugs you see in 15 mins!
Open University’s iSpot acts as an OPAL Partner. There is a Wales Regional Forum!Users can log in and input observations and learn tips on identifying species, share that knowledge with others, Latest observation on iSpot in the bogs and marshes category.NB hundreds of thousands of observations.
Linked with iSpot. Bioblitzs all around the world.“The events brought together volunteer naturalists and the general public. The data was uploaded to iSpot so that the experts in the iSpot community could verify the identifications. The use of iSpot enables complete beginners to contribute to the scientific data collection as much as the enthusiasts. The data from iSpot was automatically transferred to iSpot Local where it can then be used for nature conservation and learning purposes.”11th May 2013 ay Aberystwyth Uni.
Sign up. Download and print out the handy Butterfly Chart.Biggest survey of butterflies in the world. Choose a place and spot moths and butterflies for 15 minseg in a garden, a park or a wood.Over 70,000 people visited the big butterfly count website between April and August 2013 and the new Smartphone apps were downloaded 5,500 times. Fifteen percent of all counts in 2013 were submitted directly from participants’ phones using the new apps.
BirdTrack is an exciting project, through a partnership between the BTO, the RSPB, Birdwatch Ireland, the Scottish Ornithologists' Club and the Welsh Ornithological Society, that looks at migration movements and distributions of birds throughout Britain and Ireland. BirdTrack provides facilities for observers to store and manage their own personal records as well as using these to support species conservation at local, regional, national and international scales.
Just a plug for the Bird Track App looks like they need a bit more data for Wales!
Results coming at the end of March…not long!590,000 people took part.Been going on since 1979!
Stakeholder discussions have been had with for example, Outward Bound based near Aberdovey and Mach, the Tal y Bont ‘Floodies’, the High School heads and teachers in Machynlleth and the social enterprise ‘Dyfi Woodlands’ set up in 2010 - ‘helps people of all ages to develop a deeper understanding of the natural environment.’Initial case study work has been happening using open source app Fieldtrip GB.
Getting people out and about using the apps, iterative step by step process with the stakeholders.Ultimately need to develop prototypes leading up to production of ‘Demonstrator’ apps near the end of this year.