using inaturalist for engagement and data collection

Using for engagement and data collection

Presentation to the District of Columbia Department of Energy & Environment

By Carrie E. Seltzer, Ph.D.Program Manager of National Geographic’s Great Nature

ProjectOctober 15, 2015

How many species live in DC?

• “The forests, waters, meadows, and wetlands in the District provide habitat for approximately 240 species of birds, 78 fish, 29 mammals, 21 reptiles, 19 amphibians, and thousands of invertebrates.”

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

iNaturalist makes it easy for people to share what they see

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Elements of an observation

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What? Who? When?

Where?

Details?

Community ID

Evidence (photo or sound)

iNaturalist has an underlying taxonomy

• Observations should somehow be attached to the tree of life (i.e. not rocks, water, trash, etc.)

• Observations can be attached at any taxonomic level

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

What if you don’t know what you saw?

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Start with what you know

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IDs should get progressively finer

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What if you see a protected species?

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What happens with the data?

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Who else is using this?

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Who else is using this?

• Texas

• Vermont

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Who else is using this?

• Texas

• Vermont

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Texas Nature Trackers Program

Naturalist Community

Research &

Conservation

Data

1. Expertise2. Data Products3. Legitimacy

Data

1. Achievement2. Knowledge3. Impact

Twin Goals:- Grow the naturalist community - Inform conservation decisions

Slide from Cullen Hanks, Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept.

Species of Greatest Conservation Need

• 3,300+ observations

• >20% of all HoTX obs

• 93% of SGCN species

Observed by Srhein on May 16th 2015 in Smith County, iNat # 1596232

Slide from Cullen Hanks, Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept.

You’ve got a running start!

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

2,876 observations (~16 per sq km)

Export Existing Data

• Filter data and select relevant fields to export data as .csv or .kml (for Google Earth)

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

How can DC use this?

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Define a location for your project

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Projects can have rules and extra fields

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Create Species Guides

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Communicate with participants

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Project Participation Stats

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Tap into local experts here in DC

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Upcoming BioBlitz

• May 20-21, 2016

• Surveys at:– Constitution Gardens

– Rock Creek Park

– Fort Circle Parks

– GW Parkway (incl. Roosevelt Island)

– C&O Canal

• Target: 10,000 attendees

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

What CAN’T you do with iNaturalist?

• Abiotic recording/monitoring (water quality, precipitation, temperature, air quality, etc.)

• Recording/mapping entire plant communities

• Absence (iNat is best for presence-only)

• Difficult to record metadata around sampling effort

• Not a GIS itself, but you can use the data in another GIS.

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

What’s National Geographic’s involvement?

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Other possible local partners

• Biophilic DC

• Audubon

• Rock Creek Conservancy

• Anacostia Watershed Society

• City Wildlife

• DC Master Naturalists

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Next Steps for Citizen Science

• iNaturalist can be one element of citizen science to inform DC’s Wildlife Action Plan.

• Useful way to grow participant pool for projects with more complex protocols.

• Other resources/projects include:

– eBird (checklists allow for explicit/inferred absence)

– eMammal (camera trapping)

– FrogWatch (based on calls)

– Feral/outdoor cat monitoring/GPS tracking

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Note for re-using this presentation

• Please do! Just credit me (CC BY 4.0)

• Most of the images on the slides are just screen captures from iNaturalist.

• Some of them are composites I created in Google Drawings. Email me at cseltzer@ngs.org to get access to these if you want to edit them (or use the concept to recreate your own).

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY