citizen science and smartphones take roadkill monitoring to the next
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Citizen science andsmartphones take roadkill monitoring tothe next level
Diemer Vercayie (Natuurpunt, Belgium)[email protected]
Targets
1. Identify roadkill hotspots2. Collect data to measure
impact on wildlife3. Raise public awareness
Advantages of smartphones
• Fast• No copying of notebooks
• Simple• To add pictures
• Precise• Built-in GPS
• Rapid increase in number of added observations
• 12.000.000 obs (since 2008, in Belgium)iObs
Result: BIG DATA
• 79.611 roadkills registered since 2008• 83% in Flanders (project region)• 4,9 roadkills / km²• <> all roadkills! Just the registered ones• One of the largest and probably the most dense
roadkill dataset in the world?
For comparison…
• Gathering the same amount of data withpayed professionals
• 7,6 h/day• 5 days/week• 47 weeks/year• €60.000 wage/year• 0,15 roadkills/km (by bicycle)• 20 km/h
• 14,9 years (1 employee)• €900.000
Applications
• Relation with land use (example Umbria) -> roadsnext to national/regional parks (wild boar)
1 big nature conservationNGO in Flanders
• 100.000 family memberships
• 1 big naturalist family• Research department: all
taxonomic groups combined(no Mammal Society, …)
=> Large recruitment pool!
Waarnemingen.be
• 26.735 useraccounts (since2008)
• 0,24% of Belgians (1 in 417)• 8.000 active users / year• 21.000.000 observations• 19.322 species recorded
Advantages of website forgeneral nature observations
• To the user• Digital (searchable) notebook• Wealth of information
• Quality control• Admin system (volunteers)
• More users• For different CS projects
• 26.735 users (since 2008)• 0,24% of Belgians (1 in 417)
Accuracy?
• Fraser (CROS): 95%• Stefano: 80%• Belgium (waarnemingen.be): 98.3%
• Fluctuates over the years (97,4% - 99,2%)• Validation system• 80 validators (expert volunteers of all taxonomic
groups)
Associated apps
• ObsMapp (Android)• iObs (iPhone)
• 45% observations through apps
• Main advantages:• Fast
• no copying of notebooks• Easy
• to add pictures• Precise
• built-in GPS
Good basis for specificprojects
• Road kill monitoring• Early warning system for Invasive alien
species (IAS)
Comparison costeffectiveness
Source Development cost
Average numberobservationsper month
Cost per observation
Dedicated IAS app €21.405 17 €142,7
Early warningsystem based on waarnemingen.be
€2.542 1.045 €0,05
Multipurpose app 2800 times cheaper
• Long term support• App (software)• Promotion
• Preventing app overkill
Conclusion
• Citizen science & smartphones => bringroadkill monitoring to the next level
• Lots of applications: Hotspot analysis & mitigation & warning systems & impact studies
• Crucial success factors• Building & keeping user community• Prevent app overkill
Tools worldwide available
• General website: www.observation.org• available in Italian & English & …• Belgian version: www.waarnemingen.be
• Roadkill project page: www.observation.org/vs/start• App: ObsMapp (Android), iObs (iOS)
• More info: [email protected] or [email protected]
iObs
Drawbacks & solution
• Opportunistic observations =>• No measure for search effort• No estimate of total of animals killed per year• No impact assessment (species survival)
• Solution: transect counts