Early March saw the formation of another COBWEB Hackathon, over two days in Barcelona. This is where COBWEB computer programmers and developers get together in a single location to collaborate intensively on the development of the COBWEB software. Hackathons are a great opportunity to discuss ideas and create usable software between the COBWEB partners who are usually geographically dispersed. In this instance, 14 representatives from COBWEB partner organisations including Welsh Government, Environment Systems, GeoCat, Secure Dimensions, and University of Edinburgh and University College Dublin convened at the Autonomous University of Barcelona to work on the COBWEB software.

 

The hackathon was focused on how to ensure that all the websites, databases and apps necessary to support COBWEB, can be properly tested and validated. Not only is this important to make sure they work as intended, but it also ensures that they can communicate properly with other standards-based GIS applications and services (e.g., in-situ environmental sensors or public data feeds). As interoperability with geospatial standards is a high priority area for COBWEB, establishing procedures to allow for comprehensive testing is crucial.

COBWEB recently attended the West Wales Biological Information Centres (WWBIC) Annual Recorders Rorum held at the Welsh Wildlife Centre, Cilgerran on Saturday 7^th March. The WWBIC is one of four Local Records Centres (LRCs) in Wales covering the counties of Ceredigion, Carmarthen and Pembrokeshire. The LRCs serve as a biodiversity data storage and management facility for the whole of Wales.

This year’s Forum brought together over 40 people from the three counties, all of whom are engaged in monitoring and understanding local flora and fauna population and diversity. Collectively the audience were experts in moths, butterflies, fungi and even dandelions, amongst many others. The day began with an update from WWBIC Manager Colin Russell, followed by a talk on free IT tools available to recorders.

Dr Crona Hodges from Aberyswyth University then presented COBWEB and some examples of work being done in the Dyfi Biosphere Reserve, as part of the COBWEB’s pioneering co-design activity. It was emphasized that COBWEB is not concerned with creating a data repository. The focus is on making environmental data available and discoverable using interoperable technologies and standards.

There was a great deal of interest in COBWEB, with the audience being very open to the inevitability of technology like this being the way forward. However, it was agreed in general that it would never fully replace the need for notebooks and pencils in the field. The ability to get data ‘out there’ appealed to many, and the importance of getting people involved and simply collecting more data was seen as a very positive aspect of COBWEB.

Welsh Government has commissioned an Earth observation (EO) classification map to support the identification of the invasive Japanese Knotweed Fallopia japonica (JKW) within Snowdonia National Park. The project will be leveraging citizens and COBWEB technologies to validate this JKW EO map, leading to greater accuracy, and therefore a more targeted response when combating the spread of invasive species.

JKW is a plant originating from the far east of Asia and was introduced to the UK as an ornamental plant. Due to its vigorous growth from even small parts of rhizomes (stems/roots) it has spread widely, both by natural, e.g. the transport of rhizomes through rivers, and by anthropogenic means, e.g. the transport of soil containing rhizomes between construction sites.

The control of JKW remains an important issue for local authorities, as the dense stands negatively impact local biodiversity by outcompeting native plants and, particularly around rivers, increasing the risk of soil erosion by preventing the growth of grass species.

Environment Systems (who is producing the EO map) is conducting an object-based image analysis of aerial photographs to spatially assess the likelihood of JKW being present in sites throughout Snowdonia National Park. Citizens will then visit these areas and, using the COBWEB app, will conduct a visual assessment to verify if JKW is present. The data collected, including geo-located photographs, will then be validated using the developing COBWEB Quality Assurance technologies.

It is hoped the science of remote sensing will complement the traditionally costly and slow data collection on the ground by targeting specific areas. This will simultaneously ensure that other areas, such as delicate habitats, are not disturbed.  Furthermore, this approach can be used in other land cover maps, where the data collected on the ground can be used to validate the remote sensing approach. Recording what the citizen sees enables calibration of the remotely sensed data and aids in the interpretation and analysis of what is being sensed. Ultimately, citizens will improve the ways in which JKW is identified from the Earth Observation datasets (aerial photography etc.).

On Friday 17th April, the COBWEB Co-design Workshop took place at Y Plas in Machynlleth. Our seven co-design projects came together to learn how to use COBWEB to create and manage their own crowdsourced surveys.

These co-design projects, funded by COBWEB, are an exciting phase of the project, bringing together a wealth of local expertise in environmental projects, a vibrant community of volunteers and communities, and the expertise of the COBWEB researchers and developers. Working together, this co-design activity will run discreet projects that will contribute to the development, pilot data collection and the uptake of COBWEB project outputs.

The workshop consisted of hands on training in how to use the COBWEB Portal to create a survey and a subsequent data collection form. Our co-design project leads were then shown how to access their form on a mobile device using the COBWEB app. This enables the collection of relevant environmental data, such as land use/land cover, biological and flooding data. Discussions surrounding security, data privacy and creating ‘fit-for-purpose’ surveys were facilitated by the COBWEB team with technical staff providing additional support.

The data collected by the projects will be used locally to help the management of both land and sea, ranging from understanding individual woodlands to monitoring and controlling Japanese Knotweed for the whole of Snowdonia National Park.

Read on to find out more about each project.

Outward Bound Trust at Aberdyfi

The Outward Bound Trust (OBT) will be embedding COBWEB into their ongoing activities with young people around the Dyfi Biosphere area, engaging with biological monitoring, flooding, and the verification of land cover maps generated from aerial photography and satellites. As part of the John Muir Award, OBT will work with 10 schools leading groups of young people on expeditions, walks and canoe trips to collecting environmental data using COBWEB technologies. Applying the four challenges of the John Muir Award, OBT will ‘Discover’ the habitat of the biosphere, ‘Explore’ these habitats in detail; use the data collected to help us ‘Conserve’ these habitats and the results of what has been recorded will be ‘Shared’ with participants, policy makers and others.

Ysgol Bro Hyddgen

Ysgol Bro Hyddgen, the local school in Machynlleth, will undertake a series of biological monitoring and habitat identification activities in the Ynys-hir RSPB reserve during the summer of 2015.  The school will work closely with the RSPB to develop a series of curriculum relevant activities using the COBWEB portal as the means of data collection and delivery. The students will play a very important role within the COBWEB project.  Their feedback on the usability of the app, the portal and the learning resources will feed directly into the development process, helping COBWEB to enhance the service and make it accessible and useful to all citizens.

RSPB Reserve at Ynys-hir

The RSPB, with funding from the Environment Agency and advice from CCW, began a long term project to undertake a managed retreat and convert an area of lowland grass into upper saltmarsh habitat. RSPB will train and work with citizens to survey vegetation in quadrats along line transects across the saltmarsh. The records will be used as baseline data as part of the investigation of the reversion process.

In addition, schools, community groups and local citizens will survey plant life on a peatbog. This will be the first time this area has been mapped in such detail, providing RSPB Ynys-hir with invaluable baseline data. The information will feed into management decisions on water levels and invasive species control.

Snowdonia National Park Authority

The Snowdonia National Park Authority (SNPA) are utilising COBWEB technologies to inform the creation of a management and control strategy for Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) within the National Park. This project will use remote sensing technologies to identify likely locations of Japanese Knotweed across large geographic areas. These results will then be validated and updated using data collected by citizen scientists and SNPA wardens, using the COBWEB app. This work will be used to assess the accuracy of remote sensing classifications and their utility in understanding the distribution and spread of invasive non-native species. Furthermore this process will be used to understand the accuracy of the data collected by volunteers.

Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre

The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales’ Living Seas marine team based at the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre will be carrying out land and sea based monitoring of marine megafauna (dolphins, whales etc.) over a wide area. COBWEB is being used to collect monitoring data in a faster, more systematic approach in order to migrate from traditional paper records, which are laborious with regards to data collection as well as data entry into bespoke database.

Penparcau Community Forum

A project to recruit citizen scientists from Penparcau, Aberystwyth, to record observations of butterflies and their food resources using COBWEB along with environmental sensors (weather stations) to add value and validate the observations. The data collected will help to inform local management plans and increase interest and understanding of the importance of butterflies (and other pollinators) to the health of Wales’ natural environment. Data will be shared with biological record organisations (National Biodiversity Network, Local Records Centres) and utilised by Welsh Government to assess the suitability of modelled large scale pollinator resource maps to inform a range of policy questions.

Coetiroedd Dyfi Woodlands

Coetiroedd Dyfi Woodlands will be engaging local communities in monitoring woodland flora and fauna. A series of opportunities will enable students, local citizens and tourists to engage in three woodlands within the Dyfi Biosphere. Aided by wildlife experts, citizens will become familiar with identifying specific species and how to record them on their mobile devices using COBWEB. This will empower them to go out into the community and share their actions in other woodlands across the Dyfi Biosphere.

COBWEB is soon to be deployed in the Dyfi Biosphere Reserve. In preparation for deployment, our developers and co-design ‘champions’ have been busy getting to grips with the COBWEB technology. Training is underway to expose the champions, and their subsequent co-design projects, to the COBWEB technology.

Both the COBWEB Portal and the COBWEB app are being rigorously tested and prepared for the initial COBWEB demonstrator release. Pictured are some of the champions and their co-design projects putting COBWEB through its paces.

On Saturday 21^st February, COBWEB attended The Big View event (part of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas) in Aberystwyth. This event aimed to get a conversation going about the learning and training needs of people in the region, and what different organisations and groups can or should do to meet those needs.

COBWEB received a lot of interest, particularly in the pioneering co-design activity that is taking place in the Dyfi Biosphere this summer. Pictured are local citizens having a go at recording butterflies using the COBWEB app. Penparcau Community Forum will be encouraging people to do this around Aberystwyth throughout the summer.

COBWEB attended the Aberystwyth University BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT) & Arts Tech, Show and Tell on Friday 20^th February. This free event provided students, staff, companies and the community with an opportunity to present their work in areas that involve technology in some shape or form. From working with wearable technology to creating mobile apps, attendees were encouraged to ‘show and tell’ about their latest creations, works in progress, prototypes, websites and more.

Stephanie, from Environment Systems, summarised the COBWEB project and explained the pioneering co-design activity that is currently underway within the Dyfi Biosphere. Attendees were invited to find out more from the COBWEB stand, where information regarding each of the co-design projects was available. Those interested were encouraged to sign up to participate in the projects taking place this summer.