The power to positively influence development?

The power of the citizen scientist has never been greater. But how great is this power, and can it even extending into influencing positive development practices?

A recent Pensoft article¹ highlighted the scientific impacts that citizens and technology are achieving. Specifically, the impact that geo-referenced photographs, uploaded onto online data stores, are having in the scientific world. Not least, confirmation of the existence of an endangered species, fifty years after its first description. But how can increased biodiversity data help facilitate positive impacts for development?

Well, the majority of developments begin with extensive project planning. Usually this involves the choosing between several options, requiring large amounts of data. Decisions can be based on a range of factors, including biodiversity impact. The best developers know that by minimising their impact during the planning stage, they can prevent destruction of important biodiversity and save time and money on expensive remediation and mitigation further down the line.

So how can you help? In order to make the best environmental decisions, everyone involved in developments needs access to the latest biodiversity data. Citizens taking geo-referenced photographs, through online data stores and record centers, are helping to facilitate this, like never before. 

Source

1 - http://www.pensoft.net/news.php?n=283&SESID=590da927dff8e444fcc82067ebfc48af

Photo

Alison Christine Flickr Account - Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic  

Is conservation truly engaging?

Simply put, conservation efforts depend on winning the hearts and minds of a community, whether local or global. Are the tools available being used effectively?

Is a photograph still worth a 1000 words? It is often said that a visual image delivers a much clearer message to the majority of people, than words alone. Certainly the power of the photograph has long been a mainstay of the charity world to invoke emotion, and you could argue there is no better medium for the job of raising instant awareness and empathy for a cause. The International League of Conservation Photographers¹ is an example of an organisation who clearly believes this. By linking with scientists and NGOs, the photographers aim to further environmental and cultural conservation. But are photographs being utilised effectively, and can conservationists learn anything from politics?

During the 2012 American presidential election, social media played a vital role in securing Obama his second term². Not surprising when you consider one study³ showing that young people are twice as likely to vote if they are politically active online and another that 39% of all American adults participate in online political activism. Ok, so you might ask what politics has to do with conservation. When you consider that both politics and conservation have the same ultimate goal, to cause action in an individual and community, then perhaps it is worth taking note.

Is the photograph still vital to conservation? Is social media being used as effectively as it should be? Is conservation truly engaging?

Our annual photography competition is currently open to amateur photographers, so feel free to check it out: http://www.thomsonecology.com/

Sources

1 - http://www.ilcp.com/

2 - http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/25/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/

3 - http://ypp.dmlcentral.net/sites/all/files/publications/PDK_Digital_Media_Shapes_Youth_Participation.pdf

Photo

MapBox Flickr Account - Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

When creation is simply not enough

As the social and policy pendulums swing, our environment is being subjected to an increasing number of performance targets. But are we equipped to truly help our environments meet these targets?

The desire to reverse impacts on our habitats and ecosystems has resulted in legislation across many parts of the world. For example, in the European Union (EU) there is the Water Framework Directive, requiring ‘Good Ecological Status’ of rivers by 2015. Targets of this nature, inevitably lead to: 1) current status baselines; 2) remediation and restoration works; and 3) evaluation of efforts.

In the area of rivers, the EU IMPACT project¹ is hoping to inform effective habitat restoration. From this project comes a free and open source fish dispersal model (FIDIMO²), allowing the likelihood of fish to (re-)colonise restored or remediated habitats to be calculated. This kind of tool and information should help deliver more effective river remediation and restoration efforts, at least for fish.

But, do we have enough knowledge to deliver effective remediation and restoration work in the first place? If not, what other tools and models are available to help? What more can and should be done?

Sources

1 - http://www.impact.igb-berlin.de/

2 - http://www.impact.igb-berlin.de/results/fidimo

Photo

Peter aka anemoneprojectors Flickr Account - Creative Commons

Agreement to Help Secure Valuable Global Resource

The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS, www.marinespecies.org) is used by over 80,000 marine biologists from across the world every month and represents the only expert validated list of global marine life. A recent agreement will help secure funding for this valuable global resource.

The agreement means that royalties will be paid to the organisation behind WoRMS, the Society for the Management of Electronic Biodiversity Data (www.smebd.eu), from every sale of Thomson Ecology’s software tools. Mark Costello, WoRMS Steering Committee and ex Chair, who signed the agreement on behalf of WoRMS explains the benefits:

“We believe that making the WoRMS list available, and regularly updated, through software tools in the marine field will have a positive impact on the quality of scientific reporting. WoRMS content is already freely available to anybody from the website, but Thomson Ecology provide added value to users by incorporating it within their desk-top software for users. The income generated for WoRMS by Thomson Ecology will help us to improve the quality, scope and sustainability of the database, in service of the scientific community.”

Tom Gardiner, senior product manager for Thomson Ecology, explains the benefits to users:

“The WoRMS list has become an industry standard since its creation, and our users have increasingly fed this back to us. Incorporating the list into our software, means users around the world can now easily increase the value of their data asset. Our software tools have always helped increase efficiency and now users can benefit from reports and outputs being aligned to WoRMS.”

Thomson Ecology will now begin work to integrate the WoRMS list into existing software tools, TREx and Unicorn. To celebrate the agreement, Thomson Ecology is offering vouchers to purchase the new version of TREx for £50 (+VAT) when it is released in a couple of months (see promotion details). This offer is open until end August 2013.

To request any voucher(s) you can email your requirements:

software@thomsonecologysoftware.com


Sources
WoRMS News Article
Thomson Ecology TREx Promotion

Photo
NOAA's National Ocean Service Flickr Account (Creative Commons)

The key element of effective marine planning and management...

One thing seems certain; there is room for improvement in our current planning and management of the marine environment. How can we as scientists help achieve this?

At a recent coastal and marine management conference¹ in London, a general theme became clear: Our current marine planning and management regimes can and should be improved. This was right across the board from Government and Industry to NGOs. What also became clear to me, as a trained scientist, was that science itself had been part of the problem. How can these issues be overcome? What is the key?

Communication. I believe it is that simple. Specifically I am referring to communication which is clear, simple and above all suitable for the audience. Take the failed example of the 1998 NASA Mars Climate Orbiter² landing. According to an Investigation Board, the reason for failure was the lack of clarity on whether metric or imperial units were being used. Cue a gigantic amount of money and time being lost. The problem is, with the marine environment we do not necessarily have this time or money to waste.

Areas that seem to require effective communication are likely to include: 1) scientists helping to define the policy questions to answer; 2) presenting information to policy makers; 3) achieving a truly interdisciplinary approach; and 4) Engagement with stakeholders. All these areas require clear and simple communication to facilitate realistic and deliverable outcomes, which will ultimately help achieve effective marine planning and management. As Einstein once said “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”

Further, effective communication can deliver the type of truly interdisciplinary projects needed in this big data and fast climate changing world we inhabit. All may not be lost from the past however. A wealth of collected data already exists from past projects, all we need to do now is make it relevant and up to date as well as add value through linking disciplines and their data together.

Do you agree, that communication is key? Are there any other key issues en route to achieving effective marine planning and management?

Sources

1 – http://www.coastms.co.uk/conferences/474

2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

Photos

USFWS Endangered Species Flickr - Creative Commons 2.0 Generic

Is biodiversity truly part of sustainability planning?

A new tool to put sustainability firmly in the urban planning process seems to have omitted a crucial element of sustainability: biodiversity. Is this a result of us not fully understanding our impacts?

As part of the EU BRIDGE¹ project the Decision Support System² tool aims to help urban planners integrate sustainability into strategic urban planning. The system helps, by modelling the flow of energy and materials (e.g. water, energy and pollutants) to and from the urban and outside environments, providing planners with valuable insight into the potential impacts of planning options.

Tools which help put sustainability at the heart of urban planning are to be welcomed, what is not clear is whether this particular tool takes account of biodiversity per se. Although in introducing the tool, the team establish a clear link between a ‘city’ being comparable to a ‘natural ecosystem’, has the interaction of biodiversity been accounted? At one end, this might be movement and interaction of pets and at the other potential impacts to physical and genetic biodiversity movement.

Including biodiversity may not require any further significant investment, rather a coupling and clearly combined objectives. For example, greening the urban environment can have many benefits, such as urban cooling, pollution control and biodiversity infrastructure. Without biodiversity being part of this picture, we may be missing opportunities. 

Further, with technology and therefore data collection becoming ever cheaper and ‘citizen friendly’ and with the advent of the ‘internet of things’, our ability to monitor our impacts and those of planning decisions is becoming easier. A recent example of this is the BBC's documentary on Life of Cats³. This project used tiny cameras and tracking devices to watch and analyse how people’s pet cats interacted with the urban and outside environments. Such use of technology will surely help close the information gap, and perhaps facilitate biodiversity truly being a part of urban sustainability.

Do we truly understand our impacts on biodiversity as a result of the urban environment? If not, is this preventing modelling of our impacts on biodiversity? How can we use advancements in technology to help?

Sources

1 - http://www.bridge-fp7.eu/

2 - http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/334na1.pdf

3 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02xcvhw

Photo

d.boyd Flickr Account - Creative Commons

Severn Barrage inquiry finds too much environmental uncertainty

The recently revised Severn Barrage proposals raise questions over its potential environmental impact. Will power generation in the Severn ever be economically and environmentally acceptable?

An inquiry report¹ by the UK Energy and Climate Change Committee found that the environmental impacts of the revised Severn Barrage tidal power scheme were currently too unclear. The report¹ states that “further research, data and modelling will be needed before environmental impacts can be determined with any certainty”. Raising particular concern over the need for “..an unprecedented scale..” of compensatory habitat, “..casting doubt..” on the project being compliant.

Lessons from across the globe point towards a cautious evidence based approach being needed. During the inquiry², examples from La Rance (France) and Bay of Fundy (Canada) were both referenced. It is the Canadian example which seems to bear the closest similarity to the conditions of the Severn Estuary, with ecological impacts, from Canada being cited as fish mortality and habitat degradation and loss. However both the technology used for power generation and the knowledge available have advanced.

Can lessons be learnt and if so will it be enough to make the Severn proposals compliant and acceptable? One of the original Severn Barrage reports³ reported an intertidal habitat replacement cost of £65,000 per hectare. The latest proposal, from Hafren Power⁴ estimates less than 5000 hectares of habitat will be directly lost. Looking only at the direct habitat which might be lost, and on a like for like basis (1:1) this direct habitat replacement cost could equal £325 million.

However, if existing habitat could be acceptably modified, perhaps the issue of habitat loss might not be so great. The latest business case⁴ from Hafren Power, seems to suggest some novel approaches to try an address this issue. Such as proposals to raise any potentially impacted habitats and better control over estuary water movement.

Whether the project ever becomes environmentally viable remains to be seen, but certainly robust data sets and evidence must be used to ensure environmental impacts are accounted for and mitigated. Can the economic and environmental considerations ever be balanced?

Sources

1 - http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/energy-and-climate-change-committee/news/severn-barrage-publication/

2 -http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmenergy/194/19407.htm

3 -http://www.wyeuskfoundation.org/Severnbarrage/downloads/ABP%20mer%20Sever

4 http://www.hafrenpower.com/downloads/pdf/Hafren_Power-Business_case-2013-05-10.pdf

Photo

Dave Hamster Flickr Creative Commons