Citizen science andsmartphones take roadkill monitoring tothe next level

Diemer Vercayie (Natuurpunt, Belgium)diemer.vercayie@natuurpunt.be

Traffic increase

Monitor impact

Scientific studies

Citizen science

“Dieren onder de wielen”

www.dierenonderdewielen.be

Flanders (Belgium)

Landscape fragmentation

km/km²

Population density

/km²

Roadkill monitoring with CS

iObs

App ObsMappfor Android

App iObsfor iPhone

Targets

1. Identify roadkill hotspots2. Collect data to measure

impact on wildlife3. Raise public awareness

Scientific studies

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?

Results

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

Result

Applications

Identification of hotspots

Applications

Phenological analysis: seasonal peaks

European polecat (Mustela putorius)

Applications

• Relation with land use (example Umbria) -> roadsnext to national/regional parks (wild boar)

Applications

• Heatmap -> hotspots -> apps to warn driver

• Viltolycka app Sweden/Norway

Let’s build a roadkill app!

Success factors

critical number of users

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!

Importance of promotion

1 multispecies portal webpage

• waarnemingen.be • = local Belgian version of observation.org

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: diemer.vercayie@natuurpunt.be or info@observation.org

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

Scientific studies

Preliminary results

• Since 2013-10-15

• 141 volunteers• 145 transects• 5.063 surveys• 40.839 km surveyed (by car, bike

or on foot)