Workshop Goals

Global biodiversity is profoundly affected by both natural and man-made changes. Monitoring the resulting impact on the environment requires gathering and analysing large collection of data. The confluence of three technological trends promises to have a profound influence on this process:

1. Modern sensor and computer technology is furnishing researchers with increasingly sophisticated equipment to set up radio-linked sensor networks, tailor-made for the unsupervised monitoring of large and distributed biotopes.
2. The ubiquity of internet access provides experts with efficient means to tap into the combined contributions and expertise of large crowds of web-connected people, thus creating an enormous pool of resources ready to be harnessed.
3. Last but not least, emerging semantic web technologies are forging standards and tools that facilitate aggregation and analysis of, and access to, heterogeneous web-based databases.

As a result, it has become feasible to link up sensors, databases, human expertise, and even machine intelligence in large scale monitoring projects. This effectively signals the emergence of a new trend in biodiversity monitoring: the use of pervasive sensing and collective intelligence in distributed networks allowing resources to be shared and reconfigured in a dynamic fashion.

This three day workshop will explore the opportunities and challenges that result from these new developments. In addition to invited talks on pioneering applications, there will be peer-reviewed oral and poster presentations. Companies specializing in sensor technology will be invited to demonstrate their products. A selection of the presented papers will be published in a special issue (Journal to be announced).

Organizers

Eric Pauwels (CWI, Amsterdam, NL), Ruben Huele (CML - Leiden University, NL), Wouter Los (UVA, Amsterdam, NL)

Keynote speakers and topics

• Willem Bouten (University of Amsterdam (UVA), Amsterdam, NL)
  
  EcoGRID aims to establish a e-science problem solving environment (PSE) that facilitates data access and analysis processes. --- More...
• Jonathan Giddy (School of Computer Science, Cardiff University, UK)
  
  GRID computing, e-science and technology infrastructures for biodiversity data and observatories. --- More...
• Daan Goense ( Wageningen UR, NL)
  
  The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) project is based on tens of thousands of antennas that are connected to each other with a large ICT infrastructure. LOFAR_Agro will make use of this infrastructure and has chosen as its first application the measurement of the micro-climate in potato crops. --- More...
• Patrick Halpin (Duke University, USA)
  
  OBIS-SeaMap: Mapping marine mammals, birds and turtles. --- More...
• Wouter Los (University of Amsterdam, NL)
  
  Lifewatch, ENBI and other European networks in the realm of biodiversity research. --- More...
• Brad Norman (ECOCEAN, Australia)
  
  Whaleshark.org offers web-based whaleshark photo-identification software and hosts a database. --- More...
• Nigel Raine (Queen Mary, University of London)
  
  RFID tags enabling the monitoring of bumble bee's foraging behaviour. --- More...
• Elena Ranguelova (TNO-ICT, Delft, NL)
  
  Computer-assisted photo-identification of Ceteaceans. --- More...
• Judy Shamoun-Baranes (University of Amsterdam (UVA), NL)
  
  Movebank and FlySafe --- More...
• Dezhen Song (Texas A&M, USA)
  
  (A)CONE: (Automated) Collaborative Observatory for Natural Environments aims to advance the fundamental understanding of automated and collaborative systems that combine sensors, actuators, and human input to observe and record detailed natural behavior in remote settings. Robotic BioTelemetry. --- More...