Opening the Biodiversity Data in Finland ~ What? Why? How? Hanna Koivula 2013-11-12 Hanna Koivula/ IT-team www.balticdiversity.eu 15.11.2013 1
What? Biodiversity data is information about... Species and their classification Occurrence (distribution and abundancy) Species characteristics Behaviour Impact on the environmet (and vice versa) 15.11.2013 2
What? Dimensions of Biodiversity data are... Nomenclature and taxonomy Locality information Administrative qualities (red-list status, protection, game species, invasive and alien species, pests) Observers (identity and expertise) References (collections, literature, archives) Documentation (specimen, illustrations, photographs, videos, recordings) 15.11.2013 3
What? Biodiversity data in Finland Data is produced and used by several organizations Individual researchers, research groups & museums Govermental, non-governmental organisations SMEs No incommon format Demand for species data is increasing due to: Conservation issues, monitoring of envirnmental conditions, land use governance, economical-technical development, education & research International agreements and initiatives: CBD, IPBES, INSPIRE, Natura, Ramsar, EuroBats 15.11.2013 4
What? Open data @ Finnish Museum of Natural History: Collections database KOTKA Kastikka-plant atlas (1965-) Bird Ringing Data Fieldjournal Observations (2005-) In addition 70-100 smaller digital datasets (in all possible formats) Non Digitized cards and collections! (~10 milj. specimen) Silent knowledge of soon to be retired museum staff Hanna Koivula / ICT-team 15.11.2013 5
What? Other data sources in finland Collections of other museums in Finland Data from research projects BirdLife Finland (Tiira) Insect database (maintained by hobbyists) Environmental institute SYKE Metsähallitus Natural heritage Metla Forest research institute Game and fisheries institute 15.11.2013 6
Why? Legal framework OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding (2007) => publicly funded data should be made publicly available PSI directive Re-use of Public Sector Information (EU Directive 2003/98/EF) => Enhancing economical activity with open data INSPIRE (Directive 2007/2/EC) Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community Local laws and restrictions 15.11.2013 7
Why? Data policy Finnish Partnership for Research on Natural Resources (LYNET Consortium) Aims of the policy: give data openly available as soon as possible after the first use give data to a wider and more efficient use increase the co-operation and collaboration between producers and re-users of data Some individual records can be resticted: Rerearch- and Survey data 5 years ( embago time) IUCN red-listed species Conservation reasons: nesting- and over wintering sites Only a small proportion (less than 1%) of all observations 8
How? challenges Data lives in siloes Collection specimen Literature Observation- and research data Collecting, harmonising and maintaining for different purposes => fitness-for-use Managing taxonomy Managing locality information 15.11.2013 9
How? General solutions Participating to international data sharing networks GBIF (data sharing) LifeWatch (analyses tools) Using standards whenever possible Biodiversity Standards TDWG Master Data Management Exposing the errors in the data to be found by: Peer-rewiew crowdsoursing 15.11.2013 10
How? Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility - FinBIF Cross-administrative, 20 organisations (incl. NGOs) Virtual organization relying on existing ICT infrastructures Enables dicovering, presenting and analysing existing biodiversity data from multiple sources in one portal Using standards via different networks INSPIRE GBIF, LifeWatch, LTER http://www.lajitietokeskus.fi/ 15.11.2013 11
Examples from other countries Biological Records Center (UK) http://www.brc.ac.uk/ National Biodiversity Data Centre (Ireland) http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/ Artdatabanken (Sweden) http://www.slu.se/ Artsdatabanken (Norway) http://www.biodiversity.no/ Atlas of Living Australia http://www.ala.org.au/ 15.11.2013 12
Examples & results Theme portals: Invasive species, species pages Improved discoverability allows research on: Invasive alien species, Climate change, Conservation, Food and farming, Human health, Species distributions Open APIs allow organizations and SMEs to create: Information products 15.11.2013 13
http://www.vieraslajit.fi/ Hanna Koivula / ICT-team 15.11.2013 14
http://ws.luomus.fi/lajitietokeskus/taksoni/mx.38815?locale=fi Hanna Koivula / ICT-team 15.11.2013 15
Nesting sites of the brambling, Firingilla montifringilla Hanna Koivula / ICT-team 15.11.2013 16
Viola biflora, Twoflower Violet, Arctic Wood Violet, Arctic Yellow Violet Hanna Koivula / ICT-team 15.11.2013 17
Publications using open biodiversity data: http://www.mendeley.com/groups/1068301/gbifpublic-library/ Warren, R. et al., 2013. Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss. Nature Clim. Change, advance online publication. Available at: dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1887 15.11.2013 18