Journal:Leveraging conservation action with open‐source hardware
| Full article title | Leveraging conservation action with open‐source hardware |
|---|---|
| Journal | Conservation Letters |
| Author(s) | Hill, Andrew P.; Davies, Alasdair; Prince, Peter; Snaddon, Jake L.; Doncaster, C. Patrick; Rogers, Alex |
| Author affiliation(s) | University of Southampton, Zoological Society of London, University of Oxford |
| Primary contact | Email: ah1u14 at soton dot ac dot uk |
| Year published | 2019 |
| Volume and issue | 12(5) |
| Page(s) | e12661 |
| DOI | 10.1111/conl.12661 |
| ISSN | 1755-263X |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12661 |
| Download | https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12661 (PDF) |
Abstract
Data collection by conservation biologists is undergoing radical change, with researchers collaborating across disciplines to create bespoke, low‐cost monitoring equipment from open‐source hardware (OSH). Compared to commercial hardware, OSH dramatically reduces participation costs. Four barriers currently hold back its wide adoption: (1) user inexperience inhibits initial uptake; (2) complex and costly manufacturing/distribution procedures impede global dissemination; (3) lack of creator support results in lapsed projects; and (4) lack of user support degrades continued utility in the field. Here, we propose a framework to address these barriers, illustrating how OSH offers a route to rapid expansion of community‐driven conservation action.
Introduction
Conservation policy urgently needs accessible, affordable, fit‐for‐purpose tools to address unprecedented reductions in global biodiversity and rise in illegal wildlife trade (IWT).[1] National governments are now committing to the wild‐tech sector, in which open science plays a vital role. For example, the U.K. government is funding initiatives to tackle IWT using innovative open data standards.[2] In this policy perspective, we identify current barriers to the wide adoption of open‐source technology and propose a framework for addressing them.
Over the last 30 years, conservation biology has seen a shift toward data transparency with the growth of open science, including open‐access journals, websites hosting open data, software and hardware, and sharing through social media.[3] The new openness has generated a profound change in the ways that hardware and software are developed, leading to conservation biologists collaborating with engineers to create bespoke tools for their specific applications.[4][5] Readily available open‐source hardware (OSH) is increasingly used in the rapid and cheap development of deployable prototypes.[6] The fields of conservation, ecology, and environmental sciences have seen an increased uptake in OSH over the last four years, with over a hundred publications reporting on scientific tools created using open‐source microcomputers, such as the Raspberry Pi or Arduino.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
References
- ↑ The Royal Society (8 October 2018). "Illegal wildlife trade". https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/illegal-wildlife-trade/.
- ↑ U.K. Government (31 January 2019). "Digital revolution to use the power of data to combat illegal wildlife trade and reduce food waste". https://www.gov.uk/government/news/digital-revolution-to-use-the-power-of-data-to-combat-illegal-wildlife-trade-and-reduce-food-waste.
- ↑ Hampton, S.E.; Anderson, S.S.; Bagby, S.C. et al. (2015). "The Tao of open science for ecology". Ecosphere 6 (7): 1–13. doi:10.1890/ES14-00402.1.
- ↑ Berger-Tal, O.; Lahoz-Monfort, J.J. (2018). "Conservation technology: The next generation". Conservation Letters 11 (6): e12458. doi:10.1111/conl.12458.
- ↑ Kwok, R. (2017). "Field Instruments: Build it yourself". Nature 545: 253–55. doi:10.1038/nj7653-253a.
- ↑ Pearce, J.M. (2014). "Laboratory equipment: Cut costs with open-source hardware". Nature 505 (7485): 618. doi:10.1038/505618d. PMID 24476879.
- ↑ Ahmad, A.; Nadzri, M.M.M.; Rosli, I.M. et al. (2018). "Rapid Prototyping of Wireless Image Transmission for Wildlife (Tiger) Monitoring System - A Preliminary Study". Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering 10 (2-5): 75–79. http://journal.utem.edu.my/index.php/jtec/article/view/4354.
- ↑ Nazir, S.; Newey, S.; Irvine, R.J. et al. (2017). "WiseEye: Next Generation Expandable and Programmable Camera Trap Platform for Wildlife Research". PLoS One 12 (1): e0169758. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169758. PMC PMC5226779. PMID 28076444. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226779.
- ↑ Sankupellay, M.; McLaughlin, C.; Davis, J. et al. (2016). "B4 - Brisbane Backyard Bird Box: Connecting People to the Environment". Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems: 9–12. doi:10.1145/2908805.2908808.
- ↑ Soro, A.; Brereton, M.; Dema, T. et al. (2018). "The Ambient Birdhouse: An IoT Device to Discover Birds and Engage with Nature". Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: 1–13. doi:10.1145/3173574.3173971.
- ↑ Tan, T.F.; Teoh, S.S.; Fow, J.E. et al. (2016). "Embedded human detection system based on thermal and infrared sensors for anti-poaching application". Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE Conference on Systems, Process and Control: 37–42. doi:10.1109/SPC.2016.7920700.
- ↑ Maina, C.W.; Muchiri, D.; Njoroge, P. (2016). "A Bioacoustic Record of a Conservancy in the Mount Kenya Ecosystem". Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e9906. doi:10.3897/BDJ.4.e9906.
- ↑ Whytock, R.C.; Christie, J. (2017). "Solo: An open source, customizable and inexpensive audio recorder for bioacoustic research". Methods in Ecology and Evolution 8 (3): 308–12. doi:10.1111/2041-210X.12678.
Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added. The original article lists references alphabetically, but this version—by design—lists them in order of appearance.
