Conservify Innovation Lab
Conservify is the only innovation lab in the world to focus exclusively on the development of open-source conservation technologies. The lab aims to use ‘openness’ as a means of battling environmental crimes, while promoting cooperation within the conservation community itself. Members believe that when conservation-related data changes, from something that only a privileged few can access to an open resource for public good, incentives around wildlife crime and over-exploitation can start to change for the better.
Image credit: Conservify CC BY-SA
One such project is SoarOcean. Although aerial surveillance has been one of the most important tools in monitoring our oceans, current approaches rely on the use of military resources to provide both the monitoring activities and enforcement of marine protected areas. Utilising military resources in this way often results in less than desirable coverage and significantly high costs.
According to Selbe, current or decommissioned military-level aircraft, with rates for surveillance missions running from $4000 to $40 000 per hour, are commonly used. Selbe and his team believe that small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including hobbyist drones, pose a better solution to aerial surveillance over crewed surveillance aircraft. UAV’s can provide similar capabilities as crewed surveillance aircraft for a fraction of the cost. They also present fewer barriers to entry.
Selbe’s lab is already testing the ability of fixed-wing and multirotor drones to carry out aerial surveillance missions in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. “Drones will be good for monitoring vessels,” he says, “because they can get close enough to see what people are actually doing, unlike satellites or high-altitude reconnaissance.”
The Australian UAV manufacturer, Aerosonde, has also showcased the effectiveness of UAVs to track illegal fishing vessels, and there have been successful demonstrations of the application of drones for everything from scientific research, to wildlife protection, search and rescue, and firefighting.
“This tech has the opportunity to become a part of our daily lives, but work needs to be done to make sure that privacy protections, safety and robustness are built into future platforms,” Selbe explains.
The Okavango Wilderness Project
n 2015, Shah Selbe joined fellow National Geographic explorer Dr Steve Boyes on an expedition to survey the vast wilderness surrounding the Angolan Highlands to collect environmental data and trace the water that feeds the Okavango Delta from its source.
At over 720 000 square kilometres, the greater Okavango River Basin is the largest freshwater wetland in southern Africa and the primary source of water for over a million people. Its delta, located in northern Botswana, is one of Africa’s wealthiest places for biodiversity, and home to the world’s largest remaining elephant population, as well as populations of some of the world’s most endangered animals, such as cheetah, white rhino, black rhino, African wild dog, and lion.
Image credit: Shah Selbe CC BY-SA
The Kubango and the Cuito rivers supply nearly all of the water that flows into the Okavango Delta, meaning the protection of these two rivers, which originate in southern Angola, is vital to preserving the richness of wildlife in this untamed region.
During the expedition, the research team were no longer required to use pH strips or manually check sensor readings, as Selbe had built a wireless sensor network to automate the process. “Shah took us from little strips and pieces of paper – writing down the water quality as we go down – to environmental sensor platforms,” explained Dr Boyes.
In the past, any data that was collected needed to be taken back to the lab and analysed before it could be acted upon. With the Okavango Wilderness Project, much of that data is now being live streamed, allowing for a significantly shorter turnaround between discovering problems and recommending solutions. The team has also been working to collect higher resolution data, including 360-degree videos and wildlife photographs with references to the time and GPS location they were taken. When combined with data from traditional sensor technology (water and air temperature, humidity, water flow rate, etc.), a better overall understanding of the ecosystem and its status can be achieved.
Image credit: Shah Selbe CC BY-SA
The wireless sensor network itself consists of a Raspberry Pi running an open-source Python script to process the data generated from multiple remote Arduino nodes. The Raspberry Pi acts as a WiFi gateway, and directly uploads data to the web server using JSON. In some particularly remote locations, the remote nodes can send data using the Twilio API over a cellular network.
A landscape unseen by science
Each of these nodes consists of an Arduino, XBee, and a selection of sensors. The XBee Zigbee network enables the nodes to communicate over long distances as data packets can hop between neighbouring nodes until they reach the central coordinator, which in this case is the Raspberry Pi. For power, the nodes rely on a solar panel and a 6600 mAH battery. “We want it to be open-source and used by the most people who can,” said Selbe. “There’s a lot we gain by sharing information.”
Impressively, the Okavango Wilderness Project’s wireless sensor network has already successfully pinpointed problems at the local level. In one area of the delta, sudden, conspicuous changes were detected in the water’s pH. “I thought the sensor was off,” says Selbe. Instead, tour boats were idling in that part of the Delta, causing a concentration of pollutants in the water. Selbe and his team co-ordinated directly with the boat drivers to find better places to park and discouraged them from letting engines idle. Before long, the water quality returned to normal. Similarly, if mining activity or oil exploration occurs in the headwaters of the Delta, the team should be notified the instant it happens. “If we can catch these ecosystem threats as they occur, we have the potential to save wildlife and mitigate the consequences,” said Selbe.
The team’s previous treks explored the two other major river systems that feed the Okavango Delta: the unexplored Cuito, and the Cubango Rivers.
This year, the Okavango Wilderness Project is studying the Cuando River, venturing into the heart of the region and trekking through the remote reaches of the Basin in search of evidence of Africa’s most iconic wildlife. This journey will allow them to explore the intersection of the Okavango and Zambezi Basins, two of the largest in southern Africa, and much of the expedition will cover uncharted territory among the vast marshy floodplains and endless channels of south-eastern Angola.
Image credit: Shah Selbe CC BY-SA
The team will begin at the origin of the river in the Angolan Highlands, setting up camera traps and conducting surveys to document the biodiversity in the area before setting off down the Cuando River.
“This project is just the beginning because all our data is open-source and available to the public. Ultimately, the Okavango from its source to where the water disappears into the Kalahari Desert, can become Africa’s largest nature conservation area, with unexpected tourism and scientific opportunities,” says Boyes.
FieldKit: Open Source Research Platform
ver the last three years, Conservify has been working on a spin-off project commissioned by National Geographic, called FieldKit. FieldKit aims to create an open-source platform for live-broadcasting scientific work from the field, enabling anyone to create their own connected research expeditions – just like the Okavango Wilderness Project, in fact.
According to Selbe, the FieldKit platform can be deployed in a single module or meshed network of modules. The platform, which can be used to automatically generate data visualisations and share research finding with the public, will be available to purchase as a kit, or developed using the open-source designs and documentation you can find on the FieldKit website.
Image credit: Conservify CC BY-SA
Open science beyond academia
FieldKit’s core module includes GPS, SD, Serial Flash, WiFi (WINC1500), LoRa, LiPo Fuel Gauge, and charging. The supporting Atlas board has room for five Atlas Scientific sensor modules, including ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential), DO (Dissolved Oxygen), pH, temperature, and electrical conductivity. These kits will also support long-term deployments by utilising solar power. However, “as we do with the scientific method, engineering projects can only be considered useful once they are validated and tested in the field,” says Selbe.
For the first real-world deployment of the FieldKit platform, Conservify has partnered with the Tropical Rivers Lab at Florida International University and Citizen Science for the Amazon, which is run by the Wildlife Conservation Society, through support by the Moore Foundation.
These first prototypes will be used in the Ecuadorian Amazon to capture data on marine life and engage citizen scientists in the sustainable management of fisheries and wetlands conservation. Fishing of gilt-head, jaguar cichlids, surubins, piramutabas, tambaquis, curimatãs, jaraquis, and matrinxãs will be monitored in 29 locations throughout the Amazon basin. These fish represent staple food and income sources, and are critical to the future of Amazonian communities and cultures. Fish can also be useful indicators of river connectivity, ecosystem health, and human well-being, but the current lack of information about both river dynamics and the fish within the rivers makes effective river basin management almost impossible. By facilitating monitoring, data gathering and modelling, citizen science can bridge this information gap and, at the same time, empower the people of the region.
Image credit: Conservify CC BY-SA
Currently, Conservify is preparing five FieldKit Water Quality buoys, capable of measuring and five FieldKit Weather stations – measuring air temperature, humidity, altitude, ambient light level, rainfall, wind speed, and wind direction – for deployment in the Ecuadorian Amazon later this year.
