EO4wildlife main objective was to bring large communities of multidisciplinary research scientists such as biologists, ecologists and ornithologists around the world to collaborate closely together while using European Sentinel Copernicus Earth Observation more extensively and efficiently. In order to reach such important objective, an open service platform with an interoperable toolbox was designed and implemented.
EO4wildlife main objectives at the beginning of the action were:
- Architecture a system to access Sentinel Earth Observation data, ARGOS databases of archive and real time, thematic wildlife databank portals and other Earth Observation and MetOcean databases.
- Design and develop an operational and easy-to-use platform to query, search, mine and extract information from these different databases. End users should be able to cross correlate heterogeneous data in order to discover patterns and detect potential similar or reproducible behaviour or favourable conditions associated to the movement of the animals.
- Provide additional functionalities via a toolbox: connections to other external databases facilities to develop and run algorithms for dedicated data analytics, models and data visualization functionalities.
As conclusions of the action, overall assessment received was that the project has fully achieved its objectives and milestones, and delivered exceptional results with significant immediate or potential impact.
The different scenarios have been fully addressed, even if fish and marine mammals have not been fully exploited as turtles and birds, mainly by the rather and intrinsic difference in the data-set available. Both birds and turtles have very structured online archives which have facilitated the implementation of more tools for the data analysis.
The final platform looks very complete and well structured, and even if it does not seem fully user-friendly, detailed how-to documents have been prepared to facilitate approaching the platform and using its facilities.
Considering that the platform will be operational for a minimum of six months after the end of the project, it was strongly recommended that as many users as possible use it, in order to facilitate its future sustainability.
