Big Data is in Wildlife Conservation: Big data is on the bang these days as it has been assisting every field to enhance the services and manage things in an improved way. Conservation of nature is one of the primary areas where Big Data has come up as a contribution to saving wildlife. Let us some of the projects of Big Data in Wildlife Conservation that have used Big data and Machine Learning as their key components.
1. Big Data in Wildlife Conservation
In this part, various projects are discussed below which shows the assistance of Big Data in Wildlife Conservation.
i. The Great Elephant Census
In Africa only, more than 12,000 elephants have been killed each year ever since 2006 and if this continues, there will be no elephant left on this planet. The safeguard of the environment is crucial not only to wildlife but the populations around them to complete the environment cycle and Big Data is assisting in the same. In 2014, a survey The Great Elephant Census was initiated by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to achieve a better understanding of elephant numbers in Africa. Around 90 researchers navigated over 285,000 miles of the African continent, over 21 countries to do this research.
One of the leading unprocessed data sets was created in this survey. The survey has revealed that African elephant numbers have become only 352,271 in 18 countries and has decreased by 30% in seven years. This emphasized the need for on-going monitoring to guarantee healthier response times to emergency situations. Big Data is having a big impact on conservation efforts that is going to support protecting the Elephant population of Africa.
ii. eBird
This project was initiated in 2002. It is an app that helps users’ in recording bird findings and input this data into the app. The app was created with an aim to help create functional Big Data sets that could be of value to professional and recreational bird watchers. These data collections are then being distributed with professionals like land managers, teachers, bird watchers, biologists, and conservation workers who have utilized this data to create Bird breed, a regional migration prediction giving real-time predictions of bird migration for the first time continuously. This uses machine learning to forecast migration and nestling patterns of different species of birds. This will offer advantages by providing more exact intelligence for land planning and management and allowing necessary preparations for areas likely to settle bird gatherings.
iii. Earthcube Project
This project was commenced 5 years ago to create a living 3D replica of Earth to assist scientists in different fields. Computer science and big data have been utilized to develop interconnected projects that are used in this project. These project capitals a variety of projects like the Coral Reef Science & Cyber infrastructure-Network (CRESCYNT). Databases of different species, image analysis software and 3d mapping are used to examine the fall of the coral reef’s structural changes, coral disease and bleaching, and sea temperatures. This research will ultimately lead to a better understanding to aid preserve the coral reef.
We would like to gather from you if you have an idea of any other related projects for saving wildlife and indirectly saving the planet EARTH.