About

Background

A survey we conducted of approximately 50 institutions across the US and globally revealed that many higher education institutions are not leveraging their resources to take advantage of the biodiversity data available. Many institutions do not compile and store data from various common sources, such as iNaturalist, eBird, and external observations from course bio blitzes and independent researchers.

Purpose

The goal of this project is to develop a program which will facilitate the process of synthesizing data from disparate sources. We hope this will encourage institutions to take a bigger role in collecting, storing, and managing biodiversity data. We envision this data will eventually lead to increased research efforts and better-informed landscape decision-making both within and across universities.

Data Sources

This platform combines observations from four sources into a single standardized dataset:

iNaturalist — community wildlife observations, synced automatically via API
eBird — bird sightings from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's platform, synced automatically via API
TreeKeeper — the campus's official tree and shrub inventory
External uploads — species checklists and observations submitted directly by researchers, students, and staff, reviewed before being added

Every record is standardized to a shared 31-column Darwin Core schema, which is the data format used by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), so the combined dataset can be exported and reused by other researchers and institutions.

Key Features

1

Automated API Ingestion

Automated data retrieval from digital science platforms such as iNaturalist and eBird using APIs. Data obtained automatically undergoes a formatting and enriching process supplemented by data from APIs. Data is uploaded to a cloud database.

2

Reviewed Manual Uploads

Automated data formatting and enriching is also supported for manual data uploads. Manually uploaded data must be approved by a designated admin user before being uploaded to the cloud database.

Project Team

This project is part of DTRC's 2026 "Campuses as Labs" program, led by Rachel Penczykowski (Associate Professor of Biology), Phil Valko (Assistant Vice Chancellor for Sustainability), and Jonathan Myers (Professor of Biology) at Washington University in St. Louis. The platform was built by student developers Da Li and Will Zhu.