HabWatch
HabWatch is used to register the nature in the city. By using the app The Nature Database, the city’s population becomes an active part of the data collection and the communication of the data. The goal is to change our way of thinking about our surroundings and to focus more on nature. As already mentioned, there is plenty of nature just outside our front door!
The Nature Database is an app for smartphones, which is very easy to use. It was developed in cooperation with birdandnature.dk and it makes it possible to register all your findings on the exact spot where the findings were made. By using this free app, you can upload your own observations or pictures of animals and plants. And by doing so, you take active part in storing valuable knowledge. You can also get help to identify species and you can have a look at what other people have registered in the area you are in.
The app makes it easy for everybody to examine the nature of the area you are in and thus you also increase your knowledge about various species. You can take your children on a nature hunt around the city to find animals or plants, which they have not seen before. And when you do find species you cannot identify, all you need to do is upload the picture to The Nature Database and wait for a reply to find out what your finding is – you can almost call it a picture lottery. You might also experience a young student who suddenly stops his bike to record the peregrine falcon he just saw chasing a wood pigeon around the cemetery.
The important aspect of this project is thus not only involvement; it is participation. The common element of all activities is that people can participate actively and thus feel a sense of ownership of the final product: a metropolis high on life.
The Nature Database is a central part of many of the project’s activities. For example, the app will be used to download and upload observations which are made through the guided tours around the city’s nature – this being everything from single bees to spring carnivores and the nightly bats.
Biodiversity does not need to be difficult. There are almost 2000 species, which can be determined by means of a good picture taken from a smartphone – and it is fun and satisfying to tick off species on the map, compete with yourself or each other, document species and (most importantly) contribute to a larger cause. Go HabWatch!