McConchie, Klinkenberg poster at GEOIDE

GEOIDE poster abstract: Interactive User Validation of Volunteered Geographic Information

Authors: Alan Mc Conchie, alan dot mcconchie at geog dot ubc dot ca and Brian Klinkenbergbrian at geog dot ubc dot ca

Department of Geography, University of British Columbia

Efforts to encourage the submission of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) must be tempered by the realization that unless some form of quality control is enabled the resulting information might be discounted by many who potentially could make use of such information, such as government departments.  An effective quality assurance (QA) process, while enforcing some form of oversight on the submission of information, could, at the same time, provide feedback to the users that encourages them to become even more involved volunteers.

In this poster, we illustrate our work in progress to develop an interactive validation system for VGI of invasive plant species in British Columbia. Using existing species records and ecological parameters, we have developed maps that delimit the potential range of each species, and and thus determine the likelihood that a new submission is valid or not. Based on whether a record is a geographic or ecological outlier, our system will either provide suggestions for alternative species (e.g., "could you have been looking at species Y, which looks similar to species X, but occurs at higher elevations?") or note that their record represents a significant range expansion and therefore is an important observation that would benefit from additional information. Ultimately, the volunteer receives feedback that enables them to judge the validity of their information, and encourages them to learn more about their environment.

Poster to follow