Smartphone App - That's Invasive!
A crucial part of protecting our environment from the threat of invasive species is knowing detailed information on their numbers and locations. Without a detailed map of their distributions across Europe, we cannot begin to prevent further spread or plan large-scale control programmes. Unfortunately, many of our records for these species are patchy, from unreliable sources and lacking accurate location information.
To tackle this problem, RINSE created and launched ‘That’s Invasive!’, a library of species biology, ecology, identification tips and images available at the touch of a finger allowing you to identify, photograph and record over 35 invasive non-native species commonly found within Europe. The app was made available in three languages.
By using the app, RINSE hoped to harness the data gathering capacity of the general public, making them our eyes and ears across Europe in the hunt for invasive species.
What made our app so special?
- Records from ‘That’s Invasive!’ were verified by an expert using the geo-tagged photographs
- The app enabled a wider audience to participate in recording invasive species, allowing us to increase our records
- Available in three languages, ‘That’s Invasive!’ was a unified recording system for Europe, allowing us to map the distribution of invasive species acrossEurope’s most vulnerable area
- The app took advantage of the phone’s inbuilt GPS system, allowing records to be mapped with a high degree of accuracy.
Unfortunately this app is no longer available, however the iRecord app can be used to record invasive non-native species data and contains many of the special features mentioned above.
