Meet the winners #florafaunahack
The Flora Fauna Hack Jury Members Henk Soorsma (Board of Nature and Biodiversity at the Ministry of Economic Affairs) Jasja Dekker (‘animal ecologist’) Krijn Poppe (research manager at LEI Wageningen UR) and Jurgen van der Vlist (coder) we're proud to announce the winners.
Flora Fauna Hack Big First Prize € 2500 cash
We want to engage children with their environment, to educate them about the fun of monumental trees. Therefore we want to create the Treefie. This contains some basic information about a particular monumental tree (in Haarlem), but also more elaborate functions such as geocards, rating the tree, upload a ' Boomfie', historic photographs, kiss and tell, etc.
The idea is that every tree has its own QR code, which - if you scan it - lands you on a mobile site of the tree. It is interactive, children can upload their own information, which makes it accessible, fun and educational.
Second Prize: € 1000 cash
2. My iGuana
MyGuana game changing App: from food to friend. Adopting ignuana's as family members, appreciating these beautiful creatures as friends rather then food. Raising awareness of biodiversity, respecting all creatures using this species, endemic to Sint Eustatius (Statia) as a signature or ambassador sepcies.
The iguana is listed on the IUCN Red List of endangered species and protected by law. Local custom in certain local communities considers the iguana as a culinary delicatesse - hence its scientific name. It faces extincting in one of its last remaining habitats with an estimated population of 200-300 individuals. A health population would be around 5000. To encourage locals to change their attitude towards their environment we propose an attractive, even addictive tool that leverages social skills, processes (pride, status) and the importance of family bonds. Gamification and adoption are the main vehicles of the app. Special part of the hack is the use of facial recognition to recognize an iguana, so you can adopt the iguana and give it a name.
3. Potata
Sharing Gardens creates a data-driven community-based shared garden platform. People can use plots of lands offered by neighbours or the municipality to grow food and plants. The platform enables an educative experience through data-driven suggestions, such as using soil-topography to suggest plant-types and weathermaps to guide maintenance. Gardening will become a social effort, empowering people to learn about growing food, to share experiences with your neighbours and create delicious fruits and veggies with the help of our app.
Biodiverse farming
We see that many dairy farmers are intrinsically interested in the occurence of nature on their farm. They know where the swallows nest, they can predict where the "grutto" will land, and where which herbs will grow on their grassland.
Yet we also see that farmers are reluctant to share data on those types of sightings. Their efforts disappear into a black hole, and they get no feedback on how they are influencing nature and biodiversity on their farm and for their area.
The app we want to create will help farmers determine how well they are performing on nature and biodiversity with their farm. For each region (FGR) a basic list of species together with the total number of species is used to generate an 'average biodiversity score' for the region. For each dairy farmer that joins the community an average biodivesity score will be generated based on the observations the dairy farmer makes. Farmers can also compare their scores and learn from eachother. We expect that the scoring and peer comparisson gaming element will stimulate dairy farmers to do more observations (or have them done) and/or change their farming practises to improve the biodiversity on their farm.
Rare species will have a higher weigthin the 'average biodiveristy score'
BeeThere
It has been making headlines in the news in the last few weeks: bee mortality. Within Europe, the Netherlands is among the countries suffering the greatest bee mortality. Asked what the real bee problem is, my father told me that the problem is about the 3 V's. I was surprised that my father's answer was going to be about open data: velocity, variety and volume. But it turned out the answer was about voedsel (food), varrao mijten (varroa mites) en vergif (poison).
We build an app and website how to manage beehives, so you can make better decisions. For example: do bees have enough to eat or will it actually lead to trouble if there isn't enough food for the bees being kept.
Grass is greener
An app for farmers and citizens to check with satellite data if the grass is really greener on the other side. F.e. you can measure the wildlife damage by geese during their stay. Are you better or worse off than last year?
Cath&Go
We want to get young people more involved into nature by developing a game. In this game they have to solve challenges and win awesome prices. So they enjoy being outdoors and learn about nature.
Find your farmer
An attractive and interactive website providing a map with information on local farmers and their products to match the needs and wishes of the consumer for local products with the products produced by farmers in the regio. The idea is based on Settlers of Catan to present the user a very comprehensive way to find a farmer and his or her products.
FurBEE
We decided to create an “intelligence” app which provides advice to the beekeeper. The logic in the app is based on the working activities of the bee colonies as a function of elapse time. The app simulates the size of the bee population and the potential yield of honey and pollen based on the population and their age. With this information the beekeeper can take appropriate actions and measures to ensure that the bee colonies will stay healthy and productive. With the continuous input of data into the database more cool features - such as trend analysis - can be incorporated at a later stage. The idea is coming from Furby – the electronic hamster and hence, the app’s name becomes FurBEE. With FurBEE.nl you’ll never get bored. Will your hive survive?
About
The Flora en Fauna Hack took place on 23 and 24 May, 2014 at Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre). The theme of the event: ‘hacking’ within the domain of Flora and Fauna. Almost everyone is familiar with the challenges in the Netherlands concerning sustainability, climate, the environment, and biodiversity. But, how many have considered the possibilities that open data and technology now offer for creating exciting, innovative solutions for these issues?
The Flora Fauna Hack is organized by PolderHack Productions in cooperation with Alterra, and made possible by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
