The EuropaBON monitoring database explicitly describes current workflows of monitoring efforts delivering biodiversity information in Europe (monitoring networks). This database maps how biodiversity data collected in monitoring schemes across Europe flows through different institutions and programs and gets processed to produce Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), Essential Ecosystem Services Variables (EESVs) and other EU policy-relevant indicators. Some examples of EU level biodiversity data workflows are the reporting of the Habitats and the Water Framework Directives, the Wild Bird Indicators produced in the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme or the European grassland butterfly indicator produced in the European Butterfly Monitoring Schemes.
The main objective of the database is therefore, not to include all available monitoring projects obtaining data on biodiversity change, but to be comprehensive in including all representative networks that, at European scale, coordinate and integrate biodiversity data and allow obtaining representative biodiversity estimates of change. Identifying current efforts in which this integrated coordination already exists will help EuropaBON to assess what are the current gaps and bottlenecks that biodiversity monitoring in Europe faces to deliver cost-effective EBV-based and indicator products that can inform policy at the European scale.
The database is hosted in a website https://monitoring.europabon.org/ that serves the dual purpose of being the platform for data entry, as well as to allow the visualization and quick consultation of the collected data. It gathers three types of information for each monitoring network: 1) Integration nodes or institutions/projects/initiatives who integrate/process biodiversity data to generate Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), Essential Ecosystem Services Variables (EESVs) or any other indicators with potential relevance to environmental policy, particularly at the European level; One single biodiversity data flow can be composed of many nodes operating at different scales (e.g., subnational, national, European-level) in a coordinated manner 2) details of the biodiversity monitoring data or initiatives/schemes responsible for the collection of biodiversity-related information (what are the species recorded? how is the data collected? who is responsible for the monitoring? etc.); Note here this database doesn´t record the actual biodiversity data gathered in the field but the metadata of how the data is collected and flows across Europe, and 3) Data streams: these represent data flows and connect integration nodes across different scales (e.g. national and European). These allow to evaluate how the data flows between monitoring programs and institutions that integrate data and what type of products are generated?
Currently, the database is open for consultation purposes only. The tool “search and visualize” allow for quick consultation of the monitoring networks included in the database (tabs “integration nodes summary” and “visualization”) and their main products (tab “products” i.e., EBVs, EESVs, indicators), as well as to explore the national geographical coverage of these networks. The tool “Stats” allows visualization of main quantitative summaries of the data collected in the database (e.g. by taxa, by biodiversity data origin, etc.). If you are part of a European-wide monitoring network and you’d like to contribute data to the EuropaBON monitoring database, please, contact us via info@europabon.org. Metadata contained in the database will be available for download soon.