The Delivering Data Action Area of the BTO Strategy 2023–30 aims to increase the availability, synthesis, use and impact of BTO data. Its 2030 goal is for BTO data to be used in environmental policy and practice through active and effective partnerships at the UK and four country level and widely drawn upon by a diverse range of end users.
What we are doing
In a typical year, BTO receives around 15 million bird observations through our ongoing monitoring and demographic surveys and schemes. Our tracking projects produce around a million positional fixes each year, and we are collating in excess of 50 million records through acoustic projects annually.
Collating and managing these large and growing datasets efficiently is an important job and we are investing in improved facilities to secure these data for posterity. Most of these datasets are collected with a particular purpose in mind, such as producing the population trends presented in the annual Breeding Bird Survey Report and the Wetland Bird Survey and Goose & Swan Monitoring Programme Report. The main goal of the Delivering Data Action Area is to ensure that these data have value and impact beyond their primary use. This broad goal is underpinned by two SMART measures:
- By 2030, BTO will have made it possible for anyone to access information about bird populations where they live throughout the UK. The use of website-based data will have increased four-fold by 2030.
- BTO will have provided targeted data on the importance and trends of bird populations to decision-makers across 20% of the UK and individual countries’ land area.
The work of the Action Area broadly falls into two main themes:
Improving processes and policies concerning the management and sharing of data with end users. For example, having a clear policy on open data and a new model for data requests and sharing.
Developing innovative data products that efficiently synthesise BTO datasets to answer stakeholder needs. For example, building on our web tools to improve local insights.
Current priorities
There are several current priorities under each of these two themes, included within which are:
Efficient synthesis of data
A key aim of Delivering Data is to provide more informative local data products. One barrier to this is the difficulty in synthesising data across schemes at the local level, whether for members of the public seeking understanding of the bird populations of their local area, major landowners wishing to assess the importance of bird populations on their estates, or developers wanting the best data to assess environmental impacts. We need efficient reproducible workflows that generate local insights, with minimal manual intervention, so that we can replicate analyses cost effectively for different end users.
New and improved data products
It has been recognised for several years that one of the reasons data delivery is so inefficient is because many data users do not understand what we offer, or the products we offer don’t quite match with their needs. We need clearly defined data products that meet end user requirements, that are easily understood and are either self-service or easy to produce at scale. A common theme in data provision, requested by a wide range of data users, is information for places or regions. We can satisfy a large number of users with a place-based equivalent to BirdFacts. Birds on your Doorstep has already proved there is an enormous appetite for such information among members and supporters and there is more we can do to put data in the hands of local people where it can make a difference.
Acoustic monitoring services
Acoustic monitoring of biodiversity is growing rapidly in popularity and BTO is well placed to lead and support the use of this technology in the UK and beyond. Our Acoustic Pipeline provides a scalable platform for the provision of monitoring data derived from acoustic data, for our own monitoring and research programmes, for partnered citizen science projects, and for commercial applications. A diverse range of users including county wildlife trusts, rewilding projects, the consultancy industry and statutory nature conservation bodies are looking to us to provide advice and data management tools for acoustic monitoring. We are developing a guiding strategy and future development plans.
Featured work
The following projects are contributing towards the delivery of our Delivering Data Action Area's outcomes, and we are very grateful to all of the people and partners who are making this possible.
BirdFacts Species
We have overhauled our BirdFacts Species pages, updating the information available and improving accessibility. Find out key information for any bird on the British List.
Data Reports
BTO Data Reports provide rigorous scientific information to inform fieldwork decisions and desk studies for Impact Assessments of potential development sites in the UK.
