1 The Avian Knowledge Network: Decision Support System for Adaptive Management Leo Salas & Grant Ballard – California Avian Data Center, PRBO Conservation Science Katie Koch – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Midwest Coordinated Bird Monitoring Partnership Ed Laurent – Science Coordinator, American Bird Conservancy

2 What we’ll cover What is the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN)? What is a Decision Support System in the context of the AKN? Overview of the California Avian Data Center (CADC) as a Decision Support System Examples of Decision Support Tools available through the AKN

3 What is the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN)? The Avian Knowledge Network provides the architecture to archive, organize, access, explore, and analyze data to improve conservation outcomes for birds. We coordinate activities among governmental and non-governmental organizations and are involved in international efforts to develop biodiversity information standards.

4 CADC is a regional node of the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN) hosted by PRBO Conservation Science. CADC integrates data on birds and ecosystems to improve conservation outcomes today and in the future. CADC's goal is to make timely and relevant scientific data and analyses readily accessible to habitat managers, conservation practitioners, scientists, and the public. What is the California Avian Data Center?

5 CADC is a node of the Avian Knowledge Network The AKN is a distributed dataset of bird monitoring data. It is composed of several nodes and a central repository.

6 USER PARTNER PROVIDER Node Clients Data sharing/ downloads Data access Data analysis Data visualizations Data entry Interfaces Observation Data Warehouses Modeled Data Results Covariates Events & Observations Data Geographic Data Taxonomic Data Metadata Access Control Node AKN Node structure – distributed, secure

NodeDb Major Data Components Taxonomy Sampling Events Sampling Event Observations Sampling Event Observations Protocols Researchers Projects Sampling Units participates in collects is located atcontains consisting of defines methodology for uses

8 The AKN and California Avian Data Center today > 300 projects for PRBO and partners, many more in other nodes >100 M bird observations Point counts, area surveys, banding data, at sea surveys, citizen science data, etc. Passerines, shorebirds, seabirds, mammals Tools for field work, managing data, analyzing results, DST’s Conservation plans We grow toward the needs of our users/partners

What is a Decision Support System? A DSS is an interactive system that helps decision makers compile useful information from raw data, documents, personal knowledge, and/or models to identify and solve problems and make decisions. DSS’s should help bring data and partners together in a common adaptive conservation framework. 9

10 The CADC Data Lifecycle CADC as a Decision Support System: capturing, managing, analyzing, and visualizing avian observation data Capture Curate Analyze Publish

CADC Data workflow - Capture 11 Capture Data entry screens Bulk uploaders GIS data layers Web-services Seek data proactively 11

12 Capture Example: Store Study Area Geography 12

13 Capture Example: Add data interactively or in bulk

14 CADC Data Workflow - Curate Curate Database administration Quality control Backups Metadata Access control Data sharing policy organizing indexing Re-formatting System administration standardization NodeDB Data warehouse 14

15 Curate Example: Query Data for Project Specific Use

CADC Data Workflow - Analyze 16 Analyze Ravian Effects of change Demographic response Long term trends Pattern discovery Data mining Statistics Summarize Analysts (application) Vulnerability Evaluation Identify drivers of change Assess exposure Study design 16

17 Analyze Example Trends in Count Data

CADC Data Workflow - Publish 18 Publish Multimap Decision Support Tools Websites Interactive maps RavianWeb Make recommendations Model projections Visualizations 18

DST Example 1: Map based access to avian data Example question: “Where in San Francisco County are Clapper Rails present during the breeding season?” Example decision: “Should we increase enforcement of park regulations at Heron’s Head marsh?” 19

DST Example 2: Landowner Incentive Program Example Question: “Which species of special concern is a proposed project likely to benefit?” Example Decision: “Should I fund this proposal, or that proposal?” 20

DST Example 3: Environmental Change Network Example Question: “Where are the highest priority conservation areas in California; Where are they in the future?” Example Decision: “Which State Parks should receive monitoring/ restoration money?” 21

22 Example Question: “Can tidal marshes keep pace with sea-level rise?” Example Decision: “Which levees should we remove first?” DST Example 4: SF Bay Tidal Marsh SLR Tool

23 Some of CADC’s Major Partners

24 Closing Thoughts AKN Nodes can be thought of as Decision Support Systems, hosting specific Decision Support Tools CADC can host other nodes with their own identity (see data.prbo.org/partners/mwadc). Otherwise it has proven difficult to transfer technology in other ways.data.prbo.org/partners/mwadc We need to develop tools collaboratively to maximize cost-effectiveness – initial investments are expensive.