Problem

The USA-National Phenology Network — a consortium that collects standardized observations of phenology — has millions of data points on plant and animal phenology observations (e.g. when cherry trees bloom, trees bud, robins build nests, leaves turn, etc.). They needed a way provide map-based data visualization interfaces to allow professional and citizen scientists to organize, view and visualize the phenological data collected via the Nature’s Notebook website.

Solution

To make sense of the extremely rich set of geographic, temporal and climatological data, NPN partnered with DJ Case to develop online data visualization interfaces and reports.

The online interface and data exploration tool presents gridded data products, most notably the Spring Index (a method for predicting the onset of spring in a given area) integrated with on-the-ground phenological observation data to produce dynamic maps to inform scientific research efforts and support wildlife and habitat management decisions.

Tools

  • Angular
  • Google Maps API
  • D3.js
  • Web Services
  • GeoServer (WMS)