NBN Atlas Scotland now under construction
The NBN Trust is now building the NBN Atlas Scotland, which will also serve as a pilot for a UK-wide roll out of new data infrastructure for biodiversity. This work is being done in conjunction with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum (SBIF).
Funding has been provided by SEPA / Scotland’s Environment Web (LIFE) Project*, SNH and the NBN to build the new infrastructure and the first stage will be completed by September. A full working atlas is due to be ready by end of December 2015 and will be part of the Scotland’s Environment Web family of interconnected websites.
This work has been driven by the NBN’s new strategic direction. It has also been informed by the needs of Scottish Government and its agencies, and by the review of the NBN Gateway undertaken by the NBN Secretariat (published in Feb 2015).
Feedback or queries may be sent to the NBN Secretariat . Progress can be followed on the NBN Atlas Scotland website or via Twitter @AoLScot
*Scotland’s Environment Web – www.environment.scotland.gov.uk
SEPA manages Scotland’s Environment Web on behalf of a partnership of key environmental organisations in Scotland.
SEPA has received funding support from the European Commission LIFE+ funding programme to provide a trusted gateway to data and information about the environment, and involve Scotland’s Citizens in monitoring and action to protect and improve the environment.
First Stakeholder Partnership meeting
The first Stakeholder Partnership meeting for the NBN Atlas Scotland was held on Friday 24th July was attended by 39 organisations in Scotland, involved in biological recording or working with and analysing biodiversity data.
The workshop was the first opportunity for potential members of the NBN Atlas Scotland Stakeholder Partnership to meet and discuss the initiative. The purpose of this first meeting was to provide more information about the NBN Atlas Scotland and the development process over the next four months, and to seek advice and input about atlas user needs such as functionalities and interface requirements for this new online platform. It also provided an opportunity to explore how a Stakeholder Partnership can support the NBN Atlas Scotland.
Feedback from the gathered representatives was that there was strong support for the NBN Atlas Scotland implementation and for the improved data infrastructure and tools for data display and analysis. A group of ten people nominated themselves to be part of the atlas user testing group that will work from September onwards to ensure the interface is intuitive and functional.
The meeting was sponsored by the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh who provided the venue, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) who provided the catering. The event was organised by the Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum (SBIF) and the National Biodiversity Network (NBN).
Download the report of the First Stakeholder Partnership meeting for the NBN Atlas Scotland (500KB PDF)
How can you get involved?
Provide additional feedback on the atlas
Read the workshop report and the NBN’s 2015 technical and user review of the NBN Gateway. Please provide any additional feedback about what you would like to see on the NBN Atlas Scotland in terms of user interface or functionality.
NBN Gateway Technical and User Review (5MB PDF).
Sign up for the NBN Atlas Scotland user testing group
Please contact us if you would like to help test the beta version of the atlas as it goes online. We are especially looking for the Atlas User Group to be made up of representatives of Scottish Data Partners, organisations involved in biodiversity work or environmental management in Scotland, or interested parties such as biological recorders, teachers and consultants.
Please contact us if you would like to be part of the NBN Atlas Scotland User Testing Group.
Tell us if you will commit to putting your data on the NBN Atlas Scotland
If you are a data partner and have not already completed the Questionnaire on ‘Improving Access to NBN Data and Products’ we want to hear your views by the 28th August. In particular we want to know if you will commit to putting your data on the NBN Atlas Scotland.
Tell us if you have data in non-digitised formats for the NBN Atlas Scotland
If you have data in non-digitised formats that would be suitable for the NBN Atlas Scotland we would like to hear from you. Please tell us about these datasets
Tell us what you want on your Data Partner page
If you plan to share data via the NBN Atlas Scotland please tell us what information you want to be included on your Data Partner page