Interactive Wildlife sightings at Nene Wetlands

Wildlife Trust and Artcodes at Nene Wetlands Nature Reserve

The University of Nottingham will work with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire (Wildlife Trust BCN) on a project designing and implementing a web app for wildlife sightings and conducting research to examine user experience.

This proposal came about as a result of collaboration on a previous project, ‘Nenescape’ and will run from September 2020 for a period of 12 months.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham will produce a web app to record wildlife sightings within the Wetlands Nature Reserve.  Artcodes will be placed on signage around the reserve as a geological tracker to be scanned and enable sightings to be logged.  The web app will be designed for use by the general public to log locations and sightings and will incorporate a feature for Wildlife Trust BCN volunteers to add additional information such as age, sex and reports of rarer species sightings.  Data will feed into an interactive map of the park that can be viewed both online and in person at the visitor centre.

Investigations into the use and impact of Artcodes for wildlife observation will be carried out which will address a number of key questions around the use of digital technologies to enhance visitor experience.