Popular Links
Organisations
NBN Trust
• Members - Please see the members pages
• Staff - Please see the staff pages
• Board of Trustees - Please see the trustee pages
• Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Lancaster) - home of the Gateway developers
NBN Data Providers
For a full list of data providers and links to their sites please go to the NBN Gateway pages
Online Recording
• iRecord - a website for sharing wildlife observations, including associated photos. The aim of iRecord is to make it easier for wildlife sightings to be collated, checked by experts and made available to support research and decision-making at local and national levels.
• Indicia - a toolkit that simplifies the construction of new websites which allow data entry, mapping and reporting of wildlife records.
National Recording Schemes
• Biological Records Centre provides a list of terrestrial recording schemes with links to each scheme’s website
• The Marine Biological Association provides a list of marine recording schemes with links to each scheme’s website
Local Environmental Records Centres
• Local Records Centres - a contact database for UK Local Records Centres
• Association of Local Environmental Records Centres - The Association represents the interests of Local Records Centres in the UK, promoting standards and services in biodiversity and geodiversity data collation & service provision
• ALERC Forum - discussion forum for local record centres
Local Natural History Societies
• The Natural History Musem provides a list of local natural history societies with links to each society’s website: Nature Societies On-line
Standards in biological recording and biodiversity data use
• Association of Local Government Ecologists - represent professional ecologists working in local government in the UK
• Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management - the professional body that represents and supports ecologists and environmental managers in the UK, Ireland and abroad
• National Federation for Biological Recording - the premier UK organisation for practitioners engaged with biological recording across the UK.
• Biological Records Centre - a national focus in the UK for terrestrial and freshwater species recording. BRC works closely with the voluntary recording community, principally through support of national recording schemes and societies.
Identification tools
• iSpot - The place to learn more about wildlife and to share your interest with a friendly community. Take a look at the latest spots, start your own album of observations, join a group and get help identifying what you have seen.
• Insect Rambles Blogspot - a list of links to online resources for species ID across multiple taxa collated by Richard Comont
• Marine Bivalve Shells of the British Isles - An open access online identification guide to Marine bivalves found in British water from the intertidal to the abyss
• Habitas: Encyclopaedia of Marine Life of Britain and Ireland
• MarLIN: Marine Life Information Network
• The websites of many national recording schemes include identification resources – see links above.
Taxonomy and curation
• UK Species Inventory - The UK species inventory aims to compile the names of all UK species from a series of comprehensive and authoritative checklists. It was previously known as the Species Dictionary
• MS BIAS - Marine Species of the British Isles and Adjacent Seas
• NatSCA - The Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) is the UK's organisation for representing Natural Science Collections and associated museum staff, and for communicating all relevant developments and news pertaining to our purpose.
• Fenscore - The Federation for Natural Sciences Collections Research is an adhoc body set up in 1980 to co-ordinate the activities of regional groups of curators in the UK who then were beginning to survey natural science collections [Botany, Geology, Zoology] in their areas.
Citizen Science
• Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) network - an England-wide initiative designed to inspire and support communities to explore, study, enjoy and protect their local environment through engagement with some of the country’s leading scientists.
• National BioBlitz programme - information on BioBlitzes around the country and what they are all about
• UK Wildlife - All UK natural History with pictorial images and species accounts: Birds, flowers, insects, fungi, butterflies, moths, mammals and beetles est circa 1998
• Harlequin Ladybirds - a project to monitor the invasion of these prolific and voracious little creatures
• Recording Invasive Species Counts Project (RISC) - a project to find out more about and to contribute to our understanding of the distribution and ecology of non-native species by asking people to record their observations.
Education and Training
• Field Studies Council - Field Studies Council, FSC, is the only environmental education charity dedicated solely to providing informative and enjoyable opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to discover, explore, be inspired by, and understand the natural environment.
• IEEM - Training events organised through the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management
• Exploring Biodiversity - an interactive introduction to UK biodiversity for students (GCSE and A-level), and for amateur enthusiasts.
• TES Teaching Resources- free teaching resources with 1000s cross-curricular biodiversity related activities for the classroom including lesson plans and worksheets
• National Science & Engineering Week - week long series of events around the country which take place in mid-March each year. NSEW is co-ordinated by the British Science Association
• Cool It Schools - This initiative is calling on young people worldwide to do something positive about climate change. Help create the biggest inter-school wildlife conservation habitat in the UK by joining in the Concrete Jungle. Teachers can download a special pack, which includes the Darwin Guide to Recording Wildlife.
• Schumacher College - The college is an international centre for transformative learning and sustainable living, and runs an extensive programme of short courses from 4 days to 3 weeks on a whole range of subjects including economics, business, design, ecology and art.
Habitat Data
• NBN Habitats Dictionary - The NBN Habitats Dictionary brings those classifications in current use in the United Kingdom together as a single publicly accessible information resource.
• IHS Integrated Habitat System - an innovative approach to the collection and management of habitat data, the Integrated Habitat System (IHS) links different habitat classifications together enabling disparate datasets to be combined. Developed by Somerset Environmental Records Centre
• MESH - a framework for Mapping European Seabed Habitats, with easy access to an interactive mapping page, a catalogue of mapping studies, practical guides, tool kits, data templates and technical reports
UK Environmental Data Initiatives
• UK EOF - The UK-Environmental Observation Framework strives to change the way the UK perceives, values, archives and uses information from observation activities by working across public departments and agencies, the voluntary sector, industry and academia
• MEDIN - MEDIN is a partnership of UK organisations committed to improving access to marine data.
International Biodiversity and Environmental Data Initiatives
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) - provides access to millions of data records shared via the GBIF network of which the NBN forms the UK node
• ARKive - a unique collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files illustrating the world's species
• Encyclopedia of Life - an ambitious project to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth
• EurOBIS - European Marine Sites, Datasets, Species and Distribution
• iOBIS - An on-line, open-access, globally-distributed network of systematic, ecological, and environmental information systems
• GEOSS - Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)
INSPIRE Regulations and UK Location Programme
Environmental Information Regulations – the EIR include the definition of public authority (paragraph 2) which also applies to the INSPIRE Regulations
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3391/regulation/2/made
INSPIRE Directive: Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2007:108:0001:0014:EN:PDF
INSPIRE Regulations: the legislation under which the INSPIRE Directive became UK law in December 2009
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/3157/contents/made
European Commission INSPIRE website: information about INSPIRE for the 27 member states of the European Union to whom the legislation applies
http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm
UK Location Programme: information and contact details for the Defra body set up to provide strategic leadership of INSPIRE delivery in the UK
http://data.gov.uk/location/uk-location-programme
INSPIRE Data Specification for Species Distribution Data: Draft technical specifications for INSPIRE compliant species distribution datasets
http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/Data_Specifications/INSPIRE_DataSpecification_SD_v3.0rc3.pdf
INSPIRE Data Specification for Habitat Data – Draft technical specifications for INSPIRE compliant habitat datasets
http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/Data_Specifications/INSPIRE_DataSpecification_HB_v3.0rc3.pdf
INSPIRE Data Specification for Protected Site Data – Technical specifications for INSPIRE compliant protected site datasets
http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/Data_Specifications/INSPIRE_DataSpecification_PS_v3.1.pdf
INSPIRE Knowledge hub community - A group within the
Local Government Association's professional social network site for sharing information and experiences about achieving INSPIRE compliance
https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/group/inspiredirectiveanduklocationprogramme
UK Location Getting Started Guides - Guidance on achieving INSPIRE compliance provided by the UK Location Programme
http://data.gov.uk/search/apachesolr_search?filters=tid%3A16631
UK Location Metadata Editor - a tool provided by UK Location Programme for creating and editing INSPIRE compliant metadata
http://locationmetadataeditor.data.gov.uk/geonetwork/srv/en/main.home
Northern Ireland GI Strategy – Information about Northern Ireland’s strategy on geographic information, which includes useful resources about INSPIRE compliance
http://www.gistrategyni.gov.uk/index.htm
Mapping
• Nearby co-ordinate converter - If you need to be able to convert a Post Code to a Grid Reference or a Latitude and Longitude measurement to a Grid Reference you can use the tool on this 'Nearby' website.
• Grab a Grid Reference - Resource, using Vice County Boundaries which allows you to easily find national grid references. Developed by Keith Balmer
• MAGIC - A public facing website which allows users to view and interrogate map-based environmental scheme and designation information by means of an interactive map, static maps and a dataset information and download facility. There are currently almost 200 datasets available on MAGIC. The service makes use of standard GIS tools to allow people to view and query the available data
NBN Funders and Sponsors
• Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - provides funding to NBN through BioD services Ltd
• Environment Heritage Service Northern Ireland - provide annual funding to the NBN Trust
• Aggregate Industries - a previous sponsor of the NBN Conference and data partner
• Syngenta - sponsors of the NBN conference in 2008 and 2011
Mineral Products Association - sponsors of the NBN Conference 2012
• See also the list of NBN Trust members above