Flying high with PLOTS

24 Nov, 2012        Author: Glorianna Davenport

Flying a kite!

What can be more fun than flying a kite on a beautiful fall day? Try doing so with a purpose.  We did so with a group of Boston-area PLOTS members, and others, curious to learn how kites can facilitate a low-cost approach to mapping. PLOTS, Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, is a grass-roots citizen science organization that encourages people to make maps by collecting their own aerial photos then knitting these images together into a detailed map. At Tidmarsh, we are hoping to use this technique to document the restoration process as it progresses at a detail not provided by Google’s updates.

The day, Saturday the 21st, was picture perfect! Sun mixed with clouds to created a spectacular sky-show; temperatures hovered around 50 degrees; and a light breeze on land held the promise of stronger winds aloft.

Jennifer Hudon, one of the organizers of the Boston group, greeted participants from as far away as New Hampshire and Maine and as well as some Tidmarsh neighbors. Jeff Warren, founder of Public Laboratory, traveling with the gang from Cambridge, Ma. in a fleet of Zip cars from Cambridge, Mass. arrived somewhat later, after extricating themselves from Plymouth’s Thanksgiving Day parade!

Following a rapid round of introductions, Jeff pulled two cameras, two half-juice bottles, string and two clips from his backpack. After demonstrating how to set the camera into the plastic housing, Jeff encouraged participants to work in two groups. In less than 20 minutes the two kites had been assembled, cameras attached and were ready for the launch!

A mic is passed around

Preparing the kites!

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, people took turns working the two kites, one of which flew a visible spectrum camera and the other an IR camera. Wind allowed groups gathered on a knoll to capture the expanse to the south including the former impoundment. After about 40 minutes aloft, each kite was brought down to check camera focus, exposure and battery life.  For the second flight, the fliers ran with the reels in order to capture the former bogs and stream system to the North.

Flying high!

Evan estimates height

During the first flight, Jeff shared advice with different members of the group. Geoffrey Griffiths explored how he might work with Tidmarsh Farms and use this technology in his ecology class for 9th and 10th graders at the Rising Tide Charter School. Meanwhile, 4 year old Gus with a little help from Dad and Jeff enjoyed flying a kite for the first time. The sub-text of for this age-group involves how to separate the physics of the kite flying ever higher with the psychology of possession.

Jeff Warren explains a fine point

Geoff Griffiths, Ecology teacher, Rising Tide School

At the end of the day, almost 8 gigs of images had been captured in 4 flights.  Jeff explained that these images would be uploaded to MapMill, a “Hot or Not” open-source, crowd sourcing facility for evaluating aerial images. Sure enough, hours after the group left Tidmarsh, the images were ready for sorting. In this task, people work remotely to mark the sharpest, clearest images where the camera is looking straight down. These images will eventually be stitched together using the open-source application, MapKnitter, into an arial map. More information on progress of this effort can be found in a posting by Jeff Warren.

MapMill provides engaging statistics about the crowd-sourcing process. For instance, the days immediately following the kite-flying event, over 14 people who had been at the event contributed to sorting expertise, and of the 1,032 images taken on the second flight with the visible spectrum camera 70.8% of the images had been ranked more than one viewer.  The best images provide significantly more detail than those on Google Maps.  Here is an example of what the former impoundment looks like:

http://archive.publiclaboratory.org/massachusetts/2012-11-17-massachusetts-tidmarsh-farms/visible-1/

A sincere thanks from all of us at Tidmarsh Farm to everyone who participated!  We are hoping to use this technology to track ecological change on site, and would love to see you at the next mapping event that will be held in April or May 2012.

All ages enjoy life on the farm

Living Observatory Research Summit, November 16, 2012

22 Nov, 2012        Author: administrator

Living Observatory Introduced

Living Observatory is an effort to sense and understand landscape in the fullest, most sensual and most prophetic way possible. It involves a collective journey of experts and volunteers -- scientists, technologists, artists, storytellers and neighbors – who are willing to work together to re-invent how we witness ecological transformation:   to peel back the skin of the landscape, attempt to envisage the subsurface, and evaluate the impact of the current anthropogenic regime.

In support of this effort, Living Observatory held its first annual Living Observatory – Tidmarsh Farms Research Summit, “Witness to Transformation: Developing New Tools to Document, Analyze an Experience a Changing Landscape “ on Friday, November 16.  Held at the MIT Media Lab, this event brought together 33 scientists, restoration specialists and technologists. While all of these individuals have been engaged at some level in mapping, probing, monitoring and thinking about the visitor experience, many were meeting each other for the first time.

The meeting included a presentation of recent findings about the hydrology of the site by Prof. David Boutt of the Department of Geosciences at University of Massachusetts Amherst, with significant contributions by Daniele Hare, a research assistant working with Prof. Boutt.  Alex Hackman, the restoration specialist from Massachusetts Dept of Fish and Wildlife Division of Ecological Restoration who is managing the Tidmarsh Farms - Beaver Dam Brook restoration project, helped tie these findings to the restoration plan.

In other sessions, participants from the public, academic and private organizations explored issues around monitoring habitat including the challenges and opportunities of real-time monitoring,  how we might use technology as well as monitoring activities to augment the visitor experience, and issues of data preservation and use.  Some of these topics will be high-lighted in later posts to this blog.

As the summit drew to a close, Kevin Brooks made the observation that Living Observatory celebrates stories from many perspectives and that these perspectives are reminiscent of The Powers of Ten, an iconic film made by Charles and Ray Eames in 1977. Today, as we consider how to grow these stories, we can invite a participant-audience to engage in story creation through crowd sourcing aspects of the research.  As he points out, if people are engaged, they will care about the story that is being told.

This idea was put into practice the following day when the Public Laboratory held their Boston-area kite-mapping event on Tidmarsh Farms (see our next post).

Photosynth image of Boston Mapping Community

Investigations Continue

21 Aug, 2012        Author: Glorianna Davenport

Any large humanly orchestrated project progresses in cycles - planning, information gathering, analysis, team building, fund raising, decision making, construction, reporting etc.  Unlike tidal flows, these cycles are not regular, discrete, or predictable; however, in their ebb and flow, they slowly advance the projects goals.

The Tidmarsh Farms/Beaver Dam Brook Restoration project provides a case in point.  During 2011, we focused on positioning the project, building a team and fundraising. In January 2012, project work seemed to explode: new survey data, information about sediment, water levels and water quality, inventories of plants, breeding birds and butterflies progressed, and Interfluve, Inc. advanced a 15% conceptual scheme.  While this can be considered progress, discussion highlighted the many issues that still need discussion and resolution. Chief among these: we need better flow data and more information about the sub-surface before we can agree on channel form, habitat types, or active vs passive planting areas. Similarly, we need a more reliable assessment of habitat suitability for diadromous fish in Fresh Pond in order to advance a design for the connecting channel.

Danielle and David mark the transects August 17, 2012

In order to be confident about channel form, as well as plant habitat on different bog cells, we need to develop a better image of the sub-surface of the bog cells.  In April, David Boutt a professor in the Geosciences Department of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst began to work on imaging the hydrology of the bog cells using GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) and Resistivity; these technologies allow us to "see" below grade to the shape and depth of the peat formation, the likely course of former stream channels and the intersection of peat to sand, clay or rock.  This coming week, David will be back with his team to extend this imaging of the subsurface. In preparation we will be removing summer vegetation that makes measurement using this technique difficult.

Brad Chase explores the channel

On August 8, Alex Hackman (DER), Eric Hutchins (NOAA) David Gould (Town of Plymouth) met with Brad Chase and colleagues from Mass. Division of Marine Fisheries to discuss the connection to Fresh Pond.  Brad specializes in diadromous fish biology and will be evaluating Fresh Pond as potential habitat for herring.  During this meeting, David removed 3 flash boards from the dam; this was followed by digging a feeder channel that will allow some of the stagnant water upstream of the dam to flow. We then walked up to Fresh Pond to look at the outflow and discuss habitat suitability. We then showed Brad the headwaters and visited the outlet at White Horse Beach.  In September, we will organize a clean up of the channel connecting the farm to Fresh Pond.  We hope people who live along this channel will join us in this endeavor.

The start of the run - White Horse Beach August 8, 2012