Observation.org

Observation.org is a worldwide platform of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists to collect, validate and share biodiversity observations. Observation.org may be accessed via its website or from its mobile applications like ObsIdentify. The Observation.org database holds 233 million nature observations and 79 million photos. It is published and hosted in the Netherlands under Dutch and European law by the non-profit foundation Observation International.

History
The history of Observation International started in 2003 with the website Waarneming.nl. In 2017 Waarneming.nl counted 50 million observations. Waarneming.be followed in 2008. There were 5000 daily visitors and a total of 1.5 million after 5 years. During the COVID-19 pandemic location data of observations were hidden to prevent gathering of bird watchers.

Quality assurance
Quality assurance measures on Observation.org is managed by established species experts responsible for curating the reference set of observations. Automated validation, supported by artificial intelligence, uses this reference set to aid validators in managing the extensive dataset. However, human experts retain final authority in all validation matters.

Open data


The observations that have been approved are shared as open data on Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The dataset comprises approximately 82 million occurrences, 19 million annotated photos and 69,000 annotated sound recordings. Observation.org is the third largest publisher of the world on GBIF.

Use of Observation.org data
As of December 2023, more than 1,700 research results have been published that cite the Observation.org dataset on GBIF, often in the fields of ecology, conservation, climate change. This research includes for example the discovery of new species for a country, documentation of changes in behavior, monitoring invasive alien species, finding causes of local extinction and tracking zoonoses such as Avian influenza. Other examples are the integration of nature data into national research programmes and European biodiversity projects. The annotated Observation.org photos are used to train automatic species recognition models.

Users of Observation.org regularly participate in Bioblitzes to collaboratively collect nature observations. Examples of these Bioblitzes are the City Nature Challenge and the Biomaratón de Otoño in Spain.

Public Perception

 * The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology recommends the app ObsIdentify beside others for detection of alien species.
 * As apps for identification NatureSpot recommends seek and ObsIdentify.
 * The Sussex Wildlife Trust finds that ObsIdentify works particularly well with invertebrates.
 * ObsIdentify, iNaturalist, seek, iRecord and Picture This are the favorite identifying apps for the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN)
 * Birdwatch (magazine) UK draws a positive conclusion after testing ObsIdentify. It is easy to use and provides a lot of information.

International names
In the Netherlands, Observation.org is primarily known as Waarneming.nl. In the Dutch Caribbean, the name Observation.org is used. In Belgium, the platform is primarily known as Waarnemingen.be (Flanders) and Observations.be (Wallonia).