ARISE Project: Digital Biodiversity Infrastructure in the Netherlands

In this episode, we speak to five people who have contributed to the ARISE project, a digital infrastructure that aims to identify and monitor all species in the Netherlands. These conversations took place at the ARISE day held at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in March 2022. We hear from:

• Elaine van Ommen Kloeke, ARISE's programme manager
• Jacob Kamminga, a computer science researcher specialising in sensor networks and machine learning
• Chantal Huijbers, senior project manager developing the underlying infrastructure of ARISE
• Rosalie Kross, an interaction designer whose graduate project involved shaping the ARISE platform
• Stephan Peterse, owner of Faunabit, a company that builds the DIOPSIS insect camera traps used by ARISE.

These discussions touch on the challenges of bringing multiple different kinds of data together in an ambitious long-term project, the hardware needed for taking pictures of insects, and the development of algorithms for automated species identification.

Interviewer: Michelle Westerlaken

Producer: Harry Murdoch

Visit the Smart Forests Atlas for more perspectives on ARISE.

Image: DIOPSIS insect camera used in the ARISE project. Image source: Michelle Westerlaken.