Visual Analytics for Exploring Changes in Biodiversity

We report on ongoing work in which we are designing a visual interface to a large database of species observation data. Our design allows the data to be explored and visually summarised by space, time and species, helping assess the data’s suitability for helping answer questions about biodiversity. Key issues we are addressing include working with large datasets, dealing with varying spatial and temporal precisions and dealing with different qualities of data collection and sampling strategies. Our visual interface design is being informed by a set of research questions and a planned user-centred workshop.