The LIFE RIPARIAS (Reaching Integrated and Prompt Action in Response to Invasive Alien Species) project aims to optimize the management of invasive alien species in river basins across regional borders in Belgium. The project receives funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union (LIFE19 NAT/BE/000953). A primary objective of RIPARIAS is to improve dataflows on invasive alien species in Belgium for management interventions.
The early detection of and rapid response to invasive species is essential to tackle their impact and manage efficiently. Managers need to be rapidly informed when invasive species occur in their area and a coordinated response also requires information on invasive alien species in neighbouring areas. Data on invasive alien species in Belgium were typically scattered among a multitude of actors and databases. This early alert tool centralizes openly available data from various sources by harvesting them from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). They include data from official monitoring schemes, scientific projects and citizen science. Currently, data are displayed for the target species of the LIFE RIPARIAS project and for all invasive species of the IAS Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014.
Every signed in user has the possibility to create alerts. A new alert can be configured to target specific species, in specific locations and originating from specific datasets. The user can also choose at which frequency they want to receive notification e-mails.
Once such an alert is configured, the user will receive a notification e-mail for each alert when there are matching observations in the "unseen" status.
An observation will be considered as seen after the user has viewed the observation details page. There is also the possibility for a user to batch-mark all the observations corresponding to an alert as "seen".
We are always interested to hear you opinion or suggestions for improvement. And of course, if you have open data to contribute to the system, we can help you get them on there. We welcome any reactions on info@alert.riparias.be.