Kit Macleod

Maps created by 1960s schoolchildren provide new insights into habitat losses A new study of 1960s maps, many of which were created by young people, has provided important fresh evidence of the timing and extent of habitat losses caused by agricultural intensification and urban...

Key findings:
• 42% loss of rough grassland, heath and wetland since 1930
• Pastures and meadows reduced by 29%
• Arable land up by one third by 1990
• Urban areas rose from 13% to 20%

A fresh perspective on how our landscapes changed over 90 years

www.ceh.ac.uk/press/maps-c...

3/ #LandUse

Crowdfunder success prepares ocean robotics game for launch Schools in Argyll and Bute to receive copies of the game

We did it! A successful Crowdfunder will see the development our table-top game Drones & Droids.🤖

As well as being available to anyone to buy after we've honoured our fundraiser commitments, copies of the game will be given to local schools.

www.sams.ac.uk/news/sams-ne...

Maybe Climate Action Tracker updates could be required reading for all. Complicated information clearly presented. There is hope, see what has been achieved since 2015. A long way to go before a sustainable future is achieved @climateactiontracker.org
climateactiontracker.org/publications...

Collage of several documents and infographics from the CaSTCo project

We were pleased to have been part of #CaSTCo, helping advance collaborative river monitoring across England and Wales.

As well as the new Impact Report, a companion document offers an ambitious vision for the future: castco.org/roadmap

#RiverRecovery

3/3

Several photos of people and people sampling in rivers, plus the headline Putting people at the heart of river recovery, and four information points: 4.9 million citizen science datapoints shared openly 250k hours donated by citizen scientists, valued at more than £3million 132k locations monitored 35k volunteers, including approximately 18,000 who monitor monthly

The #CaSTCo project shows how community data can drive decisions on river management in England & Wales.

UKCEH co-led work on data management with Rivers Trust colleagues, developing CaSTCo Data Governance Principles & supporting best practice in citizen science.

🔗 castco.org/impact-report

🧪 1/

I enjoyed working with the #CaSTCo #citizen-science community to learn about their needs (related to data; from collection to use). One of our outputs, was a set of data governance principles. Read more in impact report. @theriverstrust.bsky.social @ukceh.bsky.social
castco.org/impact-report/

Impact Report - CastCo Contents of this report Section 1: Working together CaSTCo’s strength came from the network that surrounded and supported it. Collaboration flourished through shared research, national...

Great to see UK river #citizen-science impact report #CaSTCo published. Telling all about the community's achievements. @ukceh.bsky.social @waterrangers.bsky.social @theriverstrust.bsky.social @riverflies.bsky.social
castco.org/impact-report/

Learn from Simon about impressive #FDRI efforts to provide quality controlled near-real time data on how our catchments/rivers are responding hydrologically.

Map of UK with dots indicating river flow stations and colours indicating number of years data available in UK-Flow15

📣 Great news for UK hydrology!

The UK Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) has announced release of two new datasets: UK-Flow15 and CAMELS-GB v2. They provide access to sub-daily river flow and hydrometeorological data across 100s of UK catchments

🔗 fdri.org.uk/news/new-hyd...

1/ 🧪

YouTube video by UKCEH FDRI: Large-sample hydrology data webinar

🎥 Our new webinar introduces UK-Flow15 and CAMELS-GB v2 and shares what’s next for FDRI data.

Watch here 👉 youtu.be/JMZYzlLA_h8

Thanks to all the partners and the community effort making these datasets possible 👏🏼

#FDRI #Hydrology #EnvironmentalScience

If you're tired of infinite social media scroll, but still want to stay up to date on all things geospatial, tech innovation, & E84, subscribe to our newsletter!

The most recent edition just hit inboxes last week! Check it out & subscribe: mailchi.mp/b55202161651...

Thanks to these key individuals to helping #FDRI improving knowledge of floods and droughts.

Palisades resident evacuate the area during the Palisades Fire on 7 January 2025. Credit: Kit Karzen / Alamy Stock Photo

NEW – Global wildfires burned an area of land larger than India in 2024 |
@orladwyer.carbonbrief.org @yaninequiroz.bsky.social @ayeshatandon.carbonbrief.org @giulianaviglione.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/AQ99WCO

Learning about a wide range of meteorological and soil sensor systems from members of the excellent @ukceh.bsky.social #FDRI team.

An enjoyable day with @ukceh.bsky.social Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure #FDRI field and digital colleagues exploring data collection on the banks of the River Thames.

Coming soon on Counting the Earth...

🔥 We discuss the changing nature of wildfires with UKCEH fire scientist Dr Doug Kelley. And we're at Holt Heath in Dorset, scene of a devastating wildfire in August, to talk to Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Service.

🎧🧪 Subscribe on your favourite #podcast provider!

Is the term "vibe engineering" kind of stupid, leaning into the gatekeeping distinction between "coders" and "real software engineers"

It absolutely is. That's why I think it might stick!

"We will produce actionable guidance, including a white paper and updated tools, to help repositories, funders, and policymakers strengthen data infrastructure and build resilience against future crises."

A split image from UN Environment Programme showing a contrast between two scenes: Left side shows a barren landscape with cracked, dry soil under a dramatic sunset sky with bare tree branches silhouetted against orange and yellow clouds. Text reads "Investing in climate solutions" Right side shows a vibrant green tree with fresh leaves against a bright blue sky with white clouds, overlooking a lush yellow-flowered meadow. Text reads "Investing in peace" An equals sign (=) connects the two phrases. The UN Environment Programme logo appears in the top right corner. The image uses stark visual contrast to illustrate the relationship between climate action and peace.

🌍🔥 Climate change fuels insecurity—from resource conflicts to forced migration.

@unep.org explains how climate adaptation & peacebuilding can go hand in hand to build resilience.

Learn more:https://www.unep.org/topics/disasters-and-conflicts/environment-security/climate-change-and-security-risks

Decided to live blog this morning's OpenAI DevDay announcements, since I'm in the audience simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/6/o...

New Lonboard release and new demo! Integrating marimo and Apache DataFusion to visualize the NYC taxi dataset. developmentseed.org/lonboard/lat...

F3: The Open-Source Data File Format for the Future SIGMOD 2025

Our SIGMOD paper with our friends at Tsinghua + @wesmckinney.com + @pateljm.bsky.social on creating a next generation open-source data file format is out. F3 is a future-proof file format avoids the mistakes of Parquet.
📄 Paper: db.cs.cmu.edu/papers/2025/...
📁 Code: github.com/future-file-...

Learning about UK flood hydrology roadmap at #HydroJULES @ukceh.bsky.social Royal Society meeting.

Panel about "Whose data we can trust?" Great to hear different perspectives on challenges and needs. #CaSTCo river citizen science data.

Alfie and Josh talking about the challenges of community citizen science data #CaSTCo @odihq.bsky.social

Lots of sharing citizen science experiences from across the individual river trusts @theriverstrust.bsky.social #CaSTCo

Fascinating panel about taking #CaSTCo river citizen science data roadmap ahead. Great to the themes in the questions from the audience about funding, lessons learned, trust etc.

Screengrab from HydroSOS portal with world map on left (shades of red indicate flows lower than normal, blue higher than normal) and on the right a bar chart showing the status of the river Mpanga

The report stresses the cascading impacts of too much or too little water on economies and society.

Future reports will include more data, supported by initiatives like the Global Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS), coordinated by UKCEH.

🔗 wmo.int/publication-...

2/ #StateOfWater

The long-term monitoring addressed in this review is wide-ranging and includes that undertaken by the UK Environmental Change Network. Please take some time to share your views. The closing date is 9am (UK time) on 29th September.

close-up photograph of a brilliant red and black snake in a field

🐍 Scaling up biodiversity data access ✨#VertNet launches a GBIF hosted portal!

Run by a dedicated volunteer network, VertNet plays a vital role in mobilizing biodiversity datasets worldwide. 🌍

🔗 Explore the new portal: gbif.link/VertNet