By Dilek Fraisl, IIASA Ecosystems Services and Management Program
In October 2015, we launched our latest game, Picture Pile. The idea is simple: look at a pair of satellite images from different years and tell us if you can see any evidence of deforestation. Thanks to the participation of many volunteers, 2.69 million pictures have already been sorted in our pile of 5 million pairs. But we still have a long way to go, and we need your help to get us there!
Screenshot from the game: click for more information (Image credit Tobias Sturn)
Deforestation is one of the most serious environmental problems in the world today. Forests cover a third of the land area on Earth, producing vital oxygen, habitats for a diversity of wildlife, and important ecosystem services. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), some 46,000 to 58,000 square miles of forest are lost each year, which is equivalent to 48 football fields every minute. But this is a rough estimate since deforestation is very difficult to track. Reasons why are that satellite imagery can be of insufficient spatial resolution to map deforestation accurately, deforestation mostly occurs in small chunks that may not be visible from medium-resolution imagery, and very high-resolution data sets are expensive and can require big data processing capabilities, so can only be used for limited areas.
To help contribute to better mapping of deforestation, researchers in IIASA’s Earth Observation Systems (EOS) group, led by Steffen Fritz, have been working on novel projects to engage citizens in scientific data collection that can complement satellite-based traditional deforestation monitoring. One of the latest applications is Picture Pile, a game that makes use of very high-resolution satellite images spanning the last decade. Designed by Tobias Sturn, the aim is to provide data that can help researchers build a better map of deforestation. Players are provided with a pair of images that span two time periods and are then asked to answer a simple question: “Do you see tree loss over time?” After examining the image, the player drags the images to the right for “yes,” left for “no,” or down to indicate “maybe” when the deforestation is not clearly visible.
Every image is sorted multiple times by numerous independent players, in order to build confidence in the results, and also to gain an understanding of how good the players are at recognizing visible patterns of deforestation. Once enough data are collected at a single location, the images are taken out of the game and new ones are added, thereby increasing the spatial coverage of our mapped area over time. Right now we are focusing on Tanzania and Indonesia, two regions where we know there are problems with existing maps of deforestation.
Picture Pile is focusing first on Indonesia (pictured) and Tanzania – two regions where there are problems with existing maps of deforestation. Photo (cc) Aulia Erlangga for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Once the pile is fully sorted, the 5 million photos in the data set will be used to develop better maps of forest cover and forest loss using hybrid techniques developed by the group as well as inputs to classification algorithms. We will also use the data to validate the accuracy of existing global land cover maps. Finally, we will mine the data set to look for patterns regarding quality (for example, how many samples do we need to provide to the “crowd” before we can be confident enough to use their data in further research). In short, by integrating citizens in scientific research, Picture Pile will also help us improve the science of land cover monitoring through crowdsourcing mechanisms.
So please join in and help us get to the finish line. You can play Picture Pile in your browser or you can download the free iOS/Android app from the Apple and Google Play stores and play on your smartphone or tablet. Your contributions will help scientists like those at IIASA to tackle global problems such as deforestation and environmental degradation. At the same time you may win some great prizes: a brand new smartphone, a tablet, or a mini tablet.
More information:
- Picture Pile website
- Download flier (PDF)
- Twitter: @picturepile
Reference
Schepaschenko D, See L, Lesiv M, McCallum I, Fritz S, Salk C, Perger C, Schepaschenko M, Shvidenko A, Kovalevskyi S, Albrecht F, Kraxner F, Bun A, Maksyutov S, Sokolov A, Dürauer M, Obersteiner M. (2015) Global hybrid forest mask: synergy of remote sensing, crowd sourcing and statistics. Remote Sensing of the Environment, 162, 208-220. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2015.02.011
Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the Nexus blog, nor of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
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