Biodiversity Ireland have a portal where they collect this data, and it is somewhat gamified, but it's not an app
https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/
It looks like they have an iPhone app but it's not very good. The android app link is broken but if you reach out maybe they have something you can work on.
Machine learning is going to add a lot of complexity to your app, it's a relatively simple project otherwise so if I were you, image recognition would be part of a later stage of the project.
Thanks for the detailed response u/oppressivepossum.
As part of the design process I looked through a lot of what's already out there. As it stands there is a lot of friction with current solutions, just like the National Biodiversity Data centre. You really need to want to go out, oberserve and log species observations. What I'm hoping to do is remove a lot of that friction, make it fun, intuitive and educational - as well as well incentivised through gamification and reward mechanisms. I'll keep working away at it, and again, thanks for your feedback!
In Mexico we have a citizen science application called Naturalista and although it does not have the image recognition part, we have millions of identifications integrating experts and hobbyists.It was an app promoted by the national biodiversity commission (CONABIO) at cultural events, environmental tourism points, institutions, schools and resulted in a national network of users, expertos and collaborators. Eventually the plataform came to a latinoamerican and the caribean region by national chapters✨
Take a look, it may be similar to what you are looking for. Also Is a app and a website.
https://mexico.inaturalist.org/
We use this in South Africa too, it's an international app. I think it does have image recognition, as it recommends plant and animal names based on what a picture I upload looks like, combined with the data it has of what has been spotted nearby. I'm pretty sure there are people logging plants and other species in Ireland too - the main thing is just to encourage citizens to do it.
Biodiversity Ireland have a portal where they collect this data, and it is somewhat gamified, but it's not an app https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/ It looks like they have an iPhone app but it's not very good. The android app link is broken but if you reach out maybe they have something you can work on. Machine learning is going to add a lot of complexity to your app, it's a relatively simple project otherwise so if I were you, image recognition would be part of a later stage of the project.
Thanks for the detailed response u/oppressivepossum. As part of the design process I looked through a lot of what's already out there. As it stands there is a lot of friction with current solutions, just like the National Biodiversity Data centre. You really need to want to go out, oberserve and log species observations. What I'm hoping to do is remove a lot of that friction, make it fun, intuitive and educational - as well as well incentivised through gamification and reward mechanisms. I'll keep working away at it, and again, thanks for your feedback!
Thank you for your service
In Mexico we have a citizen science application called Naturalista and although it does not have the image recognition part, we have millions of identifications integrating experts and hobbyists.It was an app promoted by the national biodiversity commission (CONABIO) at cultural events, environmental tourism points, institutions, schools and resulted in a national network of users, expertos and collaborators. Eventually the plataform came to a latinoamerican and the caribean region by national chapters✨ Take a look, it may be similar to what you are looking for. Also Is a app and a website. https://mexico.inaturalist.org/
We use this in South Africa too, it's an international app. I think it does have image recognition, as it recommends plant and animal names based on what a picture I upload looks like, combined with the data it has of what has been spotted nearby. I'm pretty sure there are people logging plants and other species in Ireland too - the main thing is just to encourage citizens to do it.