The EU Bee Partnership (EUBP) Prototype Platform: data model description

Abstract

The EU Bee Partnership is an initiative that was created in 2017 to bring together stakeholders who have an interest in data sharing on bee health and beekeeping in the EU. The EU Bee Partnership Prototype Platform aims at collecting and exchanging standardised data on pollinator health and other relevant data based on the Bee Hub Proof of concept initially led by BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination within the framework of the Internet of Bees Project. This new stage of development responds to the main conclusions of the EU Bee Partnership: the need for data standardisation and communication for the benefit of stakeholders and EFSA. The work developed during the prototyping of the platform funded by EFSA has included the design and implementation of data models for the data integrated in the Prototype Platform (https://bee-ppp.eu). A procedure for data and metadata integration has been created and implemented, including validation of the data quality. The platform was enriched with datasets coming from existing projects and public databases. Additionally, several algorithms for exploring the data and extracting ready-to-use information have been proposed in this phase providing examples and avenues for future development. Finally, a reporting feature was added, and some reports were produced, to illustrate the type of information that the analyses of the platform could generate in the future for the benefit of stakeholders, institutions and more sustainable bee health and beekeeping in the EU.

Emerging threats and opportunities to managed bee species in European agricultural systems: a horizon scan

“…Furthermore, integration of disease and parasite prevalence with meteorological predictions and nectar flow information can provide the basis for important decision support tools for beekeepers, provided that the data is validated with appropriate field studies. A recent project attempted to integrate different types of data originating from diverse sources 15 , but further effort is required in this direction as currently data collection is highly unaggregated and diverse. Geographical information systems can also be used for supporting local and central authorities in decision-making processes relating to environmental planning 16 .…”