The BioScore

BioScore is a composite score that reflects the "BioCultural" health of a particular location. Both social and ecological indicators are included. If you share ANY insights from ANY element of these formulae, please credit Guardians of Earth (GuardiansofEarth.io). THIS IS THE LATEST OPERATING ITERATION - (10 Dec, 2024)

If anyone suggests they have a universal formula (or even a "standard") for scoring Biodiversity or BioCultural health, we believe they are wrong. We believe there is no single, end-all formula. The BioScore formula on Guardians of Earth is continually updating as its network of communities grows and pursues the mission of connecting people to the value of place. The BioScore is constantly under review by the community, and GoE is always accepting feeding and suggestions for improvement. If you contact us, we will ALWAYS get back to you. Below is the latest operating iteration of the BioScore. Newer iterations are under review, but have not been implemented - either because they haven't undergone enough rigorous review, or the engineers haven't yet coded them. Upgrades are published here: ------ The BioScore uses a multi-dimensional approach to analyse the location defined as defined by the boundaries on the map. These are: 1. Species Diversity Score 2. Monitoring Score (data quantity) 3. BioValue (data quality) 4. Community Score (community engagement) 5. Stories score (quantity and quality combined) Analysis Techniques

Data is analyzed by comparing conditions in the realm with surrounding areas that are 5 and 12.5 times the size of the realm, centered around it, to identify trends in biodiversity and human interaction with the ecosystem. This comparative intents to create a fairer baseline metric. Overall Score

1. Species Diversity Score Measures species recorded in the Realm relative to observations made, region, and time.

Where: Sr = Species spotted in realm Or = Total observations in realm S5r = Total species in a quadrilateral area that is 5x the size of the realm S12.5r= Total species in a quadrilateral area that is 12.5x the size of the realm Sthis_year​ = Species spotted in realm this ye Slast_2_years​ = Species spotted in realm in the last two yea cs = species constant (= 1) cso= species per observation constant (= 100) cls= locality species constant (= 500) cgr= greater region species constant (= 1000) ccy= current year species constant (= 50) cst= species trend constant (= 100)

Notes: • This year = Last 12 months • Last two years = Last 24 months

2. Monitoring Score (data quantity) Measures the amount of data available to the Realm relative to region and time.

Where: Or = Total observations in realm O5r = Total observations in a 5x area O12.5r= Total species in a quadrilateral area that is 12.5x the size of the realm Othis_year​ = Species spotted in realm this ye Olast_2_years​ = Species spotted in realm in the last two years co = species constant (= 1) cso= species per observation constant (= 100) cls= locality species constant (= 500) cgr= greater region species constant (= 1000) ccy= current year species constant (= 50) cst= species trend constant (= 100)

3. BioValue (data quality) Measures the quality of the data provided, based on scoring of the data by community experts. For example, data verified by proven experts, whether it's gone through a blind peer review system, whether it has image evidence, etc., will score higher than non peer reviewed data, etc.

Where: caos = average observations score constant = 0 if Observations are 0 Otherwise the following scores: - Open social network with image and identification = 20 - "Research grade" via social network (not blind) = 100 - "Expert valued" - Scaled based on blind peer review scoring of "data value" by proven taxonomy expertise within a category (see Oracle of Life) lowest (e.g. commonly recorded species of low value) = 20~ highest (e.g. unique species and indicator of environmental health) = 800~ 4. Community Score (community engagement) Measures the number of people contributing data to the realm relative to the amount of data they contribute per person, relative to region and time.

Where: Hr = Total number of human observers in realm Or = Total observations in realm H5r = Total number of human observers in a 5x area H12.5r = Total number of human observers in a 12.5x area Hthis_year = Number of human observers this year Hlast_2_years​ = Number of human observers in the last two years Constants: cp= People Constant (=1) copp = observations_per_person_constant (=10) clp = locality_people_constant (=100) cgrp = greater_region_people_constant (=50) ccyp = urrent_year_people_constant (=50) cat = activity_trend_constant (=100)

5. Stories score (quantity and quality combined) A carefully designed collective valuation methodology, where knowledge content is weighted in favour of local people with stronger connections to the place where the story exists. Stories are awarded "Songs," each worth a score of one. For details, see The Songs. Overall BioScore

The above 5 scores are added up to form the BioScore.