Geograph Britain and Ireland is a

web-based A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

project, begun in March 2005, to create a freely accessible archive of geographically located photographs of Great Britain and Ireland. Photographs in the Geograph collection are chosen to illustrate significant or typical features of each 1 km × 1 km (100 ha) grid square in the Ordnance Survey National Grid and the

Irish national grid reference system The Irish grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used for paper mapping in Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). The Irish grid partially overlaps the British grid, and uses a similar co-ordinate sy ...

.Hawgood D. Geograph or supplemental (June 2007)
(accessed 13 March 2008) There are 332,216 such grid squares containing at least some land or permanent structure (at low tide), of which 280,037 have Geographs.Geograph: Overview Statistics for Geograph British Isles
(accessed 24 June 2014) Geographs are being collected for all parts of Great Britain, Isle of Man and Ireland. The

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

fall outside Britain's grid system, but may be geographed using their local UTM grid. The project is sponsored by the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

, and extracts from the OS Landranger 1:50,000 scale maps illustrate the grid square pages. Geograph Project Limited is a charity registered in England and Wales, and the name Geograph is trademarked.

Contributions

Photographs can be contributed by any registered user, although they must be approved by a panel of moderators before appearing on the website. The main aim of moderation is to make the site 'classroom ready' so that inappropriate images are rejected. All images are licensed by the contributors using the Creative Commons ''cc-by-sa 2.0'' licence which permits modification and redistribution of the images under certain conditions. Contributors should be aware that they are granting everyone an irrevocable licence to use their image(s); it is very difficult to get an image removed once it appears on the website. Default photo resolution is a 1024 pixels long edge, with a minimum of 640 pixels and options for higher resolutions to be made available. The entire archive of images with RDF metadata is available for download via BitTorrent. As an incentive to increase coverage, participants are awarded a point each time they contribute the first photograph classified as a ''geograph'' to a grid square. There is, however, no limit to the number of images per square, and some squares have over 1000 images. Some participants combine geographing with other outdoor location sports such as letterboxing,

geocaching Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", at specific l ...

trigpointing Benchmarking, also known as benchmark hunting, is a hobby activity in which participants find benchmarks (also known as survey markers or geodetic control points). The term "bench mark" is used only to refer to survey markers that designate a ...

, benchmarking, and

peak bagging Peak bagging or hill bagging is an activity in which hikers, climbers, and mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world, with lists such as 100 Peaks ...

Types of image

Geograph images are classified by site moderators as: * ''Geograph'' – an image which usefully illustrates or characterises the area in which it was taken; * ''Accepted'' – an image which adds useful information about a square but which does not meet the requirements of a geograph; this includes close-ups, interiors, aerial shots, photos taken from outside the grid square, moveable objects that can't be shown on maps and silhouetted images; this category has subcategories 'Close Look', 'Inside', 'Aerial', 'Cross Grid' and 'Extra'; * ''Rejected'' – an image that does not meet the requirements of the Geograph Project. There is a special classification of image that is known as a First Geograph – the first image uploaded of a particular grid square which meets the requirements to be a geograph. Contributors can also gain Second, Third and Fourth visitor points for each square, depending on how many other geographers have already submitted geographs to that square. The relevant date is when the photo was submitted, rather than taken. A contributor gains a TPoint (Time-gap Point) by submitting a photo that was taken over five years after the most recent image for that square. A contributor can also gain a TPoint by submitting an historic photo to a square that was taken at least five years distant from any other photograph in the square. The site also provides a count of the number of grid squares each contributor has photographed (Personal Points). Some of the common themes for geograph photos include: * Physical landscape * Human

land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long ...

Built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human a ...

* Social interaction *

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

Local history Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small ...

Statistics

As of November 2021, the project had over 7 million photographs from over 13,300 contributors, covering over 98% of Great Britain and over 46% of Ireland. There were an average of 24.9 images per grid square. Milestones include: *29 November 2021: The 7 millionth image was submitted *17 January 2019: The 6 millionth image was submitted *5 July 2016: The 5 millionth image was submitted *9 June 2014: The 4 millionth image was submitted *August 2012: 80% coverage of Great Britain & Ireland *29 June 2012: The 3 millionth image was submitted *14 August 2010: The 2 millionth image was submitted *15 October 2008: Millionth image *8 April 2008: 750,000 images *13 March 2008: Two-thirds coverage of Great Britain & Ireland *25 July 2007: 500,000 images * 25 June 2007: 75% coverage of Great Britain * 30 May 2007: 10% coverage of IrelandGeograph Forums: Antici – - – - pation!
(accessed 14 April 2008) (Registration required) * 5 March 2007: 50% coverage of Great Britain & Ireland * 3 October 2006: 250,000 images * 17 August 2006: 50% coverage of Great Britain * 1 March 2006: 25% coverage of Great Britain & Ireland * 21 December 2005: 25% coverage of Great Britain

Photograph of the Year competition

Dirt road in the New Forest at Minstead, Hampshire - (geograph 2714308)

A weekly competition runs in the members-only forums to select the ''Photograph of the Year'' (POTY) from photographs taken that week. Each week one of a panel of volunteer selectors chooses around 50 of the week's best photos. Last week's winner then picks their favourite photo from the 50. After the end of the year the weekly winners are voted on to decide the best photo of each month and overall winner. The annual winners were; *2015 "Sunrise at Ross Back Sands" by Ian Capper *2014 "North end of Mochrum Loch" by David Baird *2013 "Whiteout in Ninesprings" by Eugene Birchall *2012 "A slipway on Luing" by Walter Baxter. *2011 "Morning Walk" by Mike Smith. *2010 "The north ridge of Stob Ban" by Karl and Ali *2009 "Miners Hill" by Ian Slater. *2008 "Deer Fence on the Shank of Drumfollow" by Gwen and James Anderson. *2007 "Horsey Drainage Mill" by Rodney Burton. *2006 "Islands of mud, East Hoyle Bank" by Peter Craine.

Awards

The Geograph site was awarded the

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

(UK & Ireland) Travel Find of the Year 2006. UK Wikimedian of the Year 2012 – Honourable Mention

Geograph Conference

On 17 February 2010, Geograph British Isles organised its first conference for contributors to the project. About 80 contributors attended to discuss the project in both plenary and break-out sessions. The event was hosted by Geograph's sponsor, Ordnance Survey. It took place at the Ordnance Survey head office at Romsey near

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and was reported by geography-related media. On 4 April 2012 a second conference took place at The Circle in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

. It took stock of where the project was at that time, as it neared 3 million submissions; and put forward potential solutions that could secure its financial future in the years ahead. The third conference took place at The

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Training and Conference Venue on Saturday 8 June 2013. Subjects discussed included funding of the project, educational use of the images and the moderation procedures applied to contributors' submissions. For the fourth conference, the venue was again

, the Ordnance Survey's new headquarters building at Adanac Park, on 27 June 2014. Subjects discussed included the quality of submitted photographs and titles, the production of high-quality descriptions, local studies, as well as the funding of the project, educational use of the images and the moderation procedures applied to contributors' submissions as in 2013. For the fifth conference, Geograph members gathered at

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

. On the Friday afternoon conference attendees visited a brickworks just outside the city. The conference itself was held at

Peterborough Museum Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and included a talk on the geologist William Smith. Walks around the city centre and local waterways concluded the proceedings.

Tools and facilities

The site has a number of tools for making use of the photographs. Collectively known as Collections, the site front page now features a ''Collection of the week''. The various techniques include (with examples): * Shared Descriptions, a simple method of grouping images by a common topic * Articles, a longer text-and-image article by one or more authors * Galleries, a forum-like mechanism where people list similar photos * Geotrips, where photographs, a GPS track file, and a written description combine to illustrate a day out or an expedition. Contributors can choose to add meta-data to each image, in the form of ''Subject'' and ''Tags'', to go along with the geo-tagging by location. All of this allows the use of a Browser to allow the relatively large archive to be searched. There are other methods of search, of course, ranging from Simple text search to tagged searches and complex searches. Because of the geographic indexing of the pictures, it is possible to summon a page for an individual 1-km square. These square pages all provide a ''/link'' page which links to internal and external tools, such as a wide range of other mapping sites, and the various national historical artefacts databases. The site has a lot of detailed statistics, but can also create personal profile and personal coverage maps. It started as a game, and many of the tools support personal achievement and goals.

Long term archival

The site's 5 million plus photographs were selected for long term

web archiving Web archiving is the process of collecting portions of the World Wide Web to ensure the information is preserved in an archive for future researchers, historians, and the public. Web archivists typically employ web crawlers for automated captur ...

by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

in their UK Web Archive. Many photographs have been transferred to

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

, and the photos are used in thousands of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

articles. About 1.8 million photos were transferred to Commons in 2010, but no further bulk transfers have been undertaken. However, tools and advice for transferring are provided for each photo on its re-use page.

Sister projects

In 2009, a sister project, Geograph Deutschland was launched, covering Germany. Geograph Ireland currently co-exists with Geograph Britain and Ireland, but may split into a separate project.

Geograph Channel Islands Geograph Channel Islands is a Web application, web-based project, initiated in April 2010, to create a freely accessible archive of geographically located photographs of the Channel Islands. Photographs in the Geograph Channel Islands collection ...

covers the

Mobile apps

There is an Android app named Geograph Alerts in the Google Play store which will track your current location and inform you if you enter a grid square which you have not yet photographed.

References

External links

Geograph Deutschland
{{authority control Geography of the United Kingdom Geography of Ireland Image-sharing websites Photo archives in the United Kingdom Outdoor locating games British Isles British digital libraries