Ephemeros for
Wetlands & Waterways
Water levels, reed beds and river health — monitored one repeat photo at a time.
Pick a fixed viewpoint
A “spot” is a documented frame — coordinates, compass heading and tilt — that anyone can find again.
Line up with the ghost
The previous photo floats over your camera so every capture matches the original framing exactly.
Watch change unfold
Aligned photos become a timelapse — and an open, research-grade record of how the place changes.
Wetlands are among the most dynamic — and most threatened — landscapes on Earth. They flood and dry seasonally, silt up, get drained, recover. Because change is gradual and access is awkward, it often goes unrecorded until it's irreversible.
A few well-placed Ephemeros spots turn a wetland into a self-documenting system: a boardwalk view over the reed bed, a bridge over the main channel, a bank beside the gauge post. Every visitor with the app extends the record.
What repeat photos reveal
- Water levels against fixed reference features, season after season.
- Vegetation succession — reed encroachment, willow scrub, open-water loss.
- Pollution and algal events — colour and surface changes with exact dates.
- Restoration progress — before/during/after channel re-meandering or scrape creation.
Friends-of groups, reserve wardens and angling clubs already walk these routes weekly. Ephemeros gives those walks a scientific afterlife.
Data for researchers
More than pictures: every photo ships with its metadata
Alongside the aligned image series, the Ephemeros Researcher API exports the context each frame was captured in — ready for analysis, no scraping required.
Position & orientation
Precise coordinates, altitude, compass heading, pitch and roll for every spot and photo.
Meteorological context
Temperature, humidity, air pressure, cloud cover, precipitation and wind at the capture hour, matched to each photo's time and place.
Timestamps
Exact capture times — in-app camera only, so dates are trustworthy, not gallery-import guesses.
Aligned renditions
Photos registered onto each spot's baseline frame, each with an alignment quality score.
Dataset exports
Bulk ZIP exports per spot or region — original and/or aligned imagery plus a machine-readable manifest.
Moderated & attributed
Every photo is human-reviewed before publication, with content tags and contributor attribution.
See it in motion
Real spots from the Ephemeros community — each animation is built from aligned repeat photos.
Start recording change today
The best time to take the first photo was years ago. The second-best time is now — and every photo after that gets more valuable.
Spreading the word? Get the printable QR poster (PDF) for noticeboards, trailheads and meetups.
